latest read on the american economy. will we be one step closer to the first federal reserve rate hike in more than eight years? >> hello. ahead of the beige book the dow is holding at a record high. let's get straight to steve liesman with the beige book. >> thanks very much. the federal reserve in the beige book saying the economy continues to expand cht this is a pretty upbeat beige book going along with better economic data. the con tacks telling the fed they are optimistic about the current state of the economy and outlook. one reason is because consumer spending is advancing in most districts. retailers told the fed they were upbeat about the holiday season. one reason for that is lower oil prices. it was seen as a boost to consumer spending. it was noted that in a couple of districts suv sales picked up. phil lebeau has been reporting on that. what is happening to oil drilling? they are saying it remains at a

high level. in the atlanta district some firms were reevaluating their operations certainly to be expected given plunge in oil prices. on to the issue of jobs the feds saying employment gains were wide spread throughout the federal reserve districts. only down side here, real estate. only half of the districts saw increase in home sales and home prices were little changed in most districts. a key thing the fed watches is price and wage inflation. again, they have repeated this several times in the beige book. those prices remain subdued. no big increase. just a quick thing. there was some details about whether the jobs were, who was hiring where. let me show you here. boston software and it special isos, new york. they were hiring in finance and had a bunch of cuts and now looks like they are hiring in manufacturing, construction and freight. richmond you can get a job in the services sector.

the whole district there. atlanta leisure hospitality. that includes florida. maybe disney world would be a place. >> i have the ears for it, baby. >> no you don't. >> bottom line, this is an upbeat beige book that goes along with growth we are tracking on the rapid update, 2.7%. maybe this is stronger. >> we are just looking at the market reaction here. i should rephrase that. we haven't moved at all in the dow industrials. it's not really moving. it's sort of a confirmation of the upbeat cover story we have been talking about on "street signs." >> i think that's right. i think that when you have that really strong auto sales number you have that blowout ism services number, the really high ism manufacturing number, all of the data is not just upbeat. it's been approaching somewhat record levels here. this is whether or not there is

some case for a breakout here. >> stick around. we might talk about just that. it is a huge day here on cnbc. some of the most powerful ceos in the world took part in our ceo summit this morning talking about jobs, economy, energy prices and even questioned and heard from the president for more than an hour. let's hear from the ceo of wal-mart and what he said about growth that really got our attention. take a listen. >> 2% to 3% growth range number feels like it is perpetual. there are customers that are under pressure trying to stretch to the next paycheck. we still see the pay cycle play out where the first of the month the demand goes up and sales are better. i would say we are kind of like we were last year. as i look ahead to next year it feels like more of the same. >> we will have much more coming up. first let's drill down on his comments. is a 2% economy the new normal?

let's bring in cnbc contributor. jimmy, do you get the feeling that when ceos like this speak out quite often they are speaking to conditions they see today as opposed to conditions they could potentially see down the road? >> i mean, economic forecast may have a worst track record than the forecast of wall street economists. that is a tremendously low bar. they may have a worse record. they often talk about the markets they see now. in the case of wal-mart where you could say they are also reflecting the customer base they have. we have seen a hugely unequal distribution of incomes where gains are going to the top. i speak as a probably seven-time a week wal-mart customer. they are not seeing it. listen, growth may pick up a bit. i'm wondering if steve thinks that really the potential growth rate of this economy beyond just

next year is really above what we have seen during the recovery? >> i think it may be a bit higher. it is pretty consequential if it is two or three. two is at trend and three is above trend. the long-term unemployed back to irk with. if you look at the graph, four of the past five quarters have been above trend growth. we have seen a sharp decline. you can say people aren't feeling it. this is how you will feel it if we grow above trend and wages come up and come from a certain tightness in the job market that gives you leverage that you haven't had in eight years with your boss to ask for a raise. how do you do that? you have the long term unemployed coming back to work. you have people with high skills. >> you have to have leverage as an employee. employees have not had leverage for years.

back in the day -- i sound really old. people used to hop jobs and threaten to move and get 15% raises. that came crashing down. you know this. companies have long memories. they remember that time. the leverages gone with the corporate side. is the leverage coming back to the employee side? >> we are assuming that the economy is going to grow and these gains will be distributed in equal manner. i don't think there is a lot of evidence that that is going to happen. we have a job market polarized. we have seen job growth at the top. a faster economy let's say it is growing 3% does that fundamentally change those dynamics? i don't think so. >> there is a secular story and a cyclical story. long term jobs require more skills and more of the gains go to those with the best skills and those with, say, certain ideas and benefits they can

bring that others can't compete with. on a more cyclical basis you have broad things of people coming back to work and being tightness in the labor market gives even the lower skilled some leverage in their jobs. we are still a ways away from that but starting to lay the foundation for it. >> how much of a swing factor, guys, is lower oil prices going to be in boosting growth down the line? how much will lower oil prices potentially keep the fed on hold for longer because it is really keeping the lid on inflation? >> it is keeping inflation down. it is like a big tax cut for the u.s. economy or the global economy. you are talking about maybe two to four tenths of a percentage point. if you are only grow by two that is big. that is fantastic. that is a wonderful tail wind. i am worried about the secular case. i am wondering if the wall street models are taking into

account the secular stagnation scenario whether it is not enough demand or real structural head winds on the u.s. economy. i think there are. >> there was a number yesterday that i saw, a $670 billion swing from producers to consumers. that gets beyond chump change in my opinion. this is globally. it is not just in the states. $670 billion going from producers to consumers means that globally there is going to be really tectonic plate shifts. >> particularly in places with huge growth problems, europe and japan. >> we often say and we hear it a lot that how much will lower prices boost growth? do we know that it will boost growth? much of the job growth in this country in the last five to ten years has come from texas, north dakota and i understand it benefits the consumer filling up

at the gas pump. there is a down side to this. >> any shock has negative consequences. you think about the guys who are geared up to build priuss. phil lebeau reported a 13% decline. some of the solar industries are going to get hurt by this. by the way, once there is that extra money around the people who might be on the receiving end of it are not necessarily geared up to take it just yet. you may not be producing those more expensive sweaters that people want. you may be producing cheap sweaters. there is an adjustment period. >> all i want is a christmas sweater. >> sweater economics. steve and jimmy thank you so much for joining us. so we do like superlatives here on "street signs." we are about to hear from more ceos including the ceo of wal-mart. we will also try to answer a burning question, what do americans spend money on when gas prices fall. >> why the world's biggest

publicly traded oil company says it isn't threatened by low oil prices. so do stick with us. >> this year we will add about 1.6 million barrels a day of new supply from nonopec areas largely u.s. and canada. you take a 1.6 million barrel a day supply growth and put it on top of demand growth you have a surplus of capacity at a time when opec members are holding production flat. you fill storage up and fill inventories up and at some point it has to show up in the price.

welcome back. this was a major event today. the biggest names in business all assembled in one little room at the squawk box ceo summit in washington, d.c. in a wide ranging interview his first major tv interview as ceo wal-mart ceo said despite what you are hearing about retail sales, lower gas prices et cetera they are helping retailers like him. >> was there a discernible, in your view, impact on what we have seen with gas prices? >> i don't think there is doubt that low fuel prices are helping us. it is a bit of a tail wind. a little bit. >> are there other head winds that come with lower oil prices that hurt you? >> customers are still under pressure. they have a health care bill to pay. they need to pay down some debt which is happening a little bit.

they shift around a little bit but no doubt fuel prices are helping. i think it is important to remember for us in the u.s. we serve the u.s. demographic. our customer base looks like the bell curve of the u.s. we have a very important middle income business and we have customers who still pay in cash, about 25% of transactions are done in cash. so it is that customer in particular that if it went into the gas tank it wouldn't be spent on some item in our store. >> before this segment started i mentioned a headline about target and the data breach. how much money are you guys spending on data security? we had this big announcement about sony this week, the fbi putting out a statement. >> it is one area in our information systems budget where i don't put much pressure on that number. our team does a great job of working every day to try to keep our data secure. it is a daily battle and it is difficult. attacks occur all the time. >> you think the customer decided to accept it or do you

think -- do you think -- look at target and other stores, home depot has come back. how do you think about how the customer thinks about the store in the context of a breach? >> i think it matters. i don't think people are used to it. i hope we don't all get used to it. trust is the number one asset we have whether how we protect data. we are very serious about doing anything we can to build trust especially in data security. >> you said attacks are coming in every day. >> yeah. you look at the health of the consumer you mentioned already that gasoline has certainly helped things here in the united states. overall, how would you grade the consumer right now? how have we done coming back since the recession? >> i think we are kind of like we were. it is 2% to 3% growth range number feels like it is kind of perpetual.

and our sales are better so i would say we are kind of like we were last year. as i look ahead at next year it feels like more of the same. >> the bumpy stretch in terms of pr problems with wal-mart predates you. there is still this to me kind of it's a disconcerning take on what wal-mart does as a company. i think of 2 million jobs. there is a perception that the jobs at wal-mart there is minimum wage discussions. there is discussions that these aren't the kind of jobs that we wanted to create because they are not high paying. you can't open a store in new york city because that is not the kind of retailer we want in our townfelt do you think about that? or are you just trying hadf- >> our reputation matters. we have a lot of pride and a great --

>> does it bother you -- when you see it mischaracterized like that? >> i think the way we think about it and the way we have been thinking about it is to take the criticism and figure out what of it makes sense and what can we do to get better. let me talk about employment and minimum wage for a second. the way i view wal-mart is it is a ladder. where we set the first rung matters. what our first starting rate is matters. of the 1.3 million associates we have in the u.s. less than 6,000 make federal minimum wage. in a few months we hope to resolve that. once you get in the opportunity is the issue. we promoted just in the u.s. last year 140,000 people. many of these people are doing more than they dreamed they would do. when you become a store manager for wal-mart it is a fabulous job. >> what do you think about the health care plan? the position that some business leaders have been concerned

about is the eeoc coming back and saying that you can't have health care plans, wellness plans that handout carrots and sticks. what do you think about the concerns? >> health care is a big issue. we have over a million covered lives in our plan. we work hard to make sure we have flexible plans and affordable plans, $21.90 a pay period is the plan that is most popular and opening price point plan. we have continued to make adjustments to try to make it so that our associates can afford health care. we cover as a company 75% of the premium costs, 60% of the total cost when you consider out of pocket. so it's a big issue for us. it's a big pressure point as it relates to cost and we have to constantly stay on top of it. >> let's break down this huge interview with our retail roundtable. joining us mary epineur, courtney reagan and also sweater

expert steve liesman staying with us. a lot of wide ranging topics were discussed. what was the key take away for you? >> part of the conversation we have been talking about on street sense with the gasoline and whether it is helping retail or one of the bigger beneficiaries. this is his first live television interview. a lot of investors putting a lot of stock in him thinking the future of wal-mart does ride on his shoulders. he is a lifer. he has been at wal-mart for a very long time. having him on to hear his thoughts on all of those topics particularly many of them on public policy very important for us to understand the state of the consumer. >> retail? we talk about how much of a benefit it will get from lower gas prices. hard to see any other way. i think it puts back in people's pockets. who is going to win? is everybody going to win? >> i don't think it is just about gas prices. it is who is giving the best

value whether online or in store that is what the customer is doing is really checking out where the best place is to buy it. that is what we saw in the past two weeks. they don't care. they are savvy now. whether getting in the car or going online they are checking it out all the time. >> we are going to have to like pay up a little bit because we have our penalty jar. do you feel like retailers need to come up with something completely new? these are old. they no longer are the kind of events that people are drawn to like they were in the past. do we need to come up with something different? >> i noticed this year they advertised black friday like it was some kind of holiday. nobody has talked about thanksgiving. it's not a thanksgiving. it is come out for black friday. was that new this year? that black friday was given the name -- i thought we in the industry and finance called it black friday. >> it's a thing. >> growing up in the midwest it

is a holiday. it is what you do. you eat thursday and shop friday. it is what you do. >> i said i thought black friday was over. i'm starting to see other articles that suggest the same thing because it is oline. it is like week long events. >> it is not as discrete. it is not 5:00 a.m. to midnight. >> it is different this year, too, because of the shorter selling season. they did start a little early because there are fewer days. it wouldn't be the same next year if there is a longer -- >> it depends who moves first. if one of the retailers moves first everyone else follows. >> i remain optimistic. and i want to talk about my bet with courtney. we have this bet for a charitable contribution to the winner's choice. i think i'm going to lose it for the right reason. i m going to explain why. did you hear phil lebeau when he said about autos yesterday? people are spending money on autos but when we get done tallying the holiday spending

the autos aren't going to count. they don't go into the holiday spending official number. so courtney might win but only because people spent more on cars than sweaters. >> she was the scrooge and you were the santa. >> but that also goes -- >> how do you feel about that victory? >> i am going to feel good. it goes to the core of what i was saying. folks are spending but not on traditional holiday items like the sweaters and shoes. >> those are traditional holiday items? in whose home? >> my home. we don't always buy iphones and data plans and netflix prescriptions. >> whiskey? >> a traditional family for you. >> last year we went on vacation. >> that's a service. >> you do wonder. it's not just lower gas prices. home values are up. stock market is up. i don't think this is going to be abercrombie getting another

$25 in incremental spending. everybody i know is talking about doing something a little bit bigger perhaps. >> there is a definite lifestyle change. vacations, items for the home that make them proud to bring people into their home for the first time in five years. perfect segue a big shout out to our data crunching team and john maloy. powerful new data tool we have here on cnbc. we personized it. what happens when gas prices -- >> we want to represent him. you can do the honors with that. >> you press his button. he dances. >> you want me to turn him on. >> the data we crunch was when gas prices plummet. what do consumers mainly spend on? they saw stock prices of certain

companies related to vacations, marriott, wynn resorts and price line.com. >> gamble it away. that's not ideal. >> that is part of the argument for why the economy might get better when consumers spend more but they are not buying more sweaters. that is why i think holiday sales -- >> it all comes back to sweaters in the end. this is the key. from an macroeconomics standpoint not much concern where people are spending. courtney had a special job. she has to be concerned about retailers and guiding investors as to where to put your money and the winners are not all that obvious. a lot of times it's not. if it is service businesses and some of the vacation homes and places like that, vacation destinations could be the winners. one person tweeted in they are going to buy solar panels with the extra money from gas prices because the electric bill is not

going down. >> i do think there is a down side to increased home and car sales. you buy a house and car you save money and put it down. you don't buy? sweaters because now you have an extra room in your house you want a new couch. you are buying bigger ticket stuff. it could be a drag on retail at a certain level. >> which is the basis for my argument for why i don't think holiday sales will be that strong. >> the nrf people playing this game at home, the benchmark is the forecast of 4.1%. i have 4.1 and higher. scrooge over here lower than that. where do you chime in? >> i don't chime in on numbers. i think it will be a good season. >> on that note, mary, courtney, steve, thank you very much for joining us. >> what do you think? good holiday season? >> what is his voice like? do the voice.

>> i don't know. put me on the spot here. why an ugly and private tv stock is saying sell. today is a huge day for women world wide. i will tell you why after the quick break.

welcome back to "street signs." check out shares of stryker. the medical device maker is increasing quarterly dividend. the stock is currently down by about a half a percent but another company boosting dividend. we had small business saturday, cyber monday. now we have women wednesday. today is the inaugural launch of women wow, a global movement to help support woman owned businesses. >> she doesn't hold back. >> she is fabulous. >> she will say what she wants. why one firm says stay away from dish maybe because of cbs.

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the ultimate arena for business. hour after hour of diving deep, touching base, and putting ducks in rows. the only problem with conference calls: eventually they have to end. unless you have the comcast business voiceedge mobile app.

it lets you switch seamlessly from your desk phone to your mobile with no interruptions. i've never felt so alive. get the future of phone and the phones are free. comcast business. built for business. time for something we do every day at this time, street talk. the first one is tjx company getting an upgrade. >> stocks up. a big upgrade. goldman upgrading tjx to a buy. they put on their conviction buy list. the target boosted to $77. they see about 15% upside left. >> this is not an upgrade, not a downgrade but a target boost. it is for underarmer. >> went and met with underarmer management and boosted the

target to 93 from 80 a share. they see about 30% more upside to a stock already up more than 70% in the past year. they say the global opportunity remains big. >> san disk looking good in the eyes of analysts over at citi. >> stock is not doing anything, up 4 cents. citi group initiating with a buy. 20% upside and much higher than the average analyst target price. >> next we go to downgrade for dish network on the heels of dish not yet reaching an agreement to continue on air coverage. >> dish getting hit down. maybe it is the fight or the downgrade. wunderlich securities downgrading to sell. $7 a share below current price. l.a. based, kind of involved in

the entertainment world. this is the under radar name of the day. east group property. we normally do a buy, not today. >> call this an under the radar opportunity for the short sellers if they so choose. this is a jackson, mississippi based trust cutting it to a sell calling it a slippery stock in the headline of the research report. it is an oil play. they note that about 20% of their red base is made up in houston. down today 2.5% as they say sell. they will do a lot of sells for a reason. let's go to "talking numbers." that is our daily look at a stock from a fundamental and technical perspective. today it is amazon.com. we are pleased to be re-joined by rich ross. he is now back with us with a new firm. thin and trim as always.

he is on the technicals. david seebert on the fundamentals. rich ross welcome back, buddy. how does amazon look? >> nice to see you. in terms of amazon it is a tale of two charts. if you can be patient in the short term you will be rewarded in the long term. first the short term chart and clearly the stock has been a disappointment. we are down 20% in 2014. and that down trend remains in tact. importantly we have established a very nice double bottom base of support. i think that is going to serve us well. when we zoom out and look longer term you can see this is where the story really becomes interesting for amazon. we have had a 30% pullback. we have held that long term 150-week moving average and horizontal chart support. i think that has provided compelling entry point. if you can be patient here i think 2015 the investment will bear fruit and you will be

rewarded. i would buy the stock in here. >> pays to be patient for amazon. what about the fundamental side? >> i hate to disappoint you. i'm a seller here, a massive seller. i completely disagree with you. this is not a company with a top line growth problem, a company with a massive spending problem. when you look at the story they can't get away from the spending perspective. there is no near term catalysts. they have a lot of execution risks. the phone has been totally unsucce unsuccessful. it is really the device ecosystem that they need to get arms around. i look at the efforts in china were an absolute disaster. i was talking to someone earlier who said if they exited china the stock would go up. this is a company with a massive spend issue. they can't deliver on the bottom line. that is what the street is looking for right now. i don't like it here. i think it is going lower.

we downgraded the stock after the third quarter earnings release predicated on mobile business not being strong. i think it is going lower. below 300 no problem. probably lower than that. >> that is no way to welcome rich ross back to street talk and "talking numbers." >> i can vouj for the fact -- >> i say i think the following year often times it is not surprising when we see prior year's losers become the next year's winners. i think that is what is going to happen here with amazon. a disappointment here in 2014. i think that set us up for a nice return in 2015. >> brian sullivan missed you. he said the other day, where is rich? >> thank you. good to be back. >> he has his own thing going on there. he is the pun king. i submit to rich ross. >> i think you can joust that one out. be sure to check out the online edition of "talking numbers." just ahead we have a

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all of the investment decisions we take are tested and then accommodate these types of price swings. you can ensure you can invest and be successful. >> what is the bottom for you? >> we test across a range down to $40 and up to $120. that was exxon mobil ceo rex tillson. he says low oil is not the end of the world for his company. our next guest says it could be a ticking time bomb for others. let's bring in larry mcdonald, cnbc contributor. explain what the time bomb is and do you think it will go off? >> in 2007 i was on the trading floor and putting together trade short backed mortgage securities and said you better call our economist.

he said with unemployment at 7% housing prices don't fall. that was the conventional wisdom. the unthinkable can happen. >> that was really bad. >> the arrogance. the unthinkable can happen. if you get a move down we found a dent in that space, energy and commodities has gone from $900 billion ten years ago to 3.4 trillion globally. you are talking about a space that the federal reserve because of the 0 interest rate policy has really pumped up a tremendous amount of leverage. >> as we have been talking about the last couple of days that was my biggest take away. this was shocking, about 20% of the american high yield market is now oil e&p. if they start to have problems with cash flow you wonder if loan cov nns can start to kick in. >> that's the problem.

we had dinner with governor stein. remember he left the federal reserve. if you look back right before he left he put a paper fairly critical of the leverage and energy space. it is something that is an unintended consequence. >> you start to see problems cht you don't need to see the oil price down. you made the report that sustained prices below $60 and right now we are at $67. sustained price as low as $60 starts to see the problems occur. >> you look at not to point rig out but they have 14% dividend yield now. that is kind of obscene. >> jim cramer said this morning he noted rig never own it unless they cut the dividend. >> you have to think what is the cfo thinking? why is that dividend so high? maybe they should have been reserving cash at this level. >> they were part of the whole thing. they had a stain on them a little bit for a while.

they had to incentivise buyers to come in. if oil stays here and goes up and the companies can hang on there is a chance nothing bad is going to happen. people renegotiate and take on new debt, refinance just like the american consumer. >> what i'm thinking about is almost like the feds in a check mate situation. if the u.s. economy is strong as people think how can they possibly raise rates with the global economy as weak as it is? that is going to strengthen the dollar and push oil lower. i know the fed is concerned about this leverage in the oil space. how can they possibly raise rates here? >> how concerned are they about the corporate exposure to commodity debt? they were looking at what is happening in the job market or watching this or that? how often do they talk about corporate debt with commodity exposure? >> i think if you look at -- obviously the doves are not that concerned. some of the hawks and some

members of the fed are concerned about this. they are really concerned about 2015 because the global economy is so weak if they do hike what is it going to do to the dollar? it will put more pressure on oil. >> any odds on what the likelihood is of some sort of debt spiral in this space to happen? right now it is too early. everybody i talk to says that. >> with oil it is more and more likely down here. if oil maintains at the price below 65 to 50 the leverage is $3.5 trillion globally in just energy exploration at 600 billion. >> the other aspect of the story is that they monetize their hedges. most of the firms if they are smart has hedged out. once the hedges come off that could be the trouble spot. >> we haven't done an analysis on the hedges. remember, everybody said countrywide that some of the

mortgage companies in the mortgage space were hedged. hedgestypically are not that type of -- >> just to spell this out without trying to oversimplify, but to spell it out for viewers and listeners, corporate u.s. debt is 1.6 trillion. $900 billion is energy related and $400 billion of that is -- >> and the 0 interest rate policy since lehman has created this environment that has piled cash into the space. >> it was a pleasure to have you on even though it was a bit of a -- >> downer -- >> it is the reality. you go back to 2007. now nobody is saying that stuff is going to happen here. however, the reason we care about oil is not just the gas that we put in our car. it's that if we see covenance kicked in the high yield market

shifts. if that shifts is raises borrowing costs for every corporation in america minus the ultimate pristine aaa names and everything starts to get squeezed. that is what happens. >> i agree with larry fink. i think you have a chance at the ten year. >> that is what he said on our show monday and has been right so far on his predictions. >> he is a smart guy. that is why we have him on the show. that's why we don't have your ex-economist on the show. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. so if exxon starts to get hungry to buy competitors who are the prime targets? >> we have an expert who will name some names coming up next.

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yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. and welcome back. your next guest says that under $75 a barrel oil could be here to stay and that may be a bad thing but it could mean buying opportunities. now, exxonmobil ceo tillerson seems to agree. listen to what he had to say

today at the squawk box ceo summit. >> it really just means a return to fundamentals for us. you know, it's important watching your cash, watching your investment decisions, being very disciplined and looking for opportunities to they present themselves in an environment like this. >> all right. now let's bring in mike kelly and another guy that basically helped me out over the weekend an i appreciate you working on a saturday and a sunday sending me your research. thank you very much. you know, is tillerson in part being a little bit cat and mouse here in a sense because if the newer player that is are highly levered go down, he's going to be come in and pick up bargains on the cheap. >> yeah. it's the truth. first off, thank you for having me on. you look warmer today relative to monday up in the bakken. i was cold watching you up there. you know, rex is -- he's somewhat maybe tongue in cheek but we do think that the high quality producers and exxon

certainly has, you know, its fair share of high quality opportunities will work at a much lower oil environment. we got a glimpse of that in the recent conference calls. yet again a number of companies talking about $40 oil prices, the properties work. maybe be careful what you wish for but a number of xaenls survive and thrive in this environment. >> some of those names are very interesting in a sense that they're in the more obscure areas. if you look at synergy resources or cariso oil and gas, operating in dakotas. why aren't you going after the names of operations in obscure regions? >> yeah. well, you know, it's more about the rates of return that they're going to be generating and, you know, some of the big plays up there, the bakken are household names and to us looking at this

on a daily basis, select plays can compete quite well with those other kind of well-known basens. synergy is one of them here where we see them over four years posting the highest debt adjusted production growth per share of any e & p company out there and sets them up to trade in multiples of 2018 half of what the group trades at. >> mike, yesterday and today, energy-related shares are coming back and people talk about, well, maybe the pessimism was overshot to the downside and hearing of energy company insiders starting to pick up stock and maybe buy stock s. that a bullish indicator? are you hearing and seeing the same thing? >> yeah. you're starting to see it. it's positive. especially in the name that is have really been depressed. that have come off. i mean, we cover and like here and energy 21, insiders by

there. the stock's off i think close to 80% now year to date and leveraged. that's a bullish indicator. >> mike, can you -- you did some great work on this, by the way. can you give us an idea of who the higher and lower cost producers are in the bakken? i did some of your reporting on the air and i don't know if you saw it. i think marathon is pretty cheap in terms of cost of production. >> yeah. marathon. it's interesting. i appreciate you giving a shout out there, brian. we got some hate mail afterward from the guys we deemed higher cost and one of them that i would clear up a little bit, sm energy with some acre and in divide county, that's some of the lower cost acre and and better returns in the play because it's a lower cost and then they have some areas in the bakken higher cost in nature. also, continental resources is big behemoth out there. select areas for them in the

bakken fabulous. marathon. that you mentioned, as well. >> mike, thank you very much for joining us. good to see you. >> thank you. we're going to go for a quick break here and will be back in a couple of minute's time. you total your brand new car.

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>> no, no, no. they're saying they may not announce it. we said as soon as today. we didn't say definitely today. we're standing by they're investigating north korea carefully. >> yeah. the only pushback apparently sony had on the date of when to announce it, right? >> yes. exactly. >> not the facts. >> yeah, yep. which is why we said could be as soon as today but it's not -- you know, they're considering announcing it soon. we'll see when they do. >> the speculation out there, cara, this is in retaliation for, you know, the interview, the movie that has a fictional plot to assassinate kim jong-un. how much do we know about that? >> that's the focus of the investigation of the people they -- they hired a lot of firms to look into this. reported by others who they hired and if it's true and so they're looking to see why they

would do this. north korea is known to do these kind of attacks not necessarily typical like even one country usually corporate espionage or defense department information and typical things. in this case it could be over this movie and loudly decried publicly they're going to take action against. >> christmas day release. thank you very much for joining us. >> i don't know if it's any good. we'll see. >> cost $35 million to make. we have to leave it there. thank you for joining us. >> "closing bell" starts right now. hi and welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly e vanl kelly evans a stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffith. any gain for the dow jones industrial average is another new all-time high. not so for the s&p although virtually there