let's take a look at the markets. the dow up 19, s&p down or up 4 and the nasdaq is up as well. da vitae, jc penney and my con three of the winners today. >> all right. sue, get home safely, see you when you get back. that will do it for "power lunch." >> "street signs" right now. will the fed deliver a nasty surprise this christmas? the chances the dreaded taper could come as soon as next week and how to play it if it happens. happy monday, welcome to "street signs." as we welcome back in the globe trotting mandy drury to the set. >> thank you. >> that's it. that was golf clap. your other hot topics what may be the best piece of economic news nobody else is talking about. if bitcoin succeeds will these two companies get sacked and we

begin, our year-end quest to find the worst ceos in america, let us know who your candidates arep. mandy. >> thank you very much. great to be here. so far today the s&p 500 has traded above the all-time closing high but not yet above the intraday high. while the nasdaq hit a fresh 13.25 year high early on, how is that for getting specific and the s&p and dow broke eight-week winning streaks but starting this week with a stronger note. straight out to bob pisani down at the nyse, hello my old friend, rick santelli at the km. >> we're trading at a narrow range, 50 points on the dow. we keep advancing. look at the nasdaq, 13-year high on the nasdaq and these tech stocks continue to be market leaders overall. there's a ten-year chart. look at the sectors up, industrials, materials, tech stocks, the leadership group, not far from new highs. bottom line, we're at the area we've stalled out before. we can break through.

the technicians will go nuts in the next few days. one group, the oil stocks. we've got record cold over here in the weekend and yet we can't get any increase in any of these oil stocks, these enp stocks have had a great run. the simple problem, too much oil and natural gas. who would have thought that would have been a problem five years ago. back to you. >> indeed. talk of a glut forming on the gulf coast. rick santelli, cou find treasury yields surprisinglying steady as this month has a growing chance of this month being the month we have a taper announcement? >> no. all in all, let's not lose sight that in july of 2012 rates were 1.38 on a ten-year and see where they are now. as far as the taper being priced in, nobody knows. nobody knows. it's like thinking tomorrow is lotto numbers. watch the dollar index even though only down a little it's losing the war on the european currencies. all its gains are against the yen. then again, every currency has big gains against the yen. back to you. >> thank you very much.

nobody knows the troubles we've seen. rick santelli over to you. >> you have to invest with what you know and we don't know when the fed will start to taper we know it will at some point. the only question seems to be, the timing. let's look at your playbook for when the worst kept secret in the world will actually happen and bring in zane brown and stewart freeman from wells fargo. stuart, wrong statement i gave at the top? maybe some people don't think the fed will taper at some point. i believe it will. so how do we set up for it now? >> well, you know, we believe it will. the fed spoke last year or this year like it would and put it off. our expectation is probably they will be wanting to look for more data before they do and some more data that comes from the government closing period. they didn't see all the data from the first part of the fourth quarter, so we think it will probably be in the first quarter of next year and then the next question is, how long

will it take for them, you know, to finish it up. you know, they're not -- may not be real clear on that. >> what are the arguments to taper this month, zane? >> well, i think there are some good arguments. keep in mind that back in may, both members of the fed and members of the support group at the new york reserve mentioned that boy, if we had three consecutive months of 200,000 job growth unlike the 185 per month we had up to that point, that would be justification for tapering. well three out of the last four months we do have 200,000 and the quality of the jobs has improved. it's not just retail and temporary, we are getting manufacturing jobs, we are getting construction jobs. those are better quality jobs. i think the fed has justification if they want to move in december. >> with all due respect, zane, the point of the segment is not will the fed taper. we know that, i know that, i'm willing streak naked through the cnbc parking lot if they don't

taper been the next five years. you get my point. what to do about it. zane, you're a fixed income guru what do we do with our portfolios? we know it will happen? >> you know it will happen and what's going to happen is you have a steeper yield curve. if you own longer term treasuries, own something like a total return fund where the average maturity is closer to ten years or between five and ten years, go down in maturity. hide in lower maturities. hide in lower quality assets. lower quality assets are more economically sensitive. >> junk bond sps. >> not as interest rate sensitives. >> junk bonds? is that what you're saying? >> well, below investment grade woobds junk bonds or down to single a or triple b. they will provide better protection than treasuries or aaa bonds with longer maturity snas what would you be doing, stu? to brian's point does it matter because it's been the worst kept secret out there and the market

has priced it in. >> the bond market priced some of this in. i think investors know. there's a big spread between the p/es and bond rates. bonds can go up this part of the cycle, rates can go up and you can get some p/e expansion over the next 12 months in our opinion. the fed does tighten because the economy is looking better and this is the first year where the u.s., japan, china, europe, are all moving forward. so the breadth of the growth, even though it's not really, really strong, the bred of the growth is better than a year before that. i would be looking at opportunities in the industrials area, technology area, even in some consumer des kregs nary names. all cyclical areas. we think if they're starting to taper because they see the worldwide economy doing better and i think that will help cyclical earnings. >> all right. stuart and zane, thank you very

much. >> protests continue in ukraine as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in anti-government rallies. just one of several political hot spots that have been bubbling up across the globe. let's bring in michele caruso cabrera. is there a common theme in the anti-government themes across the world? >> citigroup has tried to coin a new phrase about the situation we're seeing in ukraine and thailand. they call it the vox risk in the emerging markets. vox iss latin for voice of the people, not just ukraine and thailand, russia, brazil, egypt, turkey, india, where we've seen people rising up. see the video out of ukraine it's gotten talk because they've knocked down a statute of vladimir ledden. why it was there i don't know. the police surrounding everyone there as they continue to protest this move away from the eu and towards russia. but so whenever you see people rising up like this everybody is

quite inspired by it at first and realize there's a lot of investment implications as well. >> i will say something that sounds distasteful. >> unseemly. >> too busy, when people are trying to seize their destiny. >> a lot of these situations do ultimately tend to be good buying opportunities because they're literally -- >> it's the -- another way to say buy when there's blood in the streets, when things look the worst, that's where you make the most money. >> let's hope there's not actual -- i'm saying during the tur tumult they turn into good buying opportunities. >> there often is blood in the streets. >> unfortunately. >> if you can white knuckle those moments that's often the time when there is opportunity for sure. >> michele, thank you so much. >> see you later. >> all right. on deck, the latest on the storm wreaking travel havoc up and down the northeast and last week we asked you, if you had a thousand dollars to invest for the next year where would you

put it? in the s&p, .08 ounce of gold, bitcoin or a bottle of wine. >> later on the one u.s. company that customers are as loyal as dogs. we're going to be kicking off our week-long series on the battle for christmas. who is a better competitor. under armor or lululemon. we'll debate that when "street signs" returns. (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody.

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welcome back to "street signs." hedge fund engaged capital is more like enraged capital today. over abercrombie & fitch signing a new contract with its current ceo. engage which owns about a half percent of shares is out with a scathing statement saying this move is further proof the board exists to serve the ceo instead of shareholders. news has been pushing shares lower throughout the course of the day. >> dominic, thank you very much for that. well, as you can see i'm back from australia. before you get jealous about the summer i might have had on the beach, we had the coldest day in melbourne since december of 2006, hail on the streets and snow in the alps. here in the united states a storm is snarling planes, trains and automobiles. philadelphia got more snow on sunday than in the twoel 2012/2013 season. kelly cas from the weather channel has more for us. >> first of all, welcome back from down under and you're back just in time for yet another storm that we're going to be

tracking tonight into tomorrow. philadelphia as you mentioned saw more snow than all of last season. we saw 8.6 inches of snow last year. we only had about 8.3 inches for the entire season. so here's a look at the storm that we're going to be timing out throughout the day today. we have snow showers across upstate new york, parts of new england as well we'll see rain along the coastline as the air is just warm enough for that. further inland you will run into problems on the roadways. a look at the storm across the south. an icy mix taking shape along i-81 unfortunately. we saw lots of accidents along this stretch of highway and power outages remain from west virginia to new jersey. over 100,000 without power. there's philadelphia, looks like more snow headed our way. we could see a few inches. brian and mandy. >> thank you so much for the update. gas prices are holding steady since friday, although that could change as the storm we've been talking about moves east. to sharon epperson for today's pump patrol.

>> this winter storm has depressed demand and dampened gasoline prices in the midwest as the storm makes its way through the area. the bitter the storm the cheaper the price at the pump. five states where the statewide average is below 3% a gallon for gasoline and we're looking at the cheapest price for gasoline once again in oklahoma city. $2.69 a gallon. nationally gasoline prices have inched up but they've steadied over the last several days at $3.26 a gallon. prices could continue to fall as we see refineries picking up run rates an also demand declining with fewer drivers wanting to be on the icy roads. that's today's pump patrol. back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. meantime that big storm taking a toll on flyers and airports today. delays piling up from chicago to boston to atlanta to bangor and who knows where else. phil lebeau does.

let's first get to that before we talk about american airlines. how bad is it out there? >> it's not too good. you know what, i should say it's improving here at dfw. when i flew in last night i arrived at 3:30 in the morning, my flight was supposed to arrive at 10:00. it was a mess. and it was a mess on the roads heading to american's headquarters. it's a little bit better now. we're starting to see fewer canceled flights. so gradually it's getting back to normal here in dallas. >> you know, snow in the northeast, not really, no offense, breaking news to anybody, hey it's northeast winter, we're getting snow, but in dallas, in dallas, like a sliver of ice on the road is a major tragedy. >> you know what, unless you've been down here and driving it this is the worst i've ever seen for dallas. i haven't been here every time they've had an ice storm but there is snow out there and there are chunks of ice especially on the overpasses. i can see why this city was really paralyzed the way it was over the last three days. >> and maybe dallas and melbourne should get together

and talk about that unseasonable weather. let's talk about the massive news of the day the mega merger between american airlines, u.s. airways, formally merging to become the largest airline. we want to know as the consumer what does it do to our ticket prices? >> >> it probably will not have an impact any time soon. it's going to take a while before they integrate the two airlines. when you look at past mergers it's had a little bit of an impact in some of the smaller markets, es specially they've taken away capacity. why you're likely to notice people grumbling is not immediately but over time when it comes to the frequent flyer programs. take a look at the statistic. when you look at the big three in terms of american, delta and united, look at how many members they have in their frequent flyer programs. american will likely be the largest, more than 90 million, perhaps as many as 100 million being members of that program and officially, they're saying listen, nothing is going to change, your u.s. airways miles will be transferring over with american, everything will be

fine there. but keep in mind, over time, they are taking out capacity, and they are focusing on those transcont yenl routes. that means you're going to have more planes on those routes, and as they have those flights thashgs a he going to be restricting how many seats they have in them. the bottom line, not just with americans, but with the other airlines as well, they're making it tougher for you to redeem miles. that will continue over the next couple of years. >> i wish we would get the name u.s. american airways piedmont laker brandif, a great name for the airline. >> throw american west too. >> like it. be safe. this might be the best news about the economy you have not heard about. there were more intermodal cars on the rails last month than in any november in history. the association of american railroads reporting more than 1 million containers and trailers on the road last month, up nearly 8% since last november. oil, grains, car, and car parts

making up a big part of that volume. >> you're absolutely right. i did not know that. >> you did not. >> i did not. >> now you do. >> i'm glad i have come back to america to learn that. >> this show, this show is all about education. >> it really is. >> and other stuff. >> still ahead, mandy is on the clock. if she had $1,000 to invest where would she put it, gold, market, bitcoin or wine. not for drinking. >> i just -- i want some thinking music at the same time, though. plus, this year's worst ceo is turning out to be a real head scratcher for herb. he is going to tell us why he's having such a hard time when "street signs" returns. americans take care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence.

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david rivera. rivera, david. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. you remember on friday we asked this, if you had a thousand dollars to invest where would you put it right now? 5.5 shares of the s&p 500 etf, 1.2 bitcoin which we locked in at 87 per coin, .8 of a gold because we priced it at 1125 or one bottle of the i'm told sue person domaine de la romanee-conti grands echezeaux wine for $1,000 per bottle. mandy was in australia and we made our picks so my dear, your

pick is? >> because i've been listening very carefully to our esteemed guests on cnbc i would say do not put all of your eggs in one basket. i would have a little bit of everything and drink the wine. >> eggs is the perfect analogy. that was the biggest chicken answer i've herd in my life. >> you say that to some of our guests. >> that is my answer. >> this is not socialist australia. pick something. >> i am not being put on the spot. i am having a diversified portfolio. >> that wasn't the bet. >> that went the bet. >> there's nothing on the line here. >> what did you pick is. >> i picked 5.5 shares of the s&p. >> i picked gold. >> okay. >> i knew you would to stick it to me. >> no. years for gold to recover. >> we should pick the wine and split it. >> oh, hang on you had that bet of yours, you said the gold miners would outpace the feed prices. >> diversified. >> we both -- >> anyway, remember, you can still vote by going to streetsigns.cnbc.com.

you have to click one. there is no option for half click this one. right now the s&p 500 etf is leading our poll. but we only have 362 odd days to go. that bet got us thinking if bitcoin ends up being wildly successful are two other money companies in the wire transfer business in trouble, ebay's paypal and western union. let's bring in morning star and buzzfeed. first, jon, to you because i know rj doesn't cover western union so i can't put him on the spot about that one. is this a zero sum game? will bitcoin maybe eat paypal or other money transfer businesses or this a net new ad where everybody can win? >> i definitely don't think it's a zero sum game. i love the quiz you had because i think gold is the comp here right now. about 1.3 trillion held in gold in terms of etfs and investments. if 10% were to go to bitcoin you would have a price in excess of

$6,000 and add to it all the transactionships that people can do with it, new start-ups like coin base allowing people to transfer bitcoin with the ease a western union or paypal transfer of cash could occur. it will be used for both. store value is the biggest market size right now. >> is it possible paypal could turn bitcoin into a revenue, become a legitimate exchange for it? >> >> i think that's a huge opportunity for paypal. a lot of the bitcoin agencies out there are having are trouble getting regulatory approval and paypal given it has a lot of currencies it accepts across the world, it certainly could turn into a revenue source becoming a bitcoin exchange of sorts. really haven't heard a comm commitment out of paypal if they plan to accept bitcoin. i would see no reason why it wouldn't be part of the paypal wallet and could become a huge opportunity. >> i think paypal did about $44 billion in gross transfers last

quarter. bitcoin you have about $12 billion going to at least $21 billion assuming you keep the price the same as the number of coins comes out of the either. it's a massive opportunity and flows across boersds. look at more international trade. i think bitcoin will be huge. >> it's tough, rj, not asking you to focus on bitcoin but from a consumer's perspective if i owed you a thousand dollars and bitcoin is at 900 and i think it's going up why would i pay you with bitcoins because tomorrow they may be worth more and now i've overpaid you and if it goes down you'll say no way, i don't want it, don't like the bitcoin. at what point do we need the stability to make a viable digital currency? >> yeah. i think we need that stability soon. to your other guest's point we are seeing more transactions be in the form of bitcoin. i think as it's more accepted we need the regulation behind it and go from there. i think that this is becoming an interesting, you know, source for transactions not only

on-line but starting to see in the physical world as well which makes it very interesting. >> and jon, i don't know whether you're still there, i think i heard your voice saying you might have lost connection but if you are there, when you see lamborghini newport beach excited to open the door to this new currency, rj, when you see lamborghini newport beach saying it's excited to open the door to this new currency and sell teslas is it a matter of time before places accept bitcoin which will speed up the regulatory practices to make this a stable currency? >> i think that transactions like that including, you know, obviously the lamborghini purchase, we're seeing that certain colleges are starting to look at it as potentially a source of paying tuition. >> i thunk there's a cypress university, isn't there, accepting it? >> exactly. and things like this will lep speed up the regulatory environment on the bitcoin i believe. >> fair to call it a currency?

>> tender, i don't know. what would you call it, herb, since you're here? >> well, no. i think that's the issue. i think a lot of people don't fully understand it. it's at a means of -- >> payment. >> means of payment but not a currency. >> i'm not slighting bitcoin. we can give you gold and you can feel compensated for what i owe you -- >> i think we've learned never to underestimate something that evolves like this from silicon valley which is where it evolves from. >> or japan. >> we don't know. >> okay. rj, thank you so much for joining us. jon, thank you as well, somewhere out there in the ether. herb, we want to talk about this market. it has been a speculative market according to some people and i would like to know where the stock pickers fit in here? >> this is a great question. there was an interesting piece in the "new york times" today taking a look at our friend bob ole stein of the ol stein funds and says saying this is an old-fashioned stock picker and beating the indexes with his

fund. a number of years ago we were cog this piece here at cnbc where we were talking about the machines versus the man versus what's going on in the markets, how broken the markets are. i remember sitting down with bob and saying bob, you know, you just seem like a dinosaur and he sat there and laughed and he said herb, you watch, how he talks, and i have to tell you something, what you see is the market at that point was core lated to itself. so much correlation the stock pickers who did the research could have an impact and in the end what we've learned things like cash flow, those things like earnings, those things that ultimately matter, do matter, and it did help a guy like bob and others do well. >> are you trying to say you don't necessarily to have been talent as a stock picker because so many sectors have done well. it's like throwing a dart at a board and it's the market that makes them look talented. >> the market makes them look -- you're right. but, those that were undervalued those are the ones. look at what people like bob would go after were the value

stocks. >> i would say she's not right. >> why is that? >>ge funds have underperformed the s&p 500. >> true stock pickers -- who knows. >> the hedge funds have had a very hard time, i think, partially because they haven't known which way to go. >> that's what you're paying them for. >> don't say hard times. >> let me explain -- >> hedge fund in the same sentence. >> hedge funds are -- >> underperformed? >> you're making great point. so many have stopped shorting stocks, they've looked for other ways to make money. tearing their hair out. what they knew to be isn't. >> you say stop shorting or stop short if stocks? >> brian -- >> you've run into a stumbling block. >> tongue twister. >> you are trying -- i got it out somehow -- you are trying to establish your annual worst ceo in america list. you put out a piece on the street.com, i tweeted it out for you. >> thank you. >> you're having a hard time getting people to react understand you think this is symbolic more than lack of hatred of ceos.

>> symbolic of what mandy said. when stocks are going up so rapidly with such momentum people are willing to forget the bad stuff and saying well, you know, sort of paper over the losses. i have. tweeting this stuff out, tell me who your -- i've done this for years. it's almost like crickets. you hear nothing. >> you must have a few ideas even if others don't. >> i have to tell you something, as of today, and i have piece i've actually writing for cnbc.com, i was on earlier on the halftime report, and i think the shoo-in right now, and surprisingly no one has mentioned this guy, is michael jeffreys of abercrombie -- >> cramer was all over him. he got a new deal. he got a new deal which was more performance based and jim was moaning and groaning with carl and squawk on the street about that guy. i would throw another name your buddy gary goldberg of newmont mining, worst performing stock in the s&p 500. if you run one of the biggest gold mining companies you better

be hedged to a decline in gold which lad a parabolic rise over ten years and tell me you don't see it coming enough to protect your downside so you're not down 49 % on the stock market. for god's sake -- >> i will add him to the list. some think jon [ inaudible ] should be on the list. the key with the list, whoever hits that top spot historically has been out within a year. >> more on this tomorrow and do it in installments and hear about your best nominee list as well. >> coming up next, a mcbummer of a quarter for mcdonald's. are we allowed to say that on the show? >> sure. >> could now be the time to get in on the stock? we'll be talking numbers. >> a bummer, not bum. anyway, plus the company with the most loyal customers, here's a hint, it's not apple. i want you to think, hot cars and even hotter soup baby. the answer ahead. [ male announcer ] what if a small company became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked?

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welcome back to "street signs." one stock popping today is twitter. the social networking and communications company is popping 10% in near session highs as some express optimism about the company's new tools for advertising and advertisers. shares among the highest they've been since the ipo on november

7th. 26% since the post-ipo lows, guys, up around 39 bucks. back to you. >> big run. thank you. shares of mcdonald's in the red today, this after the fast food giant reporting less than expected sales and the company came under fire last week as many workers protested for higher wages. shares have lagged the dow by a wide margin this year. any reason to own shares of mcdonald's? let's start talking numbers on the fundamentals, zach head of global strategy for invest net, carter for oppenheimer. any reason to own shares of mcdonald's. >> i think if you want a really safe stock that pays a really modest dividend, then perhaps, although as we saw safety is defined as not doing anything. i don't think mcdonald's is going anywhere any time soon. ten years from now who knows. this has been true for the past few years. this was a good stock to be in when the world was falling apart and they people were looking for

things they knew would be around whether or not the financial system imploded. once you get through that and need to look at both mcdonald's fundamental's and others which is the challenging of fast food, challenging of changing diets and patterns. a globe relatively saturated and where does growth come from? for these reasons this is not going to be the end of the world if you happen to own this, but it's certainly not where i would look to in a universe other alternatives. >> they aren't looks so golden to you. what about the charts? are they in an m shape or other shape out there? >> sort of what you said a mcbummer of a quarter. the chart tells us that something is wrong. it's been acting poorly for months, and now we learn what's wrong. fundamentally not performing. you have a stock based on a well define channel to the downside and every indication of prices. we would say 90, 91. what's important not only poor

performance, but it's relative performance. it's under performing the market, of course, handily. starbucks, cheesecake factory. this stock won't hunt. no reason to own mcdonald's. >> there you go. no reason to own mcdonald's except maybe long term as zach says. >> thank you. >> check out our on-line edition of talking numbers, all part of our partnership with yahoo! finance. all right. some homework for you as we head to break. we said it was educational. comes with homework. which company do you think has the most loyal customers? >> and later on, get ready folks because we're going to be kicking off our week-long series on the battle for christmas. talking not about santa versus the elves. today athletic apparel makers. which one will deliver the goods this holiday. we'll do bait it ahead. before we get to that fun, bill and kelly, what's coming up for us on the "closing bell"? >> mandy, hi. we've got barclay's larry cantor saying the biggest threat to this rally next year is a stronger than expected economic

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what does soup, sandwiches and hot cars have? common? brand loyalty. that's at least according to a new report by the research firm fidel partners. they ranked companies based on things like performance and also the ability to maintain a loyal customer base despite negative publicity. chris is the founder, great to have you with us today. let's take a look at the best. number one is panera bread, toyota, and tesla. why? >> panera has really been a customer loyalty juggernaut for the past decade. not only do they have same-store sales growth through the recession, powered on through it, unlike other chains, but they have built tremendous

relationships and loyalty with their customers and relationships with their communities. they've done it without the benefit of deep discounts or heavy advertising campaigns and i think despite the slow down they saw in the third quarter you will see that as a short hiccup and they will continue to power upward. >> what have they done right? >> they've made it a human touch in the community. one of the things that we've found is that loyalty is much more driven by the human aspect of business than the competence or skill aspect than you might expect. my colleague dr. susan at princeton, a world renowned psychologist on human relationships and loyalty we found the way we form loyalty to companies and brands is based on what we think we know about them as people. >> a worst list, blackberry, myself, i think i might be the last loyal user of blackberry out there, but they top the list for the worst customer loyalty this year followed by sears and united airlines. were there any surprises in there to you? >> not so much. i think there are so many negative stories whether it's

blackberry becoming shrink berry or red ink berry, you mentioned you're still a user, you and barack obama and his staff are perhaps the last ones that are still on blackberry. but united airlines is another case of kind of customer torture through these acquisitions and integration problems. >> you know, you look at sears and united and they have good people working for these companies, but they do have a lot in common, right? they've sort of got the brands which have been tarnished a bit, customer service can be lacking. what do you think of the many components towards disloyalty? unclean store? is it a cramped airline seat? surly employees? one thing more than others, chris some. >> we find there's two basic components. what we call warmth, which is what are your intention toward me, honest, reliable, about in my best interest. competence and all that. in the case of sears, it's death by a thousand cost cuts. and they're ranked low, far behind macy's and others in warmth and competence and united

was at the bottom of the list on warmth and competence raltive to all the -- >> employees are beaten up and i don't blame them for all the stuff they've gone through. angry passengers yelling at you all day long on united. i don't blame them for not being the most chipper in the world. >> every company we've seen that has tremendous loyalty starts with the employees and employees that are engaged are the ones that turn around and treat customers well. that's the problem at nighted and sears. >> i go to trader joe's because they have happy people working there, they seem they want to work there. >> pleasure to talk to you. >> "the human brand how we relate to people, products and companies." thank you very much. still ahead the one story that makes us think silicon valley is completely topped out. >> it is yoga versus lacrosse, as the competition heats up between lululemon and underarmor. which athletic apparel maker will be winning this christmas. our week-long fierce competitor series when "street signs"

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frozen orange juice concentrate futures spike fog a four month high. concerns of a small florida crop this season, orange juice climbed about 18% over the past month alone. your breakfast is getting that much more expensive. >> the most critical time of the year. can't believe i sang that. for retailers less than 16 shopping days left until christmas a perfect time to begin our second annual battle of the retailers. we call it fierce competitors. the competition is stiff between athletic apparel makers. joining us today to size up the fight, cnbc contributor stacy, jan, and buzzfeed. we'll get to them in a moment. first courtney reagan is here to set up the battle. >> before we get to the opinions i have to give you facts, right. accessories so last year. this year it's about active wear. li lululemon a favorite of yogis.

underarmor aiming for athletes everywhere selling everything to everyone from vidindividuals to sports team. it's the fight of the athletic champions. in the ring lulu lemon takes on under armor. pinning high-end yoga pants against the ultimate job gear. as lululemon and underar more take aim for each other's sweet spots. lulu wants men and underarmor eyes the ladies. sizing up the competition, lulu sells yoga wear in 226 stores and on the web while underarmor athletic web is sold by over 25,000 world rhee tailors worldwide. ua stores and on-line. last holiday quarter, lululemon's direct to consumer sales increased 56% while underarmor's grew at about half that rate. but in the most recent quarter underarmors net income packed a

powerful punch up 27% year over year and lulu dropped 2%. lululemon racks up one of the highest average sales per square foot in retail but still getting over the see through pants problem and look for a new ceo. ceo. under armour president is the chief executive as they look for global expansion. >> so, who will win this christmas, lululemon or underarmour. >> i'm going with lululemon, has had no choshort of ceo problems. they're back on the highest gross margin, increase the basket. by the way, there's finally starting really to push the international business, opening a store in london. if you saw those mcdonald's comps today in lon dorngs we need lulu gear in london. >> you think lulu's problems have bottomed out.

jan, do you agree with that? what's the naked truth here? >> i try never to agree with stacy but in this particular case, i don't agree with stacy. i think lulu has dysfunctional management. i think without getting more functional, they'll have a hard time no matter what product they bring in. they need a new ceo. christine day is the longest leaving ceo in the history. she has one foot out the door. they need to get her in the game or somebody else in the game. chip wilson that's kind of running the place. he owns 30% of the stock. it's a problem. i'm not a big fan. under armour on the fan is cruising along, competeding with nike. as good as nike? probably. do they understand their customers as well as nike? probably. i'm in their camp. >> one vote for lululemon. one vote for under armour. you're the deciding vote. >> i'm also going with lululelen. i think that lululemon has just

unparalleled brand and their fans love them, despite the sheer pant scandal, despite the fact their ceo situation is in flux. people love lululemon and always waiting for new products, so on. >> if i weigh in, i'm going with jan. i have to go with under armour. >> now we have a tie again. >> so, we were -- well, i know. i messed it up. >> how do we decide? we have to get into the gear and -- >> towards the end of the year, we'll look at the results. >> you can do it like the $1,000 challenge. >> i'll pick them both. >> pants from lululemon but top from under armour. >> lululemon is going after men and under armour is going after women. like jan mentioned in some of his notes, i think it's a lot easier to get women to buy from a company predominantly sold to men than the other way around. i think lululemon's stuff is very expensive. and you can't find it in a lot of other stores. under armour is sold in 25,000

different retailers. that's tough to beat. >> i disagree. i'll tell you why. i do own a pair of lululemon products, i wanted to demo them. they are comfortable as heck. you get dragged into the store by your significant other, right? then you're like, this is uncomfortable. oh, a men's side up. wander over there. i would say more guys -- you'll find this out recently engaged, you'll start dragging jarrett around. pretty soon he'll be in stores he never would have walked into before. >> possibly. i might be able to bring him in but get to the register? you might be an easier sell than other guys. >> there was some criticism back earlier on that the clothes were too euro and fitted. they took that. they took that on board and made the fit, you know, more so manly men like brian here can wear them. >> hey, i wear it to pick up my baguettes on sunday morning. >> too expensive for most guys. >> that is true. >> and the competition is much

tougher in this woman's business than under armour. lululemon, you have everybody out there, like victoria's secret, macy's, nordstrom's, foot locker is coming out with a new concept. a lot more competition. with under armour and nike, who's number three? i can't even think. >> adidas. >> unlikely. >> if we're going to bottom line this, courtney, just taking you out of the voting for a second, i think lululemon. >> sorry, jan. >> lululemon is the winner of this round, fierce competitors. >> does lulu go on to fight tomorrow or is it two separate companies tomorrow? >> a new surprise on tuesday. on wednesday these folks will come back and we have a new pair up. a mu match-up. >> two winners against each other? >> no, it's not brackets. >> thinking like a guy.

brackets. >> i don't want to give it all away. >> thank you so much. the suspension continues. thank you to all of our panel today. coming up next, proof that silicon valley's housing market is literally burning hot. >> and billion bucks worth of the coolest cars on all the planet. you've got to see sthees rides to believe them, folks. if you're on the radio, too bad. that's next. i have low testosterone. there, i said it. see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy

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♪ burning count house today's sign of the times proves just how hot the housing market is in silicon valley. a burned out house in san jose is on the market for $400,000. the realtors say it's a real bargain because the average sell price in the neighborhood is $1 million. the house is close to downtown and steps away from san jose state university. and the hope here is, folks, the new owner will buy the property for the land and then, i guess, rebuild. >> collectible car sells topping the billion dollar mark blowing away all previous records. which vintage rides are seeing the best returns? robert frank has more from the new york stock exchange. >> stocks have had a good year. vintage cars did even better. the s&p was up around 23% as of early december but collector cars over the same period were up 35 %. that's as measured by hagerty

blue chip index. most widely used sought after cars. total sales of collector cars at auction jumped the $1 billion mark for the first time hitting $1.2 billion in 2013, up 25% from last year. the very high end of the market did even better. ferraris are the king of the road when it comes to high-end sales. up 18%. german cars had the breakout year, up 33%. the biggest german gainers are 1970s posterirsche. four of five of the most expensive cars sold at auction were sold this year. top seller was expected to be this 1967 ferrari and sold for $27.5 million by rm auctions. but it was edged out by this 19 54 mercedes driven by legend juan manuel, sold for $26.9 million. are cars in a bubble?

top insurer of collectible cars say they expect sale of $100 million car in the next three to five years. >> maybe next year we could bid for them in bitcoins. >> have a great monday. thank you so much for watching "street signs," we mean that. >> we really do. "closing bell" is up next. see you next time tomorrow. hello on this monday. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans down at the new york stock exchange. >> aren't you cold in that outfit? >> freezing. >> put a sweater on. >> maybe i will. >> long story. i'm bill griffeth. stocks largely holding their gains after friday's huge rally. we're also following these stories today. a dog fight on the "closing bell" today. what stocks are soaring this year but might be left in the dust in 2014? it's the dogs of the dow that we're wondering.