the past ten for the dow and the s&p. so it's an incredible streak we are seeing here. s&p retail index is one to watch today for the first day after christmas which is moving higher, as well. thank you for watching "street signs signs signs," everybody. see you monday afternoon. welcome to "the closing bell." i'm sarah e 1i isen. >> i'm bill griffeth. santa claus paying a visit to wall street today, sarah? closing at record highs and look at the you till it is. s&p mid cap index, even the russell 2000 is back. all with records right now. who would have thunk it? >> surging. even mid caps are joining in the record party. look at where we are right now. the dow as bill said in record high territory.

it is positive. nine days of the last ten trading sessions. s&p 500 also on track to close at a record high for the 52nd high in 2014 and nasdaq just turned positive for the month of december. and is trading around the highest level since back in 2000 and a close eye on the russell 2000. the index of small caps trying to close at a new high. we are seeing intraday records for the first time since june. if it does close at a record, that's the first time since back in march. >> and just think last october it was down as much as 20% from that march 4th high. talk about a round trip for the small caps index. >> incredible rebound. >> talk about it with the guests today in the exchange. we have rob morgan with us. jim lowell. nicole sinclair. and our own jeff cox from cnbc.com. we have trader matt cheslock

and, matthew, i'll start with you. what do you make of when's going on right now. back at all-time highs including those small caps that were hit so hard through much of this year. >> yeah, well, time to buy. keep buying. spending money on retail and christmas and thanksgiving and stuff. so keep spending it on the market. this is the place the put your money. very obvious. nowhere else for the returns we are giving you. >> is that what you're doing right now? >> you know me. i'm always a seller. >> yes. >> even then, you know, you look at the market with a ways the go. people are still positive on the market. quietly optimistic. even from the retail side. not just main street. from the retail investor. they're quietly optimistic and i think they could be the next catalyst going higher and starting to want to leg into those guys buying the enthusiasm too much. >> on this note of small caps, yes, we are at records on the russell and still only up 4% for 2014 and that lags the s&p and

the dow. is that where you want to put your money on catch up? >> yeah. absolutely. and i think, you know, you talked about the macarthur that small cop done so well in the last few months and a big part of that is dollar rising and multinationals and trend's going to continue and i would continue the like the small caps space here. >> nicole, explain to me why -- i mean, you like the utilities at this point but if interest rates are going to be starting to rise, it's counterintuitive to like the utilities but explain to me how that works. >> utilities are the vast sector of 2014. i think, though, anying about the utilities next year i would think about a couple of one that is have growth drivers. i would point to dominion resources. that's been up a lot this year and has this export terminal for natural gas at lows again. that's an upside opportunity for that name.

nrg is another one with growth drivers. so i think within the utility space you want the get yield and pick name that is have growth opportunities and not just play that yield game long term. >> it is interesting they have their individual catalyst. is it a foregone conclusion for rates to rise? today yields are lower. >> yeah. i think it's a foregone conclusion at least the fed's going to try to push rates higher next year. i don't think as soon as the rest of the market thinks it will and that uncertainty creates an interesting environment for the market next year. i think the trajectory is lower left to upper right with gains in the wider bands in the gains, bigger fluctuations and talked about this with concerns of liquidity. the good news for this is the stock picker crowd. those people looking for areas to expose within the market. i think that's going to benefit them going forward in the 2015. >> jim lowell, here we sit. the russell at all-time highs,

those small caps coming back but you like the mega caps. are you concerned they might outperform next year? >> i don't think just like mega caps at the expense of small caps. i like the small and mid cap range, as well, as long as you have a good, active manager at the helm doing your buying for you. i do think as the guests just said a stock picker's market going into 2015. i would not be a buyer of any major index, probably not the dow diamonds at this juncture. i really want an active stock pick we are a proven track record at the helm of the ships. i also think as the u.s. consumer continues to show strong evidence of strengthening that bodes well for the global markets. mabel not immediately but we continue to build a small position in europe and japan thinking that the worst of times at least for good bargain basement opportunities may be behind us. >> that's just where i wanted to go.

the u.s. consumer and retail story, numbers coming in, pretty good. to play retail, where do you go? not like all the names are the same. you have some winners, losers, some big companies like target and walmart and you are looking at the littler guys that could be growth stories. >> yeah. retail is one area where we're seeing most differentiation between sector and individual stock. we're seeing the haves and have notes. i think with the in-stone experience the names that are surging, outperforming are ones created a treasure hunt type of experience. l brands with victoria's secret did well. restoration hardware where gary freedman said people buy with their eyes. so i think that those names that are really focusing on the in-store experience win even as we see traffic decelerate and

the transition to online. >> rob morgan, nicole made the case for selective utilities. you are underweighting utilities. you knew i was going to bring this up here. are you going to sell they are things here? >> well, i think nicole identified great names. any sector you can find great names and i think the utility space in general is a little elevated from a pe standpoint. people have been buying the yield too much in my opinion so that's more a price -- from a price standpoint from the sector and she identified good names in the sector. >> matt, when's the volatility to see it as jeff cox was saying, the end of qe, the end potentially of zero interest rates going to mean for trading? is it something you're rewarded buying the dip as we have seen with the volatility of 2014? >> until that theory stops working, people continue to do it. there's going to be plenty of volatility at these indexes so i think you have to be very

selective on how you get in and out. when's the exposure overnight and willing to bet in a certain sector? bio techs may snap back pretty well and you could probably buy those and make good money. that's a case of buying a dip and working. >> jeff, where do you stand on when you think the fed starts to raise? >> i think the latter part. i think the back half of next year. the doves prevail. the rhetoric is very strong from the hawkish standpoint and create some people just trying to read the tea leaves through the fed statements and create some movement in the markets and ultimately that decision may be september. >> jeff? >> yes. >> they're going to be patient? >> i want to ask you about gold today. a nice little bounce, almost 2%. the gold miners followed suit. this is a painful one in 2014. any sign, anything in the research that indicates that it would turn around next year? even though everybody and their mother expecting a strong

dollar? >> it's a dangerous bet. i think where gold's going to come in is a play where when you get some of that market volatility, money looks for a place to go and with gold basically depending on the perspective and at least cheap levels, maybe a little oversold levels, that's when gold will start to attract money. i think it's a big traiding range here going into to something more fundamental to break out and i think gold will get a bid through market volatility. >> jim lowell, health care, you have been pounding the table for that anyway and we learned in the gdp report this week that health care spending was a big part of that growth that we saw in the third quarter. you see that continuing in 2015? >> i absolutely do. not just biotech space and pharma space but medical equipment and systems. we're overweight in that sector in the marketplace. they have a good global service but it didn't diminish the fact that health care as a sector has

been among the year's topper formers. >> rob, i wonder if the fact that the nasdaq lagged, yes, on pace to close or have reached levels since back in 2000 and the fact it's lagged and small caps lagged, does that tell us about whether we are or aren't in any sort of bubble? that's not like back in the '90s and getting the comparisons again. but clearly that's telling us a different story. >> yeah. you know, sarah, the earnings are so much better now. you know, as you said, the nasdaq up to about 5100 in 2000 but the multiples there were sky, sky high compared to what we have now so, see, i think the valuations are completely different and much lower than back in the bubble days. you know? 14, 15 years ago. >> all right. good to see you all. thank you. have a great weekend. appreciate your thoughts on this market. see you latter. >> thank you. all right. we have got less than an hour, about 50 minutes to go before the closing bell for the week and we are looking at ganls across the board.

currently the naz zack is actually in the lead. just talking about tech. s&p 500 up half a percent. the dow up 55. on track to close at record highs, bill. >> will stocks carry momentum into 2015? we'll talk about that coming up. but up next, we'll wrap up the big winners and losers from the holiday shopping season as americans head to the stores to return unwanted gifts. you are watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches?

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welcome back. we've got plus signs pretty much across the board for major averages. dow and s&p in record territory right now and there you see the dow's up 61 getting about the

high for the day there and the stronger of those averages is nasdaq up .83% at this hour and the russell 2000, the small caps today, what a roundtrip that's had. hit a -- last hit an all-time march 4th. then could not get out of its way. down as much as 20% by the fall and today, record high, up almost full percent right now. >> momentum is there. while it is the day after christmas, bill, which means americans are heading to stores in droves to return presents and also spend some gift cards. our josh lipton is wrapping up the retail rush out in san jose. what have you seen so far, josh? >> reporter: well, we are at this mall here in san jose, california, where the bargain hunters out in force looking for those deals. analysts say that consumer's in better shape this year and could mean more spending. international council predicts

holiday sales jumping 4% to $489 billion. that would be the strongest gain in three years. but as you mentioned, a lot of folks are hitting the malls today, too, to return those christmas day gifts that might have been disapointing but that, too, could be good news for retailers. >> often times you will get money back or credit which you can use towards something else and they may have forgotten or see -- they may see a great promotion they hadn't seen before the holidays to take advantage of. >> reporter: now, consumers also want to take advantage of the sales and the discounts that retailers like express and gap and the department stores like macy's and target where clearance items up to 60% off. analysts expect consumers to show strength heading into the last stretch of the holiday season and that this december could actually be out last year's $489 billion sales number. back the you. >> thank you.

let's talk more about this detail for retailers and bottom line. joining us we have -- >> stacy witlitz and mary aber in who runs an analytical firm. stacy, it does look like the international council of shoppers the best season since 2011. is it too soon to make that call? >> you know what? it had to be better than last year based on the numbers and the weather and there's some sectors doing better than others. consumer spending. the question is, spending it on electronics, home. the sector that's really suffering is the apparel sector. and you see that. you know, josh just talked about the discounts in the mall. it is their job today as the returns come in to really grab that market share with even greater discounts and i think the other issue is that consumers are so trained to wait for these discounts that a lot

of them are actually waiting to shop until after christmas and that's just bad for margins. >> still don't know what was wrong with that groundhog sweater i gave my wife. >> she's returning it? >> mary, we traditionally think of the ebb and flow of shopping and there's a blurring of the lines for all the days. you're seeing and especially because of online shopping these days, right? >> absolutely. there's so many peaks and valleys between black friday and postchristmas and the retailers are not out of the woods yet so while we have seen some strength, this next week is going to be critical for bottom line results for everybody. because of the gift cards and to stacy's point about should we buy apparel, should we not? handbag or not? >> i love, stacy, what walmart is doing as a consumer. it is a smart idea, which is doing this test program. you're familiar.

where you can actually bring your gift cards from other retailers in to walmart and they'll swap them out and give you a walmart gift card. i mean, how many gift cards do we have that we either lose or we can't find or they expire? to me this sounds like a great move. >> yeah. this is brilliant by walmart. i mean, they're a kruch point here. the comps positive last quarter and going out there and say if you have a gift card from the gap or a restaurant, and you don't want to spend it there. come to our store. and we'll honor it. you know, maybe not 100% of it. >> right. >> but we'll honor it. trying to get your business. this is absolutely brilliant. this is -- could be a real game changer and next year, watch out. maybe all retailers jump in. >> also, you can spend it online. >> yes. >> mary, we are at the point as you mentioned, market share. clearly walmart trying to do the same thing with this bring on the competitor's gift cards. will they make any money? is anybody making money

scrambling for market share in the post-christmas period? >> yes. certain sectors are doing really well. electronics, watches, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances and athletic. athletic by far is the best of the season both in shoes and apparel. and when a customer doesn't want to buy at a gap or an old navy, he or she is going to a nike, underarmour, adidas and so on. that's where we're seeing the strengths. >> mary, i'm curious to bill's point of making money. do you see now that more of the money that we're spending during the holiday season is going online and going to mobile, does that mean a higher return rate? they're not -- if you think about it, clothes online, you're more likely to return it because you haven't tried it on. >> that's true but the shoem a great fitting room for people and no aversion to returning and ordering a new size anymore as there would have been in the old days when we have to drive back and forth or dread going into a fitting room in a store so we are seeing it as a more positive

thing. >> and stacy, what about online shopping? i mean, last year we talked about how it's a watershed period. more and more people were shopping online. this year it's the mobile trend. how many retailers, amazon said they saw something like a 70% increase -- >> 60%. >> thank you. she's always on the case on me here. >> she is on it. >> mobile shopping on amazon. that's only going to continue, too, right? >> absolutely. i mean, it's just so easy, you know, to go into a store and not only price check but just in your down time having a cup of coffee surf and see the best deals so, you know, we could see retailers, 15% of sales this year actually in europe and uk it's more developed and closer to 20%. so i think that becomes a bigger chunk of the business and if you're out in stores in black friday or today or super saturday, you're asking yourself, why in the world am i putting myself through this? every year, you know, just more and more enticing. stay home. stay away from the stampedes.

go online. retailers are making it so much easier. target, walmart even that have lagged behind in online are really investing finally and making it easier to shop that way. >> finally. good to see you both. thank you v. a good weekend. >> thank you. we have got 40 minutes left in the trading session here. dow up 57 just off the highs here. the nasdaq up 39. s&p up 10. both dow and s&p in record territory and we mentioned the russell 2000. investors have been anything but ga-ga for google this year. the stock is down 4%. tech sector rallied 20%. so, can google bounce back in 2015? is it a bargain? we have a stock brawl next. >> oh boy. plus, showings of sony "the interview" pretty much without hitches yesterday. how much did it rake in at the box office? we have rate rogers on scene coming up. stay tuned. here's a question for you:

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all right. here we go. a little over half an hour until the end of trade. we have new record highs for the dow and the s&p. the nasdaq higher, as well. we are on track to make new all-time highs if we close at these levels, bill. >> mega terrell is watching the moving parts and pieces for us. >> gopro soaring on reports of strong all-around retail sales

and big day for biotechs look at juno they are pettics up around 19% today. they went public on friday and gained 90% since then and note handful of biotechs that are gaining. and freeport mcmoran with a test of a well in south louisiana and plan to bring it online next year and a different story for oil services names. newfield exploration, range resources and noble energy crushed today and a wi-fi war. google is latest to join in the fight of blocking wi-fi hot spots in the hotel rooms. >> google stock is higher today. is now time to get in on that stock? it is beaten down in 2014. >> here for a stock brawl on google, we have lou basanese, eric schiffer. lou, you are a bull.

correct? on google. what do you like about it besides the fact that valuations make it cheaper than facebook, twitter and other big technology names? apple. >> i know this is an unlikely scenario but let's just pretend we can only buy one tech stock for a decade, it has to be google. think about all the other companies that consider it a number one competitor of different reasons. you have apple, amazon, facebook, microsoft, even yahoo!. the reason i like it from a long-term mega cap play in tech is because you get a dominant player in search but you also get exposure to all these super compelling long-term technology trends from self driving cars to even nanotechnology to robotics. you name it. the list goes on and we know there's other things that google's working on. >> we don't know what we don't know at this point on google. right? eric, why don't you like this stock here? >> well, you know, many of the thing that is he is talking about is speculative. in tech, ten years is like 100

years. and so, the concern that i have is really a question of what's happening right now. when you look at mobile, they're not able to monetize their core competitive ads to the same level of largely because of real i state being one of the big concerns so and the other side is they really have not been effective on the social side. when you look at social advertising, they really only control about 10%. and that's a problem when you have so many millennials so focused on everything that's social, so there's some searches both short term and longer term for google that have not been proven out and i think it's more of a wait and see. it's not that it's not a good company. it's that we're -- could there be better use of your capital? >> lou, respond to those concerns but i would just add to that, some of the investor searches have centered around the pie in the sky type projects and the massive amount of spending that google has been doing and has to do to get to

projects we don't know are going to be real revenue drivers. >> yeah. but they have the luxury to be able to do that and spending roughly 15% of revenue on r & d because they can. they have dominant market share. talking about 60% share in the online search space. 90% of mobile traffic through search. and those claims fall on deaf aerls because -- >> lou, why is the stock down this year as sara pointed out emergency roomier with a good year for technology? >> perfect example is talking about the russell 2000 recovering. i think we are in a market people not trying to trade the mega cap tech names. you want and you have the potential in this market for 100%, 200%, in small and mid cap games. anyone investing in google has to have realistic expectations. if you look at the consensus price target, that implies it's about 644 or 645.

that implies about a 20% upside. the valuations reasonable. not a bargain but not overpriced at 27 times earnings so i think it's a preference. there's other opportunities for much higher gains in tech right now and google, though, i think is a low downside, stable play of the future of technology. >> eric, which names do you prefer? since you're not a fan of google. >> well, it's not that i'm not necessarily a fan of google but friend started without an argument of how it's good from a long-term ten-year perspective and these things aren't proven and then you have the eu and other problems with regulators looking at potentially shutting google down. you know, to me the most attractive stocks and companies on the technology side are not even public yet. i mean, you have a company like snapchat of potentially huge that has great, phenomenal attraction against the millennial side. twitter could be good but the problem is their ceo.

i think from a technology standpoint, i think facebook still has a dominant position, largely because of instagram. you know, instagram is the hot thing right now. really is. >> eric -- >> they haven't really monetized it yet. >> going back to the days when google just came public, i can't think of a time of people not skeptical about this company and skeptical about the valuations. >> exactly. >> right at the ipo. they've discounted whether it was -- could get into the mobile technology. get beyond search and yet they have proven people wrong time and again this year notwithstanding. >> well -- >> that's a good point. good point. but the past doesn't equal the future. and so just because they've been able to be successful in getting over some hurdles, they're a much bigger company now and -- >> this is a company -- >> continuing to groelt -- >> they have a -- >> go ahead. >> they have unlimited capital financially. you have 60 billion on the balance sheet and intellectual. look at the patent filing

activity for google. more than doubled in the last three years from 850 a year to over 2,000. they're leading innovators and they have the capital both human and financial to go after these big growth tends trends. >> lou? >> there are a lot of companies with capital and patents that have not translates into meaningful growth and revenue. >> google's not one of them. google's proven -- >> we don't know that. we don't know. we don't have the -- we don't know the future. >> i this the market cap -- >> if you have that kind of situation where you have these doubts, like you said yourself, there are better places to put your money. >> this is what the stock brawl is all about. lou, i would add to the conversation, are you optimistic, as well, on youtube's prospects, especially now that youtube unlike reportedly amazon and apple and passed on screening "the interview" did it on google play and youtube. is that going to be something that's going to help investors

and help google stock? >> i think that's a one-hour scenario. that's a compelling scenario that fits into the puzzle for them long term. >> all right. good conversation, guys. good stuff. we'll see what happens into the new year. lou and eric, thank you for joining us. >> happy holidays. >> you, too. little less than half an hour to go before the end of trading for the year. second week of gains for a row. looking at a 50-point rally in the dow. s&p 500 also in record territory and the nasdaq pushing toward almost up 1%. >> santa claus came to main street yesterday for christmas and hitting up wall street today but should investors believe in this santa rally? we'll talk about that coming up. and forget stocks. somebody here has a new way for you to invest in lawsuits. >> what? >> seriously. and apparently it's been pretty strong but will it create more frivolous lawsuits itself? that conversation is coming um

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welcome back. we show you the major averages and how they do, the dow and

s&p, they're positive. that's record territory. the nasdaq still continues to crawl out of the hole of 2000. up another 39 points. but we are also watching the russell 2000 today which believe it or not is back in record territory with today's gains. we are at 1215, up about .75%. sara, s&p mid cap also record high today. dow utilities, record high today. pretty broad based gain of the market. albeit on light volume. >> do you believe in santa yet? stocks got the boost. people calling it a santa claus rally. will it hold on into the new year? joining us, mark from premier wealth management and mark usco. we have two marks. how much of this rally, santa claus rally, is window dressing and folks wanting to avoid capital gains taxing selling, year end type of seasonal stuff

we can't count on in january? >> well, first off, good afternoon, sara and bill. happy holidays, merry christmas, happy kwanzaa and happy belated hanukkah. i think the window dressing, you hit it on the head. we'll see some year end portfolio window dressing and i believe that there will be some tax loss harvesting to offset the gains in many portfolios. institutional and retail clients so i think that portfolios have started to begin to position themselves in terms of the diversification amongst the various asset classes and sub asset classes so i don't forecast that you will see a lot of selling between now and let's say mid-january. i see the market continuing to rally and, in fact, play into the hands of santa claus. >> mark, the hallmark of the market in 2014 was most we would get a 5% move back and then the buyers come back in.

it happened again this month, as well. >> yeah. >> do you see that continuing in 2015 or do you see a change in the natural of the market? do we get this elusive 10% correction we have been waiting for? >> yeah, hey bill, sara. i think it's a challenging this time, 2014. there was a lot of tailwind from quantitative easing, $500 billion of liquidity pumped into the markets and that gave us a nice tailwind for most of the year so every time the market went down, there was more liquidity to pump it up. that disappears in 2015. so, i think it's going to be time to take up the training wheels and see how the market fares. i still think it's relatively positive, no big crash imminent. but i do think it's going to struggle. i wouldn't be surprised to see a 10% correction in 2015. >> so you believe, mark yusco, this is about the federal reserve and the absence of qe and perhaps zero interest rates which is the expectation next year is going to stop the stock

market rally? you are not a believer in the fundamentals of the economy and earnings and that has been the primary driver for the rally the there's stale debate out there. >> yeah. i think it's a debate that needs to keep going because i think the economic growth has been pretty anemic. even with the big third quarter. we're still sub 2% or right around 2% firefighter full year with a lousy first quarter and i think already seeing signs of slowing in the fourth quarter and i think earnings have been relatively disappointing. they're not bad but they're not great. and i think dividends are low. inflation is starting to move toward deflation. so i think it's going to be a struggle next year. >> mark martiak, there's a seasonal tendency to move lower if we had a good year. first part of 2014 and you seem to suggest maybe 2015. at that point, what do you want to buy? where do you see value in this market at this point? >> i don't see a lot of value

across any of the sectors to be frank with you, bill. weldy verse if ied portfolio is something to include utilities which have seen really nice run. obviously, up over 20% in the last 52 weeks. i'd stay with technology. i'd stay with biotech. i think the biotech sector is experiencing a golden era right now. unparalleled. and so i like that sector a lot. i continue to like health care, as well. >> those are big outperforms. energy is only s&p group that is lower today. and lower for the year. does that mean it's a buy or still more pain ahead for the energy companies? >> yeah. i think energy is going to struggle for a little while here. you know, we need to settle and find a bottom for ycrude. oil companies will start to find a bottom for their earnings. but i think there's a little more pain to occur there but i think it's interesting. mark pointed out, you know, you have the leading sectors,

utilities, health care, staples leading in what's supposed to be a robust economic expansion. they lead in a contraction. that's a conundrum. >> defensive issues for sure. thank you, mark. in both cases. >> thank you, bill. >> thank you both. >> good holiday. >> you, to. heading to close. 18 minutes left. meandering for a couple of hours on light volume and traders like to say you can make and break on light and heavy volume. >> and we're just talking about energy, bill, being the only sector down today. oil plunging 40% over the last 3 months. wti and international brent. we'll look at the potential big winners and losers in 2015 from those low oil prices. >> and how big a problem does russian president vladimir putin have because of the falling ruble? that's a story sara's all over and michelle caruso-cabrera, as

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industrial average up 47 points. for the s&p 500 and the nasdaq officially today turned positive for the month of december, bill. >> and this week and next we are looking ahead to the new year giving investors a playbook perhaps how to cash in on 2015. here's a look at how plunging oil prices could affect the global markets in the new year. >> reporter: we all know oil has gotten pummeled this quarter leading to ripple effects throughout the global markets. there are numerous places in the world suffering from the massive selloff and here are three predictions about the fallout. the russian ruble plum mets even more to 100 to the dollar or perhaps 150 rubles to the dollar. remember, was trading as high as 32 rubles to the dollar in the last year. but investors are fleeing the country due to the sanctions of ukraine and russia's dependence on oil revenues.

venezuela is forced to restructure the country's debt. if oil stays at the current level, venezuela will have $20 billion less in revenues next year compared to this year. they already can't pay for imports due to a shortage of reserves and breaking point will hit in 2015. importantly, venezuela will not restructure the debt of its oil company. that would be debilitating to production and how they make their money. mexico weathers the storm real liveti liverealtively better. they put on a massive hedge guaranteeing paid more than $76 a barrel for all of their exports in 2015. however, mexico's much awaited auctions for foreign investment into the oil wells won't go nearly as well as they hoped. they were looking to generate interest of the deepwater oil wells, the most expensive kind of oil to drill and requires a higher price to be profitable. >> wow.

$76 they could make because of that hedge. that's a great move there. >> yeah. absolutely. did you see, by the way, also, saudi arabia coming out saying a nearly $40 billion budget gap because of those low oil prices changing the landscape. >> oops. >> for next year. >> see what happens. let's take a look at where we are right now because we have a little over ten minutes to go before the closing bell and, bill, interesting statistic here. the s&p which looks set to close at a record high if it does close out with a gain and seeing now to guarantee it will not experience a four-day losing streak during all of 2014. something that's never happened before in a trading year. >> if only the nix could say the same thing. >> nice. david darst with predictions of where the market is heading in 2015. and here's a story did give you some christmas cheer. speaking to the head of a national ready made pizza crust keeping the employees on the payroll after a fire destroyed his only production facility. we'll have that feel-good story

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closing out a positive day with record territory for the dow and the s&p.

although well off the highs right now. nasdaq is up 35 points. joining sara and me right now, david darst, another good year for the markets, david. and here we sit now. there's been so much skepticism about the gains of the last few years and going into 2015 the economy seems to be doing much better. gdp report very good. unemployment going down. ironically, is this the time to be more cautious then, do you think? >> bill, you're going to love this. since 1930, the market has had 5-year compound gains of 19% only 9 times. where you have had it compounded. this is one of the best five-year periods that we have ever had -- >> going back to march of '09? >> okay. through the end of this -- through november of this year. 19% compounded. here's where it is going. the next five years turn out to be good if you start from low valuations. they turn out to be very sub par

if you start from high valuations. low valuations on this ten-year average shiller pe, bill, where you have 12 or thereabouts, you get another 15% a year. that happened three times in the 1950s and it happened in 1986. >> so how -- >> however, bill, we're at 27 now and that 26 is looking back. the five it did poorly in the next five years, it was at 26 and right now it's 27, bill. so, on a five-year basis. you've got to be very, very careful here. >> wok. >> on a one-year basis you will see another 9% total, 9 mrs, 10%, maybe double digits including the dividend, bill. but it's after that, it's anybody's guess because you're starting at a higher ten-year valuation level. >> here's my question, david. there's still a debate going on. we alluded to this earlier that that rally, five years,

historic, unprecedented strength is built on the back of quantitative easing, zero interest rates, both of which are ending in 2015. qe already. interest rates set in 2015. how much of this is still about central bank policy and supposed to get it out of japan and europe and could offset what we get in the united states. >> great point. the fed has stopped buying bonds. what you want to be careful of is when they start selling bonds. that does not seem to be in the offing for the time being. this whole word patience which set the market off last week and this week so you want to look at that. i think the key, sara, going forward is going to be earnings. now, morgan stanley's people think that the earnings can up 7% this year. and another 7% next year. so that would be a 14% gabe. you get a little bit of an increase in the price earnings multiple. you are looking out at 2016 number rs.

$134.19 is the estimate times a 16.9 multiple the 2275 which is only 175 points up from here, bill and sara. >> yes, sir. david, stay right there. we'll come back with david. see how we close out and after the bell sony's playstation network knocked offline for much of christmas day. of course, disappointing many kids and parent that is wanted to play the new video games so was this another hack attack? we have some answers on that coming up later on "the closing bell." reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates.

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couple minutes left. quick review showing you the averages at all-time highs here. dow, s&p, the russell is back again. and then we have been mentioning the s&p mid cap index. that's in record territory today. and so is the dow you tiutiliti. there's the mid cap this year marching higher after that bath it took in the fall here. back with david darst here. what do you make of that? small caps, very quietly, have come back again and hitting on all cylinders here. >> we have talked about for years and years how the small caps, transportation stocks, and the banks, are all bodyguards of the market and when they're having trouble it's very hard for the market to advance. now, the transportation stocks have been aided by this 43% decline in oil this year.

and so they're up about 26%, 27%. the small caps were the lag ward. they were the runt of the litter. because they had been up only 3%. and the bank stocks are now up about 8%. so it's a really good thing the small and mid cap stocks are moving ahead and tend to be domestically focused. they started out this year, bill, as you know very lofty valuations and that was one of the things. the prices and the earnings have now caught up with each other and i think this is a good sign the way the small caps are acting. >> all right. david, thank you very much -- happy new year, my friend. >> happy new year to you, bill. cnbc first in business worldwide, and you, are the derick jeter of cnbc, bill. >> does that mean i'm near retirement? >> no. you're the most valuable player. >> i see. you're very kind. thank you, david. see you next week. another record close on wall street. as we head toward the close here in the last few seconds of

trading. light scrol yuvolume. we'll see if the rally continues into the new year. even as energy prices continue lower. hey, stick around. here we go. sara and i have the nekd hour of "the closing bell" right now. and there you have it. another record close on wall street. welcome to "the closing bell." i i'm sara eisen. there you go, mr. jeter. >> i'm bill griffeth. happy boxing day. we have been talking about this all day. record close now for the dow and the s&p. this is traditionally the period of time for the santa claus rally. nasdaq is up 33 points so we are about a 14-year high, yes. for that. at 4806.

>> our panel today, christine shore is here. susan lee from cnbc asia. and trader kenny pulcari will be joining us as soon as he's done trading the day. also with us our own mary thompson and "fast money" trader tim seymour. >> mary, walk us through the action today. it was basically a rally all day. >> it was. for the most part the markets moved higher all the sectors with broad based rallies and we saw a little bit of a pullback midday in the oil sector and the sandouts of utilities and health care and topper forming for the s&p throughout the year. it's the dow utilities of a record close and retailers supported by early indication that is the situation for holiday shopping seen pretty much in line of expectations. that being the strongest reit growth in holiday sales we have seen in just about three years.

again, coming into it off the record highs of a shortened trading session on wednesday, at least for the dow, we continued it today. albeit as you mentioned light volume day. >> tim, what do you do here heading toward the end of the year. often the nature of the market will change come the first of the new year. are you going to play for that or what are you doing right now with this market? >> i think you have to play what you have been given over a couple of weeks and i think if you look at the integrated oils, you have a tremendous rally. look at exxon. small pullback today but you're back to pre-thanksgiving levels so you have had a rally in a number of stocks and you have had in the last few days some of the high multiple momentum names, gopros and teslas rallied back in the absence of broader news flow and i think that's negative. you take that and fade that. getting into next year, there's big thematic trades to be looking at. continue to think europe

outperforms. thinkty relative value is very important there. i think if you also look at central banks around the world, china over a couple of days given you a little more central bank stimulus to glide the rails and i think that's very, very important for equities starting the year. >> shanghai composite up almost 3% overnight on this idea. is there a fundamental story behind the rally of today and the last few days, or just -- there's a note today saying today is the most likely day in the entire year to go up the day after christmas. seasonal thing? >> right. i think tim is exactly right. first of all, low volumes and the moves tend to be exaggerated either way. this way, upside and tested 2100 on the s&p. knocking our head on it and where people thought we would test before pulling back. once the new year comes back, he is right. it's very, very interesting. people i think take some money out of the stocks that have really rallied into the end of the year and look to redeploy them in sectors and then the

slate is wiped clean. and so therefore january could be volatile, especially if mario draghi disappoints the markets by not, in fact, you know, launching another stimulus plan. >> susan lee, we are watching the slowdown in china economically. we know japan is slow and abe-nomics trying to revive there. what are you guys in cnbc asia watching over there? are you expecting a continuation of this slowdown or are you guys talking about maybe a pickup in 2015? >> yeah. that's a good question. i was just looking at that china news and, you know, you forget that this is the -- this is the best two-day rally we have seen in china in half a decade but there's good and bad news with this loan to deposit relaxation in china because traders say this actually putting off anymore triple r cuts and you can forget about some more action coming to cutting the reserve rate ratio and trfrees

money to flow into the markets and you have an rrr cut that's $500 billion and talking trillions instead of billions it's a big stimulus with the temporary relaxation. >> do you see the current rally built on strong corporate fundamentals? we just fin initialled third quarter earnings and rose 10%? >> yeah. that's a big part of it. we were higher. we almost fin initialled at 12%. and certainly the macro picture is developing and improving. we have seen everything from employment to housing to consumer. almost every pocket of the economy seems to be improving but not as fast as corporate earnings improve and you can make the case a lot of this probably has to do with continued cost management and share buybacks or earnings expectations lowered every quarter because of negative preannouncements? >> right. that's the earnings game we know about. 75% of companies beat the sell side estimates this quarter and i would say that's part of the game.

they were falling, pulled back too far and companies know that sell side analysts follow suit. they get a pop on the stock when they beat and overall what you're seeing is pure earnings growth. give or take 3% and overall we grew about maybe 9% in the third quarter. fourth quarter we're looking for 8.5% for s&p earnings. >> tim, you were talking about fading the bouncing oil giants here. are you assuming that energy prices continue lower here in 2015? >> i actually am of the view we get kind of $55 brent and that's somewhere where we stay. integrated are cheap but you have to trade them. the news flow over the next few weeks is going to be very difficult. a lot of u.s. producers are hedged through the end of the first quarter and smart guys i listen to telling me oil prices find a bottom closer to the end of the first quarter. i think there's a tremendous rally to be made in the energy sector but i don't think it's tomorrow. so i do think that the integrateds are interesting but

a big rally. >> tim, from your point of view, you are trading it. great. always looking for that opportunity. for the long-term investor, this is probably not such a bad place to start to put some money to work and i think energy is a big story next year. >> yeah. that's fair. >> bullish story. >> yeah. bullish story. absolutely. >> tim? >> i was just going to say point 8, i think the drillers look even cheaper than the integrateds and that's a more speculative bet and refiners are probably the middle of the fairway. so yes. on the long-term basis, i don't think energy is a place that should be abandoned. in fact, i think you pick up great dividend yields here, as well. >> susan, a lot of decline is laid at the feet of china and the imports are coming down. do you expect imports to pick up in 2015? >> yeah. i'm glad you asked this question, bill. i was taking a look at the import and demand numbers. people forget that demand was up 2% this year in china.

yes, that's a slowest since 1990 but looking at the imports up 8.5% and a pretty strong number and because china is buying it for the reserve. i don't think the finger all pointed at china. ne next year this is a boon for the asia pacific and economies like south korea import every barrel they use. >> the supply argument has won out with the declining price in energy. when's it doing to the energy companies. can you buy b a buyer next year with earnings expected to be pummeled next year? >> i would agree with kenny and tim, a good opportunity to get in at a low base, value here next year. you're right, earnings will be pummeled and looking for energy down around 8%. sales to be down around 11%. so it's certainly going to be the weakest sector as far as earnings go but an opportunity. that's baked in. >> people are expecting that so i think some of this move has already happened and so if people think they get pummeled

more, be careful. may flip in your face and start taking them. >> right. >> tim seymour, you guys are talking about tesla later. what are you looking there? what a volatile stock, what a favorite that is among the mojo players here. >> it's not a favorite of mine but i was wrong for 150 on the way up. i just i look at this as a company that's a multiple what just doesn't make sense. obviously, treated as a technology company and there's competition here. i like the fact that tesla is starting to share their technology can w the rest of the sector and it's a fantastic company. it doesn't deserve to trade at 140 times earnings and i think this is a stock you're fading and names like this. gopro is another one. fantastic holiday season. we priced in this holiday season. what do you do next year? not a media company. not yet. these are the names we are looking at on "fast money." >> tesla is buying elon musk,

aren't you? a guy with vision, don't you think? >> i don't know. i buy a company and buy earnings multiples and the ability to deliver on the future. it's not about auto trproductio and people look at the numbers and meanwhile increase production by tenfold by 2020 and i don't think that's going to happen. >> kenny, the russell, a big story today and reached an intraday high. the russell closed at a high coming back more than 16.5% since we reached a bottom. there's buying back in small caps. >> i think it tels you a couple of things. catch up. the other indexes have started to outperform and the russell is underperforming when you look at the bigger picture. only up 2% or 3% last week or so. now they have rallied it up and they have bought some of that back but that goes to tim's point. next year, where are you going to look to take some munl out? some names well ahead of themselves and they're overpriced and so i would not to

expect see negative action in january and people kind of take some money out and then redeploy it into other sectors. >> by the way, susan, you know, we got introduced to alibaba this year in the huge ipo that came to the new york stock exchange. and, you know, people are wondering if the valuations can be justified. how do you guys view it over there? i mean, is that company as revered as, say, a google is over here or a facebook right now? >> yeah, absolutely, absolutely. you know, i think people look at the big pes and thinking, is this company justified at 40, 50 times earnings and look at the market dominance, 80% market share in china and an economy growing above 7%, that's expected next year and when you look at a place that has 1.3 billion, the consumer numbers going up and up and i think justified. >> very, very interesting. all right. stick around. we have a lot more to come here.

by the way, tim seymour, thank you. >> my pleasure, bill. >> you can catch him on "fast money" and talking to an analyst thinking tesla going to $400 a share and tim seymour's going to duke it out with him on that one apparently. that's coming up. with the recent decline of oil prices there's winners and losers in the middle east. >> but not just limited to the persian gulf region. >> scott cohn with a report on which state the economies are feeling the pain because of the decline in oil. and after the hubbub of hacks and threats of north korea, the controversial comedy "the interview" in theaters and online. we'll go live to a theater where the fill system performing to see how it's performing at the box office. tler, can you shut the shades? oh and could you turn on air conditioning i'm starting to sweat.

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oil prices slading again today trading half of where it was six months ago and you can imagine every state in the uss feeling the effects of that. but in widely different ways. >> yeah. so our scott cohn who puts together the america's top business states every year is in the state of california today. san jose to be exact. with a look at the winners and

losers. some of the numbers are fascinating, scott. >> reporter: yeah. it's very wide variety of impacts. s easy to forget that california is an oil state. one of the top five in the country. consumers centered so that the positive effects of low prices here and the pump, more money to drive to places like this will win out. not so in texas. texas is nation's largest oil producing state getting about 8% of state revenue from oil taxes and debate right now of whether texas can weather prolonged oil shock any better now than in the 1980s. in alaska, no question about it. they're already in a full-blown budget crisis. the state gets almost all of its tax revenue from the oil and gas industry so alaska now looking at a $3 ant .5 billion hole.

joining north dakota, oklahoma and new mexico. they have the most to lose. who wins? well, to some degree everybody else but mainly the states relying on sales taxes. if there's a big growth in consumer spending, you think they get a winfall, that would be washington state, nevada, florida, south dakota and tennessee. but the analysts that we have spoken to say that winfall hasn't come in and yet like everything else with the holiday season, waiting to see what the true effect of low oil prices will be. >> thanks very much. by the way, natural gas prices tumbled like 35% in a month. and let's see. today month gas on the new york mercantile exchange fell to the lowest levels since december of 2012. a lot of this, good news is because of warmer weather and natural gas is used for heating and northeast here. >> so we save on the heating bills, yeah. below $3. unbelievable. joining us is chad brownstein,

carl larry. carl, assuming this is an oversupply argument, oil, 40% declines for brent and wti crude oil. do we have more to go on the over supply coming to a correction on price, or has it bottomed? >> i think we are getting close to a bottom here. you're going to see some kind of a bottoming, not just in wti but brent more or less. oversupply and oil glut is out there in the rest of the world. not so much the u.s. we are seeing record-high demand here in the u.s. and following a global commodity price and that's kind of how it works so i think we have seen a bottom but i think the bounce is coming sooner than later. >> chad, it is widely believed saudis decided not to cut production. we talked about this after thanksgiving. trying to smoke out the shale oil producers in this country. how much pain is being felt in the heartland right now and how much longer can they take these lower prices, do you think?

>> well, bill, you and i were right about opec, right about the global margin call and right about the russia war premium. what is going on in the u.s. is that a lot of the offshore drillers are feeling most of the pain currently. their research costs $50 a barrel and the shale plays are $15 to $20. you know, when i started my first shale in 2008 in colorado, the search cost per barrel about ten bucks aenl not the people hurt the most. what the biggest worry in the market needs to be is shareholder activism. the oil companies immune from this because of their performance last five years. but what you're going to see in the market in 2015 is an immense amount of activists turning their guns toward the oil companies and see a lot of trouble for the oil operators, not necessarily in the field because they're hedged in 2015 but the activism is worst thing they face. >> want to bring in the panel here for some thoughts or some questions. >> activism, in what sense do you mean? do you mean activism in the

sense they want do get more aggressive? i think m&m space is tremendous next year. >> activism from the standpoint of the hedge funds coming after the publicos. looking at baker hughes and halliburton, they saw an opportunity to overthrow an entire board because they didn't have the ducks in a row and they were voted out annually. a mid small cap public oil company batten down the hatches. the sharks will circle and coming after you to consolidate, sell, certainly to change out management. it is going to be a banner year for the hedge funds in the activism space. >> i agree. >> do you agree, carl? >> yeah. you know what? i think it goes beyond that. i think some talk recently of small shale players in north dakota area. so you're going do see big oil taking a look at some of those small shale companies, especially the ones in the high-yield debt. they're going to attract a price here pretty soon if things keep

going this way. >> carl, chad, can you settle a debate for me? i just talked about china, still importing and demand is still positive this year. is this a demand side picture or a supply side issue with oil pricing right now? >> carl? >> you know what? it is not just demand thing. not just demand in asia but real loser here is europe. europe's had a really rough go with the economy lately but they're a huge refining country and not much to do with high priced brent and the u.s. is picking up a lot of that. exports for refined products at record highs and so you're seeing europe dragging down that oil price. >> carl, this should be a benefit in europe down 40%. oil. brent oil. right? >> refining, they don't have anywhere to spend their product. they can't gasoline here and u.s. is sending to latin america, africa. our refining margins are better on wti.

it's lower than present is. >> a viewer in oklahoma city. we have many times been marveling at what they're paying down there. and this latest one's the lowest price i have seen yet at $1.78. how much lower do you think prices go in 2015? are we near a bottom here? >> i'm in the northeast. will i pay $1 handle some point? i'm begging you. please say yes. >> close. but when we were on last time we talked about how there was no end in sight because the global margin call was occurring and now the price at the wellhead was even down to the mid 40s and delivering this oil to the distributor so the consumers will benefit greatly. you can see high dollar purchase price for gas. but you are seeing a bottom here in the mid-40s to 50s. second drop not a function of the supply demand. china's demanding as much as they were. those are affirmed by iae only

last month abe down a month over the summer. we had 43 straight months at $100 a barrel oil. functionally we get back to the mid 70s in my opinion. it's certainly a great time for the consumer today but don't make your eggs in one basket bet of the mid-40s to 50s. that's for sure. >> bill, according to aaa, 20,000 stations in the country have gas prices at the pump below $2. >> my local guy has been stuck at $2.39 for a couple weeks now. i think he is dragging his feet. >> where are you, jersey? >> yes, sir. >> dereek jeter district. >> yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. everybody, everybody's having fun with that. >> it's a compliment, bill. >> i know. thank you, chad and carl. trying to be humble. >> happy new year. >> see you later. may be the most talked about movie since the last "star wars" installment. >> no one will confuse "the

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sony's controversial comedy "the interview" opening officially around 300 independent theaters yesterday. >> and online, as sara will tell you. >> yes. >> did the buzz translate into box office success? we have kate rogers in new york city with details. kate? >> reporter: hey, bill and sara. looks like it did work out for sony. the movie company pulling in over $1 million on the christmas day opening of "the interview" all they have been through. we have to remember this is a very limited release as you said. it's only being shown in about 330 of the independent movie theaters like the one behind me

around the country and sony says that's about 10% of the full amount of theaters it was expected to be released in before this hack attack took place and a strong showing online. it was a top clip on youtube movies and google play and also streaming on xbox and playstation despite the c connectivity issues they had. $1 million mark great for sony but it looks like they have a long way to go to recoup the costs spent on "the interview" between marketing and production and a number of at least $100 million to break even. bill and sara, back over to you. >> thank you. before we move on, what did you think of the movie? >> if you're a seth 0 began fan or james franco fan, not critically acclaimed movie, it's hilarious and fulfilling patriotic duty. >> please. don't give me -- >> and free speech watching it. very funny.

i laughed out loud many times. >> have you seen crosby and hope movies? >> of course. this is great for them. they showed up. seth rogan and evan goldberg at a screening. >> kenny? >> i don't like that comedy and i might see it at home online. i won't go to a theater to see it. >> no. it is funny. >> all right. you sound like my daughter. she said the same thing. you have to qualify by saying if you're a seth rogan fan -- >> you do. >> i wouldn't let me parents see it. i'm glad i -- i watched it on youtube on christmas eve but i wouldn't say you'd sit down and depend on who your parents are. >> it was offensive watching in north korea which -- >> >> we need to move on, how do you think it would play elsewhere in asia? >> i have friends already that have streamed it. maybe some not legally. but i'm not going to out them

right now but, yes, it is getting a lot of play in the asia pacific. guarantee you. >> the press you can't beat. all right. you know when's interesting? while sony had that whole fiasco, xbox now back up and running. it has delays. >> the network still down after the group lizard squad claimed responsibility for hacking into both of those systems yesterday. this is the same group that took credit for playstation's breach back in august. let's talk about it more with joe loomis. thank you for joining us. will we see more of this in 2015? it occurred to me after these new hacks, is this a trend now? hackers breaking in and disrupting commerce in 2015? >> absolutely, bill. this is how the economy really runs now. the dependency of security and how important it is now i think the board level executives need to understand that this is game changing. your organization is going to be

impacted. you are going to be brought to your knees. everything is about incident response and if it takes a company two or three days to respond to a certain type of attack, it often makes it look like are they really prepared? how well orchestrated are they? are they practicing? running simulations? you know, to talk age-old analogy, my dad was a firefighter. how many times does a building have to catch fire before a fire department lernls to put out a fire properly? >> joe, who is lizard quad? what do they want and is there an indication it's related to sony releasing "the interview" online and playstation? >> there's no indication that the two are related but it does point out of how actual vulnerable these type of networks that we depend on for even our kid's sanity, can you imagine the parents that were affected by this on christmas morning? that's the problem is how vulnerable these environments are. there's companies like arbor networks with very snis kated

technologies and corporations like sony willing to buy and listen to the experts? that's the big question. >> you know, scc or -- yes. requiring banks to go through the stress tests to make sure that they, you know, can withstand whatever down the road. do you think -- rick santelli mentioned this the other day. do you think the scc requiring countries for a security stress test to make sure that they can -- i mean, when you think of the scope of the attack on sony, it was breath taking. 100 gigabytes stolen and took them down completely. there needs some proof that a company is ready for this, don't you think? >> i agree 100%. enron created sarbanes-oxley. this is the type of regulation that's required and need some penalty aside from just embarrassment and monetary losses to get the corporations to start stepping up. >> i think we have to leave it

there. i was just going to say, also, congressman mike rogers wrote about this to collaborate with congress coming the release of this kind of sensitive information. >> they have to do something. they have to do -- only going to get worse. joe, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. take care. >> see you later. so the question is, would you invest in somebody else's lawsuit? our next guest has a product to allow you to do just that but is it actually a good investment? we'll discuss that. some of the risks and want to know what you think. vote at cnbc.com/vote. that is straight ahead. would you invest in somebody else's lawsuit. bill, would you? >> i have questions for this guy coming up first, though. plus, this story of a fire destroyed his only production plant this past march but the head of a major pizza crust maker kept paying all of his employees until he got a facility up and running in a month. he'll be here to talk about that perseverance, under pressure. it's a great story of great

comeback story later. stay tuned. 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates.

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ah, big business has something new to worry about. it's something called litigation financing. it is a little bit like crowd

funding for lawsuits. kind of. i mean, in the past if there's a david versus goliath lawsuit, might never have gotten off the ground because the little company lacked the resources to pay for the lawsuit. well now, investors can step in and help finance those lawsuits and maybe bring home a big return as a result. >> so we're going to talk about this and we want to hear from you throughout. would you invest in someone else's lawsuit? go to cnbc.com/vote to weigh in. and joining us to discuss, jim batson. so you've been doing this for a while and internationally. talk us through how it works, how you decide which lawsuits are eligible for crowd funding. >> well, thank you, bill and sara. litigation funding is designed to help small and medium-sized companies and some individuals bring cases they couldn't have otherwise brought and so we have

to look at the valuation of the litigation, the strength of the claim and damages and host of factors s. the defendant able to satisfy the judgment? how good are the lawyers? what is the jurisdiction you're in? do you have a judge you think can give you the kind of return you're looking for? these are a number of factors. >> i have a million of questions. first off, the amount i can get back if i'm an investor is capped, though, isn't it? in some cases states cap what an investor gets back if the lawsuit gets damages back. right? >> well, it depends where you are and what you're talking about. there's -- the litigation funding market is pretty much segmented into two parts. there's commercial litigation funding which is what we practice and we're investing in disputes between companies, perhaps intellectual property disputes and then consumer litigation funding with a loan. our investments are non-recourse. if the case is unsuccessful, we get nothing. successful, we can get a

handsome return and it's a high risk, high reward proposition. there are some -- >> often the lawyers get so much of the money, with all due respect, where the plaintiff doesn't, you know. the person damaged. what about the investors? are they going to suck up the rest of the funds that are won in the case if it's won? >> well, if you look at the history, we have been around for 13 years and recovered about 1.5 billion in returns for our clients. 950 million propertily gone to the clients and 65% return to the plaintiffs themselves. certainly they're paying a high price for having funding but just like a contingency lawyer situation. you are able to stand through the litigation. you don't have to settle at a pennies on the dollar price because you couldn't otherwise afford it. >> i would think it's -- once in the lawsuit. >> you have that right. there's -- the path to success for ban tham is littered with

failures out there. you need a team, our team is all litigators. woe to people just laurels or corporate lawyers. there's a lot to litigation evaluation that's as much art as it is science and, you know, we have a lot of seasoned litigators to tackle that. look, it is high risk. >> yeah. kenny? >> i would also imagine it's an ill liquid investment. you don't like it, you can't get involved. involved a fund or litigation like that, you could be tooied up for years. >> that is exactly right, kenny. you nailed it. that's what creates the demand for us. because people that have great cases, a lot of times we fund a case on appeal. we had a roofing company won a great -- won a defamation claim against an insurance company and appealed and would last for a couple of years. they couldn't pursue the business while it was pending and the damage. we gave them $2 million and hire a top tier appellate law firm and focus on the new business.

you know? that's what we solved for. we are in for the long haul. of course, cases settle and we are happy when the result is quick but if it's got to go the distance, you know, that's our analysis. >> jim, talk to me about the international opportunities. so, you know, would your fund, i guess, help, i guess, finance a lawsuit that stem from the u.s. and go elsewhere like 1998 and australia europe suing for the financial crisis or fund lawsuits taking place in other international courts? >> oh, we do. we're a worldwide operation. i think as companies go, we are the largest litigation funder in terms of geographic scope. we began in australia. we have five offices. two in the u.s. and recently opened an office in the uk which services litigation in europe. yes, as you're well aware, obviously, there's litigation become cross border throughout. we do fund cases that cross borders, whether within the

european union or involving u.s. companies and european companies, what they call exit arbitrations without getting too technical here. >> we'll close the poll and might catch it at 50-50. caught. 53% of the viewers in the unscientific poll saying they would do this. very quickly, jim, is there a minimum to get in on this? how does that work? >> well, depends on where you're going. we look for cases where the investment's going to be $1 million. we have done some less than that. our target range is $1 million to $10 million. >> the individual investor to get or what? >> no. that's what we put in. the individual investor could invest, we're a publicly traded company on the australian stock exchange and hedge funds dabbling in the space. you want to be careful and go with someone experienced. >> be careful knowing what you're getting into. thank you. fascinating. >> thank you so much for having me. >> fascinating. >> happy new yore. >> and to you. >> if you received a holiday gift that didn't meet your

expectations, of course, returning it, the present, always an option. you have never done, right, bill? >> never happened. but it does depend on the store, too. sears with a less than giving return policy according to cnbc.com which lists six of the toughest retail earls for returning gifts. it is a popular story on cnbc.com. when we come back, see what else landed in today's hot list. and workers at rustic crust pizza could have been facing a not very her ris christmas with the destruction of the factory by a fire. no work usually means no pay. up next, we'll tell you how the company's ceo managed to save his business, employees and the holidays. we're back in a moment. people are gonna have apprehensions about going in

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a short time ago, bill, you remember we talked here about how the drop in oil's hurting some local economies, u.s. states. but there's a story on our website today about the pain being inflicted on saudi arabia. >> yeah. for that story and the other popular stories making today's hot list on cnbc.com we check in with the managing editor allen wastler. happy friday to you. >> happy friday to you both. basically an interview came out "squawk box" this morning with chris faulkner sayi ining he th the pain point is $40 a barrel and then see them start to press for changes in opec production. >> may it go there, please. >> so, number two is also an

energy story for us. written up by bertha coombs based on the conversations of nat gas traders and a lot of them seeing natural gas at $2 a btu instead of the $3 level we're at and then mentioned it in the tease, we have six, count them six, retailers with return policies that aren't so great. a lot of restocking fees. i hate those. you got to have the receipt even though it was a gift. do you have the gift receipt? all that. people are eating up that story. for some reason it's popular today. i don't know why. >> oh, people have returns. when's the worst? >> sears which you mentioned. >> yeah. >> okay? buy.com. american apparel. they have these strange categories of people into it and then keeping the other three secret and go to the website and check it out. >> good tease. >> shameless plug. >> take care, guys. flatbread pizza not part of the traditional holiday menu. mabel at kenny's house.

>> of course it is. he has a great recipe i'm sure for it. for a town in new hampshire, rustic pizza with a place in the heart of the town's people. a fire destroyed the company's factory in pittsfield in march and quick action saves the jobs and the company. >> we'll talk to the ceo about how $4 million loss, insurance red tape the competitive market could not shut him or his market down right after this. 24/7 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. there's a difference when you trade with fidelity. one you won't find anywhere else. one-second trade execution. guaranteed. did you see it? in one second, he made a trade, we looked for the best price, and the trade went through.

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story for employees of a new hampshire frozen pizza company, the holiday season just got a lot toastier after the factory was struck by fire and burned to the ground last march, the founder worked quickly to do whatever he could to get the company back on track and maintain normalcy for his employees, including continuing to pay his workers throughout the rebuild. >> those employees now getting ready to return to a new factory that will open in january. it's a good holiday story. joining us now, rustic crust founer. which was it like, you have

venture capitalists on the phone, retailers and you see what happens to your factory. take us through what that was like in that decision process. >> it was a little crazy in the beginning. we, you know, it was a real quick decision to really turn around and get the company turned around as quick as we could. originally, most people didn't think it would happen and it was really about keeping the jobs for the employees and bringing everything back to the community that we had built the company. all of our customers stood by us. all of our investors were right there with us as well. through the difficult time. >> amazing story and we applaud you, brad, for the fortitude you showed, but what was the motivation? the cynic would say well, you've got those venture capitalist instructors, was that the motivation to keep those things going? you didn't have to pay the

employees during this process? why do that? >> it was really about the employees. insurancewise, they could have -- that's where in the future, it was really kind of a -- we wouldn't have the employees. critical to the success of reopening and keeping the employees trained and ready to go as soon as we were ready. with a temporary building we built in less than a month. >> how much business do you do? what are your revenues and did you take a hit as a result of what happened? >> we, our revenues were for this year, nearing 30 million and we ended up losing probably 5 or $6 million because we were down just for really 30 days. we lost sales. so, about a month's worth of revenue. most, all of our customers just really stood by to help.

really mitigate that loss. it could have been so much more substantial had we gone another two, three, four weeks beyond what we went of not getting back on the shelf. >> so, now, you open the new factory next month. is it better? more high-tech? more room to grow for 2015? what's the outlook now? >> yeah, so the new plant will actually open. we just got our approvals last week. we were running some test products, but it is state-of-the-art. the equipment we put in place is designed for better quality, better capacity. it's obviously a little more fire resistant and more upgrades on that side of the business. it's really designed for flow, really to make the best possible product and along with the efficiently. >> one of our favorite stories. we really do wish you -- the best boss ever.

i'm sure they would both out there in new hampshire. thanks for joining us and continued success. >> thank you so much. i appreciate the time today. >> good story. >> rustic crust up in -- >> it's good, natural, organic pizza, too. >> and they're going to do gluten free. panel's thautss on another record market day coming up next. no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable.

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let's get some final thoughts on this day where we saw another record close for the dough. ninth weekly gain, christine, in ten weeks. been great looking ahead to earnings. >> great week, day, month, year for the markets and we see that continuing into 2015. right now, we're looking at a share of 128.50 for the s&p 500 and that factors into our price target of 2315. >> and the revenue growth? >> it's a tough spot. for the fourth quarter, we're only expecting 2% and then it increases to 3 to 4%, so that's still a weak spot. we're seeing a pop on earnings because of cost management and buybacks, but we're still looking for top line growth as well. but overall markets, we see up 10% by the enof 2015. gdp at 5%, that could be a bit

higher. >> susan lee, the u.s. view of asia is we look to you guys as a growth engine and everything, but things have been slowing down relatively speaking. reverse it. what's the asian view of the u.s. market? >> it's overvalued right now. have you looked to shanghai, we're up 3% this year and then in japan, you have this dash still into japanese assets. 31 basis points on ten-year yields yesterday. howry dick louse is that, right? and the nikkei, some say we could be looking at another -- >> how does the asian market, you think the u.s. markets overvalueded right now? >> that's what they're saying. there's better value elsewhere. why buy when you can get money elsewhere? >> final thought from you next week? we don't get a lot of economic data. >> and whatever you're going to bet, who's really going to pay attention to it. not a lot of people. no one's going to change or make a decision based on -- yet it is a full day on wednesday, which

is the last day of the year. unlike christmas eve. was a half a day. the 31st is a full day because it is the final trading day of the year. beyond that, i like for 2015 to be another good year. >> thanks very much, gang. susan lee, get over your jet lag, too, by the way. >> have a great weekend, everybody, and to you, bill. >> fast money begins right now. >> fast money starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site in new york's times square. i'm scott wapner and our traders -- tesla announcing an upgrade for its roadster model today. plus, an analyst who says the stock is going to 4$400. but first, our top story. christmas is over, but the santa claus rally mast