e doing with youtube. it's going to be good. >> there's a stock up 1% today. josh brown. >> on the verge of a breakout, the neck hack story does it. >> i'm going with europe. the wisdom tree etf. >> cisco. not the tech. the food distributor. >> power starts right now. "halftime" is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start now. >> buckle up folks. welcome to "power lunch." it's a busy friday for president obama. he wants to tax your 529 plan. new tacks on the way. potentially. he says only the wealthy are really making use of 529s. how about big news from big cap stocks? we've got news on mcdonald's, gm general electric and a miss from ups and a call from one significant investor hike the dividend on general motors. it's already pretty dog gone plump. who wants to take it higher and why? the weather -- snow ice,

yuck -- it is on the way. that means it's going to give us some trouble on the roads. we will have more on that in this busy hour. meanwhile, we start with a shot across the bow of american parents saving for college. sue, fill us in bl. >> that's indeed the case, and it is a big shocker for a lot of people out there. president obama proposing major changes to those 529 college savings plans. john harwood is in washington to explain why and get to him in just a moment. first we get to sharon eperson with some of the details on that. >> hi, sue. the changes are of interest of millions of families whose college savings strategy could be affected. the 529 plans, both college savings plans and prepaid tuition plans, have grown sharply in the past decade. there are over 12 million accounts in circulation with an estimated $240 billion in total assets at the end of last we're. that's according to strategic insight. now, about seven million families have 529 plans, and they find the most attractive

for this reason. the after tax money that you put into a 529 plan can be withdrawn tax-free to pay for tuition, room and board, and other qualified education expenses. and under obama's proposal it's this key benefit that will change. now, 529 plan money in the parents' name also has less impact on financial aid since it's assessed as a lower rate than a student's asset, and 529 plans have become an important financial planning tool because they help families earmark tax-free money specifically for paying for college and the earnings on that money in a 529 plan that are not used for college expenses could be taxed at your ordinary income rate and subject to a 10% penalty. but there is another tax-free option to pay for college, which can offer some families more flexibility, and it's a roth ira. ideally, this money should be put away for your retirement but many middle income families could make after tax contributions to a roth ira and

take that money out tax-free at any time to pay for college or anything else for that matter if they need to. earnings in a roth ira can also be withdrawn for college expenses without paying a penalty. families with incomes too high to contribute to a roth ira can also convert traditional ira money into a roth account and then use that money to pay for college expenses as long as they follow irs guidelines. these are three options people may consider if this proposal goes through, sue. >> thank you very much. now to john harwood in washington on why exactly the president wants to do this. over to you, john. >> sue, if you want to change the distribution of income in this country, you've got to take from some to give to the other, and that's precisely what the president wants to do. middle class families median income families have stagnated for a long time for decades in this country, while people at the top have done much better. the administration is trying an across the board attempt to change that, and what he is doing on 529s or proposing on 529s is part of that.

let's look at the 529 part. redistribution obama style. what he would do would be to say that the capital gains that you realize on those deposits to your 529s would be taxed when you bring them out. now, the administration says that surveys have shown that 70% of the deposits in 529 accounts are held by families with incomes of $200,000 a year or more. people in higher tax brackets benefit more from those tax deductions. now, on the flip side the president is going to increase benefits, college benefits for a lot more families a lot more than he is taking away on 529s. he would increase the american opportunity tax credit by expanding it -- eligibility to more families. the eligibility for the american opportunity tax credit which started in 2009 is capped at $180,000. you can see very clearly the theory is that you are taking from families who make more than $200,000 a year and

redistributing some benefits to families that make $180,000 or less. that's the theory behind it. but because families with high incomes have a lot more influence than families with low incomes, it is not likely that this is going to pass guys. >> all right, john. thank you very much. why don't we just make the tax codeine more complicated, right? that's what this would do john right? >> it would make it more complicated, and that's one of the -- if we don't have comprehensive tax reform that reduces rates and broadens the tax base you are going to find government increasingly and this has been true for a long time looking to provide new benefits to people by carving up pieces of the tax code in order to benefit particular groups. we do that in all sorts of ways. homeownership is advantaged over rent, for example, because of the home mortgage deduction. the same is true of many many business tax breaks. it's why the business tax reform debate tends to get logged up because sectors and businesses that would benefit from lower

rates are pitted against those that would lose the loophole that is they benefit from so this is why redistribution is the most difficult thing to do in politics. the obama administration is making a push in any case, and we'll see how far they get. >> john harwood reporting. thanks very much. meantime, let's hit the markets and show you what the dow and the s&p, and the russell are doing right now. there you see the dow industrials down 37. the s&p off two. nasdaq, though moving up by about a quarter of a percent at $47.63, and small caps up about, oh, .003%. euro weakening down 10% versus the dollar in the past two months. that is, of course a big story. big news from the big caps today, though. jane is working on mcdonald's, but first let's go to dominik who has been working on ups and ge. as you say, the big cap rap is on the lunch menu. >> the big cap wrap. these are a couple of hefty

things to put inside of a wrap. ge for sure today. the shares are rising in this kind of a market right now. the company did beat on its earnings. came in a little bit light on sales here. here's the storyline that's driving the g e-trade. the industrial length was good for them. think jet engines, power turbines, that sort of thing, but the oil and gas out of their business is to be expected given oil prices. its pe ratio is 3.9%. rather, that's their dividend yield. that's not the pe ratio. the dividend yield is 3.9%. that's why we'll highlight it. dividend yeeltdz are a big part of the ge story here. moving on to another piece of information here with what's happened with ups, lowering its profit guidance. they didn't report earnings. they're just warning right now profit guidance is going to be weaker because of higher than expected peak related expenses. it's at least dividend pay-out ratio. its dividend yield 3.4%. tyler, a couple of big names with regard to their stories. >> thanks very much dom.

>> julia now, los angeles, market flash. >> tyler, pandora soaring on a report from oti global finding u.s. ad agencies plan to significantly boost pandora ad spending this year. otr reporting that fourth quarter local ad spending rose 90%. the stock was also upgraded to buy at rosenblatt securities, and the company announced this morning it's partnering with jack black's live stream his madison square garden show. shares of pandora now up nearly 9%. tyler. >> julia, thank you very much. mcdonald's a real dow lagard today. jane wells was on the post-earnings conference call, and she is also in los angeles. hi, jane. >> hey, ty. here's are the take-aways from the call. it's going to spend less opening new stores and put that money into creating a better experience, develop digital engagement like mobile ordering a new store experience talking about the quality of food localizing foods and things like this. create your taste, which is done

well in australia and will expand in the u.s. this year. you will customize your burger but margins will remain under pressure as beef prices are rising higher than menu prices. while u.s. comp store sales finally turned positive in december japan is a mess in terms of consumer percent acceptings. it's going take a while. while comp store sales in china are improving, it will take three to six months to normalize, and globally that means overall january comp store sales that will be negative. sue. >> jane thank you very much. to the markets now where are the large caps your best bet? mare ann is with us. bank of america, merrill lynch. she's with me here on the floor of the nyse. jeremy is head of u.s. equity strategy at ubs wealth management. welcome to both of you. nice to have you on power lunch today. mary ann, we'll start with you. we got the ecb decision. that's behind us. that kind of clears the air a little bit for this market. where would you put money to work in the big cap stocks? >> we do make large cap, and

specifically quality companies. the sector that we're still finding a lot of value and we're finding yield is in the tech space. we still like technology. we also like the industrial space. within industrials, i mean within technology we like the semiconductors within the industrial space we like the transport. >> jeremy what about you? how would you play this market? would you go to the smaller cap and the midcaps or would you stick with large caps? >> we think the environment for large caps is fine. we fuel actually think the environment for small and midcaps is even better. i'm looking for mid to high single digit returns for 2015. i think that we're overweight small and mid. largely because we think that the nestic economy is really gaining momentum and much of the earnings headwinds for the large caps you know the decline in oil prices and the energy sector contribution to earnings and the strong dollar which is going to hurt some of the multi-nationals, they don't really apply to small and mid caps because they have much less exposure to the energy sector and they get most of their revenues here in the united

states. we think -- >> go ahead. >> go ahead. >> finish your thought. >> we favor the small and mid because largely we think that the divergence that we've seen in economic growth rates between the u.s. and other developed market economies is likely to continue this year. >> and mary ann, if youmented to put a little defensive protection in your portfolio, how would you do it? >> our favorite defensive sector, sue, is health care and obviously we have a longevity theme. we have baby boomers. they are going to need medication. they're going to need body parts. you get that from pharmaceuticals, and you get the yields. you need the innovation, which you get from the biotechs. what's very interesting in this market with interest rates at the long end of the curve, the best improved sectors actually is utilities. we are of the view that rates are going to stay lower for longer, many of our clients are still seeking income. we still believe that clients will be looking for yield within the marketplace. >> okay. jeremy, you get the last word. if you wanted to put a defensive component to work with money right now, how would you do it?

>> i think you were looking for yield. you want to focus on the dividend growth stocks over the high dividend yield stocks. despite the fact that rates may stay lower for longer, a 1 -- i think it's hire, and that's likely to be a head wind for some of the utilities, and other high dividend yield stocks. you can find a lot of dividend growth stocks in industrials and consumer staples and even in technology these days that offer very attractive prospects going forward. >> thank you both. mary ann, jeremy pleasure to have you here. >> thanks. >> for more on their scenarios, check out jeremy and mary ann's s&p 500 targets. go to power lunch.cnbc.com now to find out. they both say this is the number to watch, so once again, go to cnbc -- go to power lunch.cnbc.com. back up to you, ty. >> all right, sue. thank you very much. saudi arabia's king abdullah dead now at age 90 dying yesterday leaving his 79d-year-old brother king solomon to the throne. some reports say it's believed that he king solomon, suffers from alzheimer's. he is already facing a number of

challenges in the region. not limited to but certainly including isis yemen, iran, and falling oil prices. already overnight in yemen explosions targeting saudi rival shiite houti leaders. their offensive forced the u.s.-backed yemeni president out this week. the prince on cnbc this morning saying clearly -- they're facing major turmoil. ambassador ed walker served at several posts in the middle east, including saudi arabia. ambassador welcome. good to have you with us. what can you tell us about the new king of saudi arabia and specifically about these reports that he may be suffering from some stage of alzheimer's or early dementia? >> well he has been reported to be in failing health and he certainly has the age to back

that up. i don't know personally, and i don't know that anybody really knows what his mental state is at this point. some people must know. you can be sure the saudis aren't going to advertise that. you know they've had a long time to prepare for this transition, and they've done a very smooth job. i think it's impressive what they've done, and solomon, when i knew him, was a very bright guy, and had a good sense of where he wanted to see the country go. but it's not just ahmad. it's a corporate structure there, and i don't see any real reason for massive change. >> america's position with respect to the arab spring uprisings in other countries. oil, not going to change saudi

arabia's position on oil at all. >> no. i see no reason for them to change at this point. they're doing what they said they wanted to do. they're trying to drive down the competition, and that's happening around auz look at the pumps that have been done lately. why should they change at this point? they've got the funds to sustain their position for some time. can this change at all? >> ambassador.

>> -- does any of that change with the new king? >> i don't think it will change. you won't see any major changes in the saudi foreign policy for at least a year. they have no particular interest in seeing change at this point. >> stay with us ambassador. they're going to participate with us in this next discussion about a developing story that we want to get to now involving two japanese hostages being held by isis in syria. the ambassador chris voss joins us. he was the lead kidnapping negotiator for years and

ambassador walker is staying on for the conversation as well. chris, let me start with you. the u.s. has a policy of not paying ransom for hostages but there are a number of large countries around the world that do pay ransom correct? >>. >> that's a significant part of the problem. >> in what way? >> well they open up their bank vaults. they have deep pockets, and what really feeds this is countries like france and other countries that western european countries have paid very large amounts for ransom very quickly, and it acts as a drug for these groups and they become addicted to it and they love it. >> yes. it incentivizes them in other words, to continue kidnapping because that's -- they can finance it. >> well yeah. large payments large prices on anything, and they're trying to drive the market price up themselves by throwing out this high number. it's a bargaining game for them and here in the commodities business, unfortunately. >> ambassador, weigh in on that.

do you think the u.s. should stand alone the way it is now, and continue to refuse to pay ransom, or is there some back way that they could negotiate with isis and other terrorist groups? >> i don't believe there's a back way that you can negotiate with these people. i don't believe that there is any justification for paying these large ransoms. it only sustains these organizations which are not to our interests and i would say to the european interests as well. for sure to saudi interests. ransoms are a dead end. >> chris, let me ask you this, though. why do think they should be allowed do that and then ty -- >> you can't ask -- you can't ask a family to abandon their loved ones. they're going to have to do whatever they can to get their

loved ones out, and the government shouldn't abandon them. government should support them in that effort. i mean the multiple dimensions to this, and ransom is only one aspect, and the money is only one commodity that isis is after. isis is clearly after the p.r. these videos are effectively commercials for them. it gets them tremendous amount of attention that they couldn't otherwise buy. you have to look at this as sort of a much more three-dimensional process and understand there are different approaches to it and different ways to make it work against them and make this turn this problem off. >> chris voss thank you very much. ambassador walker thank you for your insights. we appreciate your time today. well folks, brace yourself. some rough weather is on the way across much of the eastern part of the country. cold, snow ice. going to be a rough weekend. shares of gm down 5% in the past two weeks. a rough couple of weeks there. one big investor has had enough, and he wants a major dividend bump.

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>> welcome back to power lunch. aqua financial are down 24%. it's mother moving that blue mountain capital manager a haej fund is shorting the stock. acwen has been in hot water with new york and california state regulators. ocwen declined to comment on this particular news story. the stock is down over 75% in

the last two months. to the weather now. a winter storm is brewing up trouble for the east coast this weekend. here's the weather channel's tom nizzle with the story. >> the winter storm iola is going to put down a lot of precipitation for the eastern seaboard. the question is going to be how much snow? we have limited cold air to work with. although the system moves up the coast, it is only going to put down a narrow swath of snowfall. let's take a look and see how this plays out. overnight tonight a wintery mix developed from nashville going up in through virginia. overnight it turns into snow from pittsburgh to philly and new york. as we get into the morning hours tomorrow philly and new york you're likely going to change over to rain along with washington d.c. a narrow band of heavier snow from just northwest new york going to just northwest of boston into places like western mass and western connecticut. the system moves out very rapidly towards the canadian maritimes by tomorrow night. before it's all over right now our forecast is calling for an area that extends from southeastern p.a. through

southeastern new york and then to western mass and western connecticut where as much as five to eight inches of snow will fall. stay tuned because coming up monday we got a second system that will impact the mid-atlantic. we'll send it back to you. >> oh gosh. thanks. just wait until monday. general motors keeps its first quarter dividend unchanged at 30 cents per share, but does the automaker have too much capital on its balance sheet? phil lebeau is in chicago. over to you, phil. >> sue kyle bass thinks so and we'll haef from kyle bass in the past whether it's with general motors or some other company. when he thinks there should be a dividend hike sent shy about doing that. this morning in davos, he said why gm should double its dividend we talked with those on ""squawk box"." >> they could literally double their dividend if they pay another $1.6 billion. it would add another $1 to a current dividend on $1.30. i think if gm if she's really going to be shareholder focused, i think you could see a

different capital indication policy by the company in which it would be kind of an easy thing to do. >> the she he is referring to is ceo mary barham. we'll hear from her in a second. take a look in the third quarter. they have $26 billion in cash on hand. a credit revolver of another $10 billion. basically $36 billion free cash flow for all of 2014. it's going to be $5 billion to $6 billion. might be higher than that. the dividend 30 cents a share works out to $1.9 billion annually. the question becomes why doesn't gm hike its dividend? well, keep in mind this is a company that when it went into bankruptcy and then when they came out they said we will have a fortress balance sheet. we will have more cash on hand. we will not get into the same position we got into as we slid into bankruptcy. they will be increasing the capital spending this year. hiking it up to $9 billion and adding another $1.5 billion in terms of the amount of money it's investing in the company, and, remember, they still have the doj investigation out there

for the airbags situation as well as a uaw contract. you can bet that the uaw will be expecting a hike of some sort in terms of compensation for its workers. this morning becky quick talked with mary in davos, and the question of the difr denned came up. this is what she had to say. >> our activision for the company is to make sure we become the most valued company, which is providing value to our owners, our investors. we remain on that path. we want to look to have the right reinvestment so we have a long-term strategy but definitely plan to return excess earnings to our shareholders over the long-term, and that's what we're intent on working on. >> so as you take a look at shares of general motors the question comes up well how does gm's dividend yield compare with other companies? quite nicely it turns out. the dif depped yield for general motors 3.55%. now, you compare that with ford at 3.99%, but then compare it with the s&p 500, tyler and sue.

the average for those companies in the s&p 500 that actually pay a dividend, the average yield is 2.21%. there are some people looking saying, sure kyle bass you have 400 million shares. who wouldn't love it if the dividend was doubled because you are certainly going to make a lot more money. about another $500 million in terms of a dividend pay-out. i don't think gm is going to be changing its dividend any time soon. >> phil thank you very much. phil lebeau reporting. this week's greek elections have the world watching so will the country be forced out of the euro zone or choose to leave it? let's go live to athens and our chief international correspondent. michelle ka russo cabrera. michelle. >> people are asking because the poll numbers get better every single day, tyler, for alexis the radical leftist leader who says he really wants to have a showdown about the bail-out program for greece. i spoke with him earlier today, and he is trying to assure the world that investors will be safe here and that there will be stability in greece. i suspect after sunday we're going to find out whether or not he is right.

in the meantime, we have here with us another candidate for office here in greece. joining us right now is harry theo-layer is. he is the former chief tax collect over of greece. you are running for parliament. i can't think of anybody more unpopular in greece than the tax collector. why on earth -- the former tax collector. why on earth are you running for office, and do you have a hands chance? >> i guess i do since talking to many people here in greece during my campaign as i have as you can imagine. many people have seen the kind of progress we've made with the tax collection. they actually appreciate the kind of work that we did. >> the imf report that i read most recently says there's still too much political intervention into the tax collection office. did you experience that while you were there? >> well we experienced pressure that we could fend off so there was no real issues. when we decided that it was

getting very difficult to actually defend our position in putting as a first priority our effectiveness, then we decided to resign. >> you decided to resign because of it? are the greeks finally paying their taxes? >> we've made great strides in insuring the efficiency of the tax collection. there's a great difference since a few years back. however, there's a lot more to be done. that's for sure. >> like what? >> like focussing our efforts more on the high worth individuals, the self-employed that earn a lot, that perhaps declare much less. >> thank you so much for joining us. we'll see you on monday. the former tax collector, does he get into the greek parliament? guys, back to you. >> thank you so much. a lot of activity in the metals complex. let's take a look at the gold market which is closing right now. dpoeld is now down about $8 on the trading session at $1292.80.

just hitting a new five and a half year low. it's now down better than 3%. we have a 1% loss than the mraut numb market as well. a little balance in paladium. >> its recovery struggling to maintain its momentum amid expectations of a pick-up this year. we got the newest data next. plus, shares of ups and fedex taking a big hit. look at the red numbers there. especially for ups. what's behind the big moves lower? power lunch has the latest read on the dragging transports. ira. yes! so no set up fees! wooh! yeah! so i get help from rollover consultants? wooh! yes! no rollover hassle. great. woah oh, we're spiking things, robbie. for all the confidence you need. that's better! td ameritrade. you got this.

welcome back to power lunch. december existing home sales missing expectations by 2.4% of the month. the bigger disappointment, the totals for 2014. sales came in under the five million mark. a drop from 2013 and the first annual drop since 2010. that was the hangover from the home buyer tax credit. prices are accelerating as well which is not good for potential spring buyers. december's median price up 6% annual. that's due to very short supply. inventory fell from a year ago in december. the first fall from the year in almost a year and a half. that's the national picture for your local market go to our newly updated realty check map. now, heading to dominik chu for a market flash. dom. >> we're watching shares of kimberly clear. it gave a disappointing outlook for the full year of 2015 citing a stronger dollar and weaker demand for its core

products like kleenex tissues and huggies diapers in north america specifically. the stock, you can see, down by 5.5%, tyler today. back to you. >> thank you very much. cloud storage company box going public today. the stock up 70% after pricing at $14 a share. go pro teaming up with the national hockey league. the partnership will let fans watch hockey live from the players' perspective. that sounds cool. expedia traveling travelocity. expedia, as you see there, trading higher by $2.44, and the saber corp., the parent of travelocity, up by a dime. a developing story now. cnbc special correspondent scott gets word from bernie madoff in prison. scott. >> tyler, it's the first time in about a year that we've heard from bernie madoff and it comes as federal authorities finally wrap up their six-year investigation of the epic fraud. in the series of emails he takes pains to defend his dead

sons, mark and andrew madoff. "as difficult as it is to live with the pain i have inflict odd so many there is nothing to compare to the pain that i endure with the loss of my sons mark and andy. the fact that i was trying to protect my family by sheltering them from any knowledge or involvement in my wrong doing still fails to allow me to forgive myself. essentially, madoff still claims that he acted alone despite the fact that 15 people have been convicted in a major bank jp morgan chase has paid billions in penalties. his latest explanation is he led everybody to believe the fictitious trades were carried out on a platform known as primex because the sec was well aware of how primex worked and the global regional capability to execute the trades with any link in the system. this explanation made perfect sense to them but, of course the explanation was a complete fiction. bernie madoff is 76 years old serving a 150 year prison term in butnor california as a

federal prison. back to you. >> scott i'll take it actually. thank you. thanks for that great reporting. to the bond market now. rick santelli is tracking the action for us in chicago at the cme. over to you, rick. >> hi sue. we are somewhat treading water here as you see on this two-day chart. you see the right side. very comfortable here at 1.82, and that's down a basis point and a half on the week. a year-to-date chart reveals we're not looking so great just from a purely technical standpoint, and keep in mind we're down 35 basis points for the year. right where we sit. exactly one year ago if you looked at the first seven weeks of the year the pattern is almost identical and at that point last year we're down close to 30 basis points. let's look at the 24-hour boon. as we remain unchanged, they're down nine basis points hovering at the lowest yield at 36. a 20-year chart versus the dollar as we sit in the 112 handle. be careful. that big move from 83 to 160 you see on your chart, the

retracement of that is right about where the euro sits now. sue, back to you. have a great weekend. >> you too, rick. have a good one. all right, the transmits performing strong in 2014 but they're leading the losses this month. also down today by 1.5%. morgan brennan is following the shippers for us. hi morgan. >> hey, sue. well take a look at ups. it successfully delivered packages this holiday season but now it's not delivering for investors. stocks down 9% almost 10% today. that story when power lunch returns.

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shares up after they upgrade the fitness apparel from overweight to a neutral rating. it raised the price target to $57 a hair from $50. management has laid the foundation for sustainable growth. the stock is up about 60% over the past quarter. sue, back to you. well lou lou lemon may be on the upside but stocks overall are under pressure. you can see we're in the red with the dow jones industrial average. not by a lot, but a little and the s&p is down.

>> it's hurtinging parts of the stock market. i want to show you steel stocks. when the ecb comes out and says we want to do a quantity takive easing program, our goal is to cheapen the euro. what does a weak euro mean? it means steel prices dropped. it means price wars in the steel business. look what's going on with some of the steel stocks today. u.s. steel arcelo olympic steel all down. it's also true in other commodities as well. you get the same price wars and battle that is can go on. vale iron ore company. aluminum has held up a little better. even things like fertilizer companies can be hit by these kinds of currency wars.

this is a good example of how currency affecting things. energy companies are mixed, but watch how oil is sitting right near the multi-year lows we saw last week. we closed at $45.89. last week was our low. if it drops significantly below that, you'll start seeing pressure on some of the oil stocks. chevron and exxon maybe costing 20 points on the dow. >> bob, thank you very much. back up to you. for the first time since back in november of 2003. what a week or really a couple of weeks it's been for currencies. >> how about the last 24 hours? >> this is absolutely stunning. the euro getting clobbered. how much? tyler is talking about the size and speed of the move. that's what's catching a lot of traders and countries off guard. it has fallen 3% since the announcement from the ecb at qe yesterday morning. it's fallen 17% in the last seven months. that type of move is extreme. it's unusual. it's being felt across the

globe. the u.s. for one, on the other side of the trade, doesn't seem to mind the strong dollar even though it does cut into foreign profits at american companies. >> i expects the u.s. if the euro drops below parody one to one with the dollar, and now that the market is impressed with the size of drogi qe and the openended nature of it they can get to the one to one level very quickly. morgan stanley just cut its year-end forecast to 105, tyler, from 112. the euro is going down. >> amazing. sarah, thank you very much. on to ups. ups dragging the transports lower this hour. the parcel delivery giant down

10%. morgan brennan taking a look at what's behind it, and if i'm not mistaken, they even mention currency issues. >> they did mention some currency issues. you know ups not delivering good news for investors today. bad news. /ing fourth quarter earnings forecast. the problem here? ups spent a lot of money to successfully deliver packages on time and avoid a repeat of christmas 2013 but it took a big hit to the bottom line to do so. the company said the added capacity was necessary to handle the "extreme spike in package volume on its two busiest days." demand was disappointing on others. also, that was affected by the west coast port delays. here's where it gets worse. ups is also cutting its full year 2015 guidance. thanks to pension costs and thanks to those currency head winds. all of this pushed shares down 9% almost 10% lower today for ups, but it doesn't stop there. rival fedex is falling 2% in sympathy as well. that's despite reaffirming its own fiscal 2015 outlook later

today, earlier in the morning after ups's announcement. the question now, if ups experienced slower volumes, where did that market share go in well abendale partners thinks fedex will be the clear winner continuing a trend that's already been playing out and actually that's a trend you can see in the stocks over the past 12 months. fedex up 26% verz ups's 6% gain. also, tyler, don't rule out the postal service either because the usps surpassed its own package volume forecasts this holiday season, and set a new record. >> fantastic. thanks very much. interesting days for the transports. sue, down to you. >> follow-up on a big story we brought you earlier this week. traders making big bets that the s&p would drop this week. it's only really gone up. what now? it's down just a fraction. we'll talk about that in a minute.

going back to power lunch.

val aeroup% in the trade. the company is raising its quarterly dividend by 45% to 40 cents a share. $1.60 a year. sarlgt those shares moving higher. 3.5%, sue. back to you. we're tracking big bets made by traders against the s&p. one strike price is $1.95 on the spy. another $1.93. expiration? 4:00 p.m. the close today. right now the spy, the last trade, let's bring it up. it's trading at $2 $206.02. >> i view it as how people are interpreting different things that are happening, and the situation with the ecb, possibly will much lesser to an extent greek elections because there was some other stuff for next

friday as well but mostly it was the european thing. and i think it's interesting for them to think there was such a huge deal. i personally think it's kind of wasting money. if did you that 20 times a year to protect your billion dollar portfolio, you would be underperforming. to think that it would move 4% to of% in one day seemed a lot to me. >> and what do you i think, jeff? >> well, i'm going to push back a little bit, sue. i mean, this is portfolio protection. this should illuminate the conversation. at this point in time we need to protect our portfolio. let's say mark cuban made this bet. there's $1 billion. he risked to the up side. >> you have protection. >> in the event the eb did this this is a hedge. this is an insurance policy which someone like affluent investor wants to have or an institution wants to have going into that binary outcome. >> okay. the 529 story that perhaps there's going to be a change in the tax structure of those instruments. jim, you weigh in and then quickly you, jeff as well. >> if you asked any economist whether he was left-leaning or

right-leaning, if you want to discourage a certain behavior, would you tax it. if you are going to tax saving money for college, that seems like political suicide, and that's probably the reason he didn't bring it up in the state of the union address. i think it has very little chance passing if it did. the market reaction might be it will be a consumer drag and that people might front load those before the deadline. >> shame on you, potus. >> ty up to you. what do think of president obama's plan to tax some college savings accounts, those 529s, at least new ones for certain taxpayers? new deposits chas. go to finance.yahoo.com. we will have results after the break. plus, this kid is getting a great education in business. meet harlem's teen sneaker phenom, and it's got jayze sxe beyonce lining up for his shoes.

t started. visit us today for legal help you can count on to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. hi. pete and jon najarian here in new york city outside of the nasdaq, where we bring you live daily market updates. and today, we have a very special free gift for you. so many viewers e-mail us wanting to know our secrets on how we trade options. so we put our secrets into a new book. and if you're one of the first 250 people to call in right now and just cover shipping and handling we'll send you a copy for free. look at the rate of return we've made on some of our recent options trades versus what we would have made had we just bought the stock. there's no comparison. to make the best returns in today's market, you have to learn how to trade options. and our book will show you how to do it for free. jon has been trading options for more than 30 years. pete is one of the top 100 traders in the country. and our book will teach you how to trade options for free. so call now. [ male announcer ] call the number

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raymond james analyst upgrading the stock for a strong buy and setting a $280 per share price target. those shares up by you can see,

4.5%. back over to you sue. >> thanks dom. in this hour of power pandora soaring after otr global reports u.s. and -- u.s. ad agencies plan to significantly boost spending with the internet radio company. ocwen financial sliding after blue mountain capital management is shorting that stock and the euro dropping below 112 for the first time since november of 2003. if you missed any of the big stories in this past hour of "power" go to visit our website at powerlunch.cnbc.com. ty. yahoo finance question of the day. president obama proposing to tax some 529 college savings plans. what's your take? 10% of you support taxing the plans. 18% depends on the income group. 72% believe the plans should be left as they are, tax-free for all. who said the entrepreneurial spirit is dead? meet harlem's 16-year-old phenom who is making a ton of money out of sneakers but, first, let's check in with mandy and see what's coming up on "street

signs." >> hey, this ty and sue. coming up, we have the saudi prince who earlier on cnbc today saying oil will never be back at $100 a barrel but we have on legendary oil man t. boone higgins, and we'll see what he has to say. what it means to you, and as we do every single friday we're going share our stand-out stocks of the week. it's all coming up top of the hour. make sure you join us. "power lunch" returns after this quick break.

zishgs this is a great entrepreneurial story. one young teen making a story with sneakers. like a lot of teenagers chase reid likes to collect cool clothes and shoes. >> this is one of the biggest sneaker bases to me. >> he amassed $30,000 worth of basketball sneakers. last year he sold his entire collection to open up the world's first sneaker pawn shop sneaker pawn usa in harlem. >> it was hard to let go of the collection because you're 14 years old, 200 pairs of sneakers, and now all of a sudden you have to go back to zero. it was like well this is not really fair. this can't be life. that's what i was looking at it as until i got older. i'm, like all right, it was

really worth it. it was just part of becoming a wrung man and a business aunt entrepreneur. >> his dad, troy also his business partner, says the store posts sneakers on instagram and receives hundreds of customers and calls daily. >> this is the new stock market. the markup on these sneakers is anywhere from 100% to 800%. >> with idols like bill gates, steve jobs, and jayzee chase has wig plans for the future hoping to open up more stores around the country. >> if i do get a nice shoe in the store, i'll sell it rather than collect it. i'm a businessman now. >> and, tyler, if there's any doubts tooz whether or not chase is actually on to something, the basketball sneaker industry projected to hit $4.7 billion in the u.s. alone this year. >> that is fantastic. some are used. some are previously owned but still in a box. >> people take really good care of these sneakers. amazingly so. >> thank you very much. sue, at the end of a very busy week, looks like nasdaq is

higher, but the industrials struggle. >> that's right. they're slipping a little bit. we'll see what it looks like going into the close. have a great weekend. thank you for joining us on "power lunch." that does it for this edition. >> "street signs" begins right now. if you want to buy a vowel for today's show that vowel should be the letter e. hello, everybody. happy friday. your big stories of the day all beginning with the letter e. we're going to hit those for you in moments. plus, boonepickens with his -- if he is sticking by his $100 a barrel oil call. why housing may be starting to slow, but, mandy, wow, tech stocks, pretty strong. >> yeah they really did. this week really belonged to the techs. the nasdaq is up for the fifth straight day, and it's definitely its best week in three mo