three winners darden restaurants higher by 3 buck, pulte group and tesoro is surging 4% today. tyler, back to you. >> thank you very much. i'll be off tomorrow. so to everybody, happy holidays and especially to you, michele, happy holidays to you. >> you too, tyler. >> "street signs" begins right now. ♪ ♪ i don't want a lot for christmas ♪ >> hello and welcome to "street signs." we're taking a massive bite into the china market, but is it biting off more than it can chew? the average joe is being burnt by a cup of joe. with stuffing stocks with stocks. ideas before this reindeer has flown and the tweet heard around the world and by the way, let's hold the airing of grievances for after the show.

i would like to welcome dominic chu to the show. hey there, great to have you with us, sitting in for brian sullivan for the next little while. >> so glad to be here. so glad. i want to say that first of all, wall street rewriting the record books once again, new record highs for the dow, the s&p 500, the russell 2,000, dow transports, it's up. the s&p is up 400 points for the year. that's the first time it's ever. done. the dow up for a fourth straight day. its first four-day winning streak of this month of december. >> some great stats there. the big story today is really apple. the stock trading higher on news that tech giant has reached a long-awaited deal to bring the iphone to china mobile, the biggest phone carrier. apple will begin selling the iphone 5s and 5c in china on january 17th. let's get to josh lipton with more on this deal. josh, this is the world's largest mobile market. apple needed to get this done and we have ink on the paper. >> that's right. you can see the reaction, apple bulls are excited and apple's

ceo tim cook says he can't think of a better way to welcome in the chinese new year than giving an iphone into the hands of every china mobile customer who wants one. apple saying it will offer the iphone on china mobile's network january 1th. why all the excitement? because as you mentioned, china mobile is the world's largest mobile services provider, serving over 6760 -- 760 million customers. no information on what the iphone will cost with the china mobile contract. analysts on wall street this morning already busy crunching numbers on what that deal could mean for apple. gene monster at piper jaffray says the deal could mean another 1 million more iphones sold in 2014. and the team at rbc he says they think it could add $10 billion to apple's top line and 3 bucks to earnings per share, guys. >> you mentioned no word yet on the pricing so do we have any

idea? any estimates out there? what is the potential release date for the ipad? >> yeah. to the pricing question, mandy, in the release we had no pricing information. apple, china mobile saying that information is going to come at a later date. it's an important question because it becomes a question of whether apple might think about maybe aggressively pricing that iphone. say they price it more at the mid end range around $300. that could take it to rivals in china not only samsung but the local players who dominate the markets like lenovo and zte will want to know whether cook is willing to sacrifice margin for market share. we could soon find out. >> thanks very much, josh, on the iphone and china mobile story. supply concerns also another big one there. thanks very much, josh. another big story we're following today is the dig out from a monster storm that hit nearly half of this nation this weekend. the storm is being blamed for at least nine deaths and hundreds of thousands of people are

without power. a delta 737 airline slid off the runway at detroit's runway a couple hours ago, comes as millions plan to hit the roads for the christmas holiday. so let's get to the weather channel's mark elliott. what can we expect over the next couple of days? it is, of course, a busy, busy travel span, right? >> and dominic, i'm glad that mandy said they have to hold those airing ing grievances un the end of the show because there's plenty to complain about with the weather. going ahead it looks better this is a storm we were dealing with. it brought record-breaking snows across kansas where the storm started. that wintry mess head up the great lakes and now a plume of moisture up i-95. the good news is this all gets out of here and a much lighter system that comes across the northern tier tomorrow into the great lakes on christmas. kind of setting the scene for your christmas day anywhere across the great lakes region.

nothing that will be too detrimental to travel and lingering lake-effect snow showers for the day after christmas. one of the bigger stories will be the cold air that comes along with this. so bundle up if you're going to see santa through the snowflakes there. >> if you have them to air there's lots of grief vances when it comes to the weather out there. procrastinators listen up, only 34 hours to finish or if you're really bad, to start your christmas shopping. so who will be retail winners and losers in this last-minute rush? julia boorstin is live at the westfield mall in woodland hills, california. what have you found? >> well, mandy, it seems like about half the stores in this mall are offering serious discounts. i'm talking as much as 15% or more and it's not christmas yet. now this discounting trend that we're seeing here, definitely fits with the trend that we're seeing nationwide. retailers are doing some of the deepest discounting since 2008 as shoppers hold out for really

big deals. that means losers at the malls this past weekend. sales fell by mid single percentage at brick and mortar stores from friday and saturday with traffic down % according to retail next. now the winners this holiday season are on-line. the national retail federation forecast on-line holiday shopping will grow as much as 15%, benefiting amazon and ebay as well as retailers like walmart which had been making a big on-line push. web bush securities analyst is bullish on ann taylor, gap and macy's, succeeding both in store and on-line. >> their omni channel focused retailers which means they can better manage inventory by fulfilling on-line orders from in store. so you're it not seeing blts up of inventory in the stores you would see at other retailers. >> now she is critical of those teen retailers american eagle,

air row postal and abercrombie & fitch which have been offering deep discounts as teens move away from that merchandise. the big question, how much of a loser target will be. after its massive credit card breach. america's research group says target has not been dramatically affected but retail consultantsy growth partners said transactions slipped 3% to 4% last year the same weekend and target's brand perception has dropped more dramatically than others. so in the meantime target is offering discounts to rerecruit its core shoppers, we will see other retailers like walmart benefit from this down time. back over to you guys. >> thank you so much. still ahead we're going to bring you last-minute holiday stocking stuffers. two market masters will be joining us with their top stock picks before the end of the year. >> later, wake up and smell the profits people.

java giants enjoying a jolt thanks to super low coffee prices but consumers are getting roasted. bringing a caffeinated debate when "street signs" returns after this 2014 by pimco's bill gross. >> my 2014 wish is that investment in the united states picks up. in the private sector, public sector, whether infrastructure or whether it's investment in technology, it's investment that is lacking. basically as an economy, we don't save enough of our seed corn, don't save enough nuts in the winter time. we need to save money to grow going forward on a long-term basis. [ male announcer ] once, there was a man who found a magic seashell. it told him what was happening on the trading floor in real time. ♪ the shell brought him great fame. ♪ but then, one day, he noticed that everybody could have a magic seashell. [ indistinct talking ]

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lots of green on the screen for the three indices. the dow up for the fourth day in a row, the first time it's had a four-day winning streak in december. for the s&p 500 we're now for the year up by over 400 points. this is never actually happened before, guys. a record point gain for the s&p 500. it's not a record percentage gain which i understand is more important, but nonetheless if we're talking points it is a record point gain. we've got a nice little green on the screen as i say. straight down to the nyse, join bob pisani and rick santelli at the cme. bob, good start to the week so far. >> yeah. the important thing is all the major indices at new high. more importantly put up the

major indices the transports at a historic high. a confirmation on dow theory with the transports sitting at historic highs. sectors up, home builders doing well. big stories, spread in the second page of the journal, more stable home building market in 2014. nice gains by the builders. some of the building materials stocks are on the upside. a lot of skepticism about the rally, whether we can go ahead in 2014. look at the positives we've got here. rising dividends, rising buybacks, modest economic expansion, mid earnings growth for 2014, 5% or so, the big problem is going to be quantitative easing ending. mandy, i have asked traders for a year how much lower would the market be if qe2 or 3 didn't happen and the typical answer 1,000 to 2,000 points on the dow. i have no idea what would have happened had we not had qe2 or 3 but seems like a reasonable guess, 1,000 to 2,000 points.

>> to rick santelli. it's interesting what bob was saying. the stock market is rising but so are rates. >> absoluteliy three year yield rising. >> i think it's going to last and where is it going to have the biggest impact on the intermediate short end of the curve like a 5 or long end. just to put it in perspective, at a 169 yield the five year is up 97 basis points on the year. that's eight more than the 30 years up, and the 20 basis points ten year is up. it does underscore 72 basis points closed last year that's a distant memory. how much higher will they go and affect stocks that's what we're going to discuss next year, mandy. >> we've got it on the plate. it's already on the agenda, rick. thank you very much. >> with just two days left until christmas we found some last-minute holiday stocking stuffers for you. joining us are matt mccormick, principal and portfolio manager

and mark tepper, founder and president of strategic wealth partners. it's the end of the year, it's time to put together that shopping list. if you want for the next five days. there has to be stuff we're talking about. markets at record highs. there are still places you should deploy capital, right? >> sure. i like an old chestnut, namely the dividend stocks that probably offer more dividend growth professional. when you look at the spread between dividend paying stocks and nondividend paying stocks it's roughly 2%. people are paying excessive preium for netflix or micron. i would go with companies paying you more, have consistent earnings and really like the tech sector. strong roe, low debt, strong free cash flow, intel, qualcomm and apple. place to be for next year. >> now matt, why? we've been talking about it a long time, the traditional conventional wisdom tech helps

lead the way higher and lower in markets. why is it tech is going to be different this time around, matt? >> sure. sure. they have the second lowest pay outratio in the s&p 500 besides the financials. you're looking at companies in a name like qualcomm increased their dividend 40% in march, we think they will increase it 10 to 15%? march next year. companies that have the ability to pay you more, consist weren't earnings, reasonably a valued. avoid micron that has had a huge year and trading at roughly 443 trailing p/e up 250%. when you look at technology these are companies that have strong margins, strong roe, the ability to pay you more and i think on tof of it very low expectations. intell, people think it's just a chip manufacturer, they could do a lot more, and with a 3/6 yield that's worth waiting for. >> to reiterate, qualcomm, intel and apple. for you mark you continue to wear your bull cap, overweight equities but three names you are

particularly bullish on. >> we think this bull market has a few years left to go so we are going to continue to really favor the cyclicals over the defensives, the financial sector appears in the long run to have the best risk/reward profile. we like the asset managers, the custodians, consumer finance companies. capital one financial seems very attractive. blackrock is attractive is is td ameritrade. to start off with capital one, you know, the reason we like consumer finance companies is this de-leveraging cycle is pretty well advanced at this point. credit creation is picking up and credit quality is improving. when you look at capital one financial compared to american express, it's trading at about a 50% discount when you look at the p/e ratio. we think it's a good value and a good space we want to be in. as far as the asset managers go, blackrock is very attractive due to the fact that the great rotation of money coming out of bonds into stocks is going to continue and fees are

considerably higher in stock funds than in bond funds. >> what's the risk to the financial sector at this juncture? >> biggest risk would, you know -- i don't know that there is a significant risk because it's so undervalued. >> always a risk. there's always the other side. >> there's always a risk but when you look at the amount of risk inherent in the financial sector when you compare it to the tech sector, compare it to a lot of the overvalued utilities and defensive sectors i would actually think there's considerably less risk in the financial sector. >> we have to leave it there. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> there's only five more trading days left in the year, and some people are racing to sell some of the biggest losers if their portfolio. it's part of a strategy called tax loss selling, it's when you use the tax break on your losers in your portfolio, year to date to offset some of the gains you've got that you realized on winning stocks. this is a pretty common strategy this time of year but with this high flying market it's tougher

than usual to find some of the big losers. take a look at this. this is a heat map of the dow industrials, 30 stocks on a year to date basis. only one stock is in the red year to date and that's ibm believe it or not. big blue down 5% to start off the year. look at the s&p 500, there are the five biggest loser of the year, talking new month mining down 50%, cliffs natural resources we talk about all the time, pea body energy, abercrombie & fitch, down 30%. a and f removed from the s&p on friday and terra data down about 28% so far year to date. >> i wonder feeling left out in the cold. here to discuss the strategy is tim, a financial planner with the financial consulate. great to have you back on the show and see you in person as well. when we make this kind of decision, primarily we should base it on investment opportunities and not tax considerations, that's said how do we do a diy on tax loss selling. >> take a look at what you have

in your portfolio as we heard today, plenty of ups in the market this year, but most people do have something in their portfolio that is down. when you have stocks, bonds and mutual funds go up or down those are unrealized gains until you sell them. if you had a lot of winners this year but didn't sell much of anything you don't need to worry about this strategy. if you did sell offset them with losses in your portfolio and then the question becomes which strategy do you utilize. >> easier to do with mutual funds than individual stocks would you say? >> depends on what you're trying to do. if you have an individual stock, ibm is not the way to go anymore, i want to go into apple for whatever reason, you would dump ibm and go to the new one. no problem there. if you like the stock or mutual fund you're holding it is easier to do something similar. you sell a similar and buy a similar mutual fund to replace it. >> but not the exact same one. there's a big reason why. >> substantially equal is the phrase. >> a reason why because of something called a wash sale.

please explain what this means. you can't just take the writeoff but go back into the same stock. >> say you want to keep ibm in the portfolio because you think this next coming year is going to be a great one. can't sell it today and buy it back tomorrow. you have to wait for at least 30 days. if you want to maintain some kind of exposure during that period of time, you could replace it with something similar but not obviously equal. >> yeah. just a moment ago you brought up a great chart of all the potential stocks that might be vulnerable to tax loss selling, the ones that have been slaut do absolute dogs. would those be the ones you would see on the downside in the near term. >> relatively thinly traded you will see in that case getting pushed down further and further, maybe all the reason to do something similar but not equal. >> got to leave it there. tim, thank you very much for joining us. merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you. >> you know who does not have to worry about tax loss selling, shelden addle sop.

forbes reports his jumped by $15 million. that works out to $41 million a day. the other big network gainers in 2013, mark zuckerberg up $13.6 billion, jeff bezos $13.3 billion, warren buffet up $12.1 billion and the four wall top kids up $10 billion each. bill gates rounds out the top ten. >> i'm in shock. >> yeah. >> shock and awe is what that does. >> cannot speak. still ahead, why coffee lovers are piping hot over coffee prices this year. we'll explain ahead. >> plus real estate for the ultrawealthy and the tweet heard around the world. that after the break. first a 2014 wish from several traders on the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> my 2014 wish is accountability in washington. u.s. companies have done a great job in returning shareholder

equity, now i would like to see washington return some of that equity to the taxpayer. >> my 2014 wish is to never ever say taper again. >> i wish for 2014 is for real economic growth. how do we get there? functional government, real corporate tax reform and oh, yeah, peace on earth. ♪ i wanna spread a little love this year ♪ [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of true artistry and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event.

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how about a cup of joe? coffee prices higher today but down a staggering 19% since the start of the year. coffee joined silver and golds as the worst performing commodities of 2013. >> but you'd never know coffee prices are lower if you buy a cup at the store. kate kelly talking the price of joe with the average joe. haven't you? >> that's right, mandy. i've talked to a number of folks here today at new york's times square where a number of people are getting in their last-minute christmas shopping from abroad and locally. back to their feedback in a second. they've taken note of the fact that the price of coffee if you look at the cpi numbers covering u.s. cities are down only about 7% year over year when the commodity is down roughly 20%. that has given a lift to the major coffee stocks, starbucks

notably but also dunkin' brands and green mountain coffee to name a few. are people annoyed when they realize the gap between the price of beans bought on the commodity markets and the price of their cup or bag? they are. take a listen. >> it's a little frustrating. when you buy coffee from mcdonald's and starbucks and they're getting it cheaper and don't see anything it's a little upsetting. >> it is a commodity you kind of like can't live without. no matter what as much as the price goes up we're still going to buy our coffee. >> you heard from two students from the university of toronto who say they have to drink their coffee, not only accustomed to it but need it to get through final exams. their mentality what is the coffee stocks are counting on. people will buy this with some degree of flexibility in terms of price and that's why some think the stocks may have a little room to run when it gets into 2014 dependent on what happens to the price of coffee

commodity. >> we're talking about the price of coffee the commodity going into 2014. what do people predict in terms of crops and supply and demand? where is it going if. >>? >> the reason we had a route oversupply in brazil a disproportionately producer in the market. there is an expectation that we'll have a slightly more normal crop this year so perhaps supplies will be a little tighter and give the price a boost. i spoke to one trader who thinks coffee the commodity is at or naer a bottom. look at goldman sachs predictions for another point of view saying we're looking at about 1.20 or so the next year across the board. we're going to stay on a plateau. i spoke to dunkin' brands and their expectations are the coffee has plateaued and mysteriously their franchisees develop prices that will offer stability and favorability, not sure if that's the franchisee or consumer though. >> kate kelly always great to talk to you.

stay warm, stay dry. looks murky out there. >> thank you. >> did the computer security company rsa let the nsa install cyber encryption softway ware. we will be digging into that story. >> attention walmart shoppers, beyonce in the house. the story behind the mall madness next when "street signs" returns. mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971.

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welcome back. first up regency energy up on a multibillion dollar deal. >> about $1.3 billion for pipeline assets they'll buy from eagle rock, both natural gas

companies and the reason they're doing this they want to improve their mid stream assets, the pipelines that gather up natural gas send it between terminals. this bolsters their presence. regency getting a news boost. >> i'm sure a lot of lovely ladies getting michael kors products for christmas. >> not as many as you might think because web bush analysts have take an little downgrade to the stock. see the shares down about 3.5, 4%, saying they're seeing slower mall traffic might be hurting things and get this, shocking that discounts might be hurting some of the margins at some of these retailers even though michael kors -- >> it's had an incredible year. over one year up by 51%. >> take a look at tech strong maker of cessna planes if you weren't familiar with that moving lower today on speculation about a deal with beechcraft. a lot to this story. >> there is a lot to this strof. the ft reported this on friday,

the shares soared. soared about 14%. giving some of that back now. still no word whether an official deal there is but it would combine two big players in civil aviation. perhaps just a little profit taking after a huge run on friday. >> and beechcraft only recently entered -- sorry exited from bankruptcy this year. >> sure. >> air riyadh is moving higher to announce it will resume selling its leukemia drug in the united states. >> it's going to sell it with a narrower range of target people can sell to. more warning labels if you will. go check it out on-line. in ens sense the only drug, the leukemia drug this company makes. how it fell off a cliff when taken off the market and now trying to gain some of the ground back again as we see the fda saying you can sell it, just with more restrictions. >> we've mentioned this stock a couple sometimes on "street signs." over the past year down by 65%. >> that's a cliff. >> that is a cliff. today's under the radar pick is live person. an on-line sort of marketing

analytics company. >> they specialize in consumer engagement. this company is one of those that helps other companies interact better with the actual end consumer, consult the type operation. getting an upgrade at benchmark. like the sales execution here. another stock that had a cliff of a fall trying to ratchet back up again. live person one of the stocks to watch on that analyst upgrade. >> okay. no deal at least not yet. retailer joseph a. bank rejecting men's warehouses $1.5 billion takeover bid saying the offer undervalues the company. men's warehouse calling joseph a. bank's decision surprising and will consider all options to make this merger a reality. shares of both companies are moving to the downside today, so the question we have is will this deal ever get done? let's start talking numbers. on the technicals carter with oppenheimer, on the fundamental, pat with cap teva. great to have you on our show. pat, i want to start with you,

do you feel there's any reason to get involved in this takeover target? >> not at all. remember about a few weeks ago joseph a. bank was the one trying to buy men's warehouse and so this is what's called a pacman defense. the target now turning around trying to buy the acquirer. the companies will likely get together. there are a lot of cost savings and marketing and sourcing that could come from a deal. you have two board rooms battling it out with who gets to run the merged company and who gets fired out on the street. how that shakes out who knows. i would wait until after the deal is done. there will be integration hiccups. you'll get the shares cheaper. >> wait and see. how about this, carter braxton, let's take a look at the joseph a. bank charts here. >> the charts are compelling. as a starting off point it is atypical for both securities to be acting well when one is acquiring or not acquiring the other. typically you don't get that. that suggests how strong things really are. in the case of joseph banks the gap up which is the news related

gap, of course, of just a month ago from 50 to 55, all that's done if you look at now the longer term chart going to a five-year chart, returned the security to its prior top. the highs of 2011, the stock has gapds up. news related to its 2011 highs. here's the interesting thing. retailers in general have been very, very strong. consumer discretion the best part of the market over the last two years and this stock unchanged. one of the setups for a breakout is a range like tis. this has been in 40 to 55 for three years. a measured move, a 1930s type phrase, implies $65. >> $65. >> wow. >> okay. >> the charts say that. >> that's what rts cha the char say. >> check out the on-line edition of talking numbers in partnership with yahoo! fi fans. >> still ahead on "street signs" gold on track for its first year

over year drop in 13 years but could there be a golden opportunity in the new year or has the trade lost all its luster? we'll do bait that. >> we will. plus real estate for the wicked rich. the top $100 million homes. first, before we get to that the "closing bell" with bill and kelly. >> hey, guys. coming up on the last hour of trade we have more stories about bad bank practs. there's story of pressure on wells fargo employees to hit sales quotas in the face of threats and alleged ethical misconduct. we'll talk to the "l.a. times" reporter who broke that very surprising story. >> also, will holiday sales be music to the ears of skull candy? the ceo of the headphone maker will join us. >> i love that name. and 'tis the season to be best buy? i mean it may be. once left for dead the retailer has bounced back with new strategies. we'll tell you if it's the best buy for your portfolio right now. >> great performer this year. >> sneaker riots new expensive

air jordans sell out. the question, we want to know, be honest, how far would you go and how much are you willing to pay for a pair of sneakers. send us your tweets at cnbc closing bell. we'll see you at the top of the hour. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading.

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kors. check out what's happening right now with the markets because we are floating up around those session highs right now. you can see the dow is up 73 points, the s&p up about nine points and the nasdaq up 38. the worst performing stock in the dow at least today is procter & gamble. consumer staples companies are among the worst performers in the market. again you can see there still a nice up day for the stock market overall. >> okay. out with the old, in with the new. has led scrambling to keep up. a director at the agency that oversees fannie mae and freddie mac reversing policy. diana olick sorting out the story. what happened here? >> mandy, mel watt hasn't been sworn in yet to head the fhfa the agency that governs fannie and freddie but he's announcing big changes in an e-mail to

handful of reporters he had said he would delay fannie and freddie fee hikes to lenders announced by the outgoing head of the fhfa ed d'marco. those are passed on to borrowers in the form of hire mitt romnor rates we know industry lobbyists came after him saying the increased fees were too much for the mortgage market which is about to implement a slew of complicated new rules. pricing now to incorporate the higher fees even though the fees weren't supposed to get charged until april of next year. guess what? they are readjusting them back. here's the conundrum. when the old fhfa director ed dimarco announced the new fees he said it was part of the administration's overall plan to bring pricing at fannie and freddie which now support two-thirds of the mortgage market in line with private label pricing.

this is all in an effort to shrink the two giants which happen to be making money hand over if fist right now. it begs the question, if watt is reversing that, then what is his vision for fannie and freddie's future? i guess we'll hear it when he's worn it, right? >> yeah. thank you. apparently this fhfa story keeps getting more interesting. >> it does. >> thank you so much for that update there. diana olick in washington, d.c. gold, another commodity, a hot one here, is on track for the first year over year drop in 13 years. that's why everyone is talking about it. how really could it be the perfect time to get into this particular asset class? with us, a gold bear, david nelson of bell point asset management and a gold bull, peter atwater, president of financial insights so overall, gentlemen, i got to say, yes, we know that gold has had a terrible, terrible trip here so david, let's talk about why the case doesn't get better or maybe

it does. >> i don't think it's going to get better. ale going to focus on three. the inflation argument. the concept that committquantit easing was going to cause hyper inflation, as the fed balance sheet went parabolic in 2012 that's when gold really, really took a dive. that argument isn't holding out. the second reason look at some history here. go back to 1980. when gold last peaked. it took 20 years for it to bottom. that's an extraordinary amount of time. we're only two years into this decline. i think there's a lot more damage that could come and the last one which might be a little bit odd for you is the avent of virtual currencies like bitcoin. >> we're not going to talk about bitcoin. >> yes, we are. listen, this is not the only virtual currency that's going to come out. owe even jpmorgan filed a patent for an electronic system to work

against credit cards. >> actually in good company because there are a lot of gold bears out there, right? we sort of scrounged around and did find peter the gold bull, but even you, i was reading through your notes even you're not particularly bullish. you say really it's only because confidence is so bad it can only get better from here. doesn't sound like much of an argument? >> well, it does in a contrarian way. i take david's argument even further and say there's absolutely no reason to buy gold today. you know, it's failed as a hedge against political cturmoil. >> this isn't working out the way i thought it would. >> i look at how we reflect confidence among ourselves. and so when there is no good story for an investment that means confidence is completely lacking. and the fact, mandy, you had to say you had to scrounge to find me, i thought it was fascinating

on friday you all were joking that you couldn't find anybody, bob pisani couldn't identify, there's nobody out there. i'm the only one. i'm the lonesome bull for gold. >> you think we've hit bottom and going higher from here and if so, how much higher, peter, going into 2014? >> i think we go significantly higher. people like jim rogers saying not only should you stay away but hedged to the downside. everybody is extrapolating lower prices. so to me the rubber band has really been pulled down which should make for quite a snap up. >> peter, maybe the rubber band has been pulled down but the bottom line are we talking about a secular move in gold or a bounce here? we could see a number of bounces. we've had a lot of bounces for the last two years but a secular move higher i don't think it's going to happen. >> i think there's a significant bounce here because look at baric. they fired the founder and 86-year-old head of the corporation. i mean, you do nose things, you

have sacrifice at major bottoms in confidence. boards have to get rid of somebody to show there's -- they're trying to restore confidence. i think this is a very significant bottom. do i care that it's the bottom or the top? i'm agnostic. this is a clear sign that confidence is lacking and when you should be investing. >> that is the bottom line. we will see. 2014, david and peter, great debate, thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, mandy, dominic. >> let's stick on the commodity side. mill reasons hitting the roads this holiday. what can you expect to pay to fill it up? to sharon epperson for today's pump patrol. >> gasoline futures traded here at the nymex help predict the prices you pay at the pump and those future prices are near a 3 1/2 month high. no surprise we saw retail gasoline prices jump about a few cents over the weekend. it could have been worse. drivers nationally are paying on average about the same that they paid this time a year ago.

$3.25 a gallon. and that's just a nickel above the lowest prices of the year. there are now four stateses where prices are below the $3 a gallon mark on average. oklahoma, missouri, arkansas, and kansas and once again find the lowest prices for gasoline in the nation in oklahoma city where there's at least one station where you can fill up for $2.66 a gallon. that's the pump patrol. back to you. >> coming up next, we are digging into a shocking new reuters report. did the nsa pay one of the top security companies to create intentionally faulty security software. the damaging allegations ahead. >> the tweet heard around the world. what apr exec's twitter debacle tells us the shoot from the hip retime world we're living in "street signs" is coming right back. retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild. for companies going from garage to global.

on the ground, in the air, even into space. we repaid every dollar america lent us. and gave america back a profit. we're here to keep our promises. to help you realize a better tomorrow. from the families of aig, happy holidays. bny mellon combines investment management & investment servicing, giving us unique insights

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you might know security company rsa, the company that makes these. the new report suggests they allowed nsa to install back door encryption software.

e-mail e-mailen . >> it's definitely a serious allegation. this is a complicated story with big stakes on all side. rsa is pushing back from a reuters report on friday. in that report reuters said the rsa security company had a $10 million contract with the nsa. as part of that contract, what rsa did was allow and allegedly nsa influenced encryption key to be part of its suite of products. the whole reuters piece in general portrayed this as part of an overall nsa effort to undermine broad public encryption so nsa could crack into any secrets protected by that encryption. rsa is pushing back against that story telling us this contract was, in fact, not secret. they put out a press release about it back in 2006. here's the rsa statement they gave to us today. they said rsa as a security

company never divulges details of customer engage manies but we have never entered into any contract or engaged in any project with the intention of weakening rsa's products or introducing potential back doors into our products for anyone's use. we reached out to the nsa today. they sent us an e-mail declining to comment on this story. obviously, this whole issue of encryption, whether or not you can trust it, is very, very hot right now. a lot of people very concerned that the nsa has been able to get into a lot of these encryption software packages and loosen them up enough so the nsa can see what you're doing, even though your work might be encrypted. >> we're awaiting more details on that story. thank you for giving us what we know so far. housing, twitter outrage and beyonce goes shopping. we're doing a special monday edition of "that's outrageous," with robert frank, dominic chu. let's kick it off with real estate porn. hundreds of millions of dollars

for a home. >> rear looking at which home next year could sell for more than $100 million. we've had $100 million sell every year for the past three years. we wonder, will it be next year? the next one is a possibility is copper beach in greenwich, connecticut, 50 acres, 4,000 square feet of ocean front. the ask on this is $140 million. but remember, that's $50 million off the original asking price of $190 million. you're not spending $140 million. you're saving $50 million if you buy this. in new york city steve cohen's duplex. he doesn't need the money but putting this on the market for $150. it's 9,000 square feet. that is not steve cohen, i'm told, a little statue. a piece of art that does not come with the apartment. number three, this is the one i think does have a good chance of selling. it's the estate in hillsborough, california, just outside of san francisco. 48 acres, 65,000 square foot

tuscan style. there's a catch here. it comes with the owner. the buyer has to let christian, who's about 75, remain in the house until he dies. it's been in the house for 100 years. you can understand his attachment. you would have to have a patient buyer, given this guy looks very healthy. it comes with an aris ctocrat. the ultimate accessory. >> as long as he doesn't say, where's my champagne and kavier? >> awesome real estate. our second story is the total out rage on twitter over the weekend. it's, again, after iac's former pr executive justine sacco tweeted, i have to say this, quote, going to africa. hope i don't get aids. just kidding. i'm white. the tweet sparked a firestorm on twitter, which eventually led to

her and the company, quote/unquote, parting ways. guys, this is a pr exec, right? >> former, former. >> but somebody who should know a little more about, perhaps, what to say? public. >> i couldn't believe when i read the tweet. i thought, i must be misreading that because she could not have written that. she did. she was on a flight for 12 hours so this all erupted while she was flying to south africa for holiday. >> and thousands and thousands of replies, some very harsh. some also defended her and said, look, wait, guys, because she can't defend herself with no internet access on the flight. >> how do you defend this? this is indefensible. given she's a pretive, it's tough. >> we also got the statement. the offensive comment doesn't reflect the views and values of iac. we take this issue very seriously and we have parted ways with the employee in

question. finally, beyonce stealing the show in walmart in massachusetts. seems like lots of promotion going on here. she was promoting her new self-titled album "queen bee" as she grabbed the microphone and announced everybody is getting $50 off their purchase. >> it's amazing. this is the time of year where rich people can go out there -- >> go to walmart. >> they don't go to walmart. but they make themselves feeling better by paying layaway bills, giving out gift cards. it's a good sign of the holiday season. >> indeed. >> take that, amazon. take that, target. >> thank you very much for joining us, robert frank. thank you for watching "street signs." the show is off the air tuesday and wednesday. we'll be back thursday. enjoy the holidays, everybody. "closing bell" is coming up next. 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.

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and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans down here at the new york stock exchange. from headphones to $170 sneakers to this weekend's brick and mortar winners and losers, we'll get you covered on all the retail angles this shopping season. >> did you finish? did you start? >> i started and finished. >> oh, good for you. i'm bill griffeth. later this hour we'll take a deep dive into the banks as they respond to the target credit card scam that stole christmas. some banks are taking very drastic action. maybe you've heard from your own bank on that one. now one major player