the head of municipal strategy and research joins us in the investment impact of a possible downgrade. lori: the do nothing congress might be ready to do something. former senator scott brown on the budget deal in washington ahead of today's all-important vote. adam: retailers seeing a nice rise in november sales, biggest jump in six months. retail winners and losers to watch with 13 shopping days to go until christmas. cheryl: the dow is down 100 points off of 117 of the lows of the session, before the stock exchange for a look at the session. >> dow jones industrial average has been down all day down 118 points, down for the week, right now weight-loss of 3-quarters of 1%, the s&p down 1/2%, to kevin nasdaq lower by 6 points, the vix, the index has jumped to 16

level, we are watching the vix very closely. budget deal stocks as well as economic news. a mix to retail sales a little better and joblessness continues to show a weak economy and weak job numbers. let's look at lulu lemon which was a darling for a long time under pressure, a 11%, going to have a new ceo but today's news is about the fact that their expectations for sales and trends will be lower. traffic, hard to get products to the stores and quality issues we reported on as well. dennis: the friendly skies may be less friendly. regulators getting set to vote on whether americans can have their say on the issue of being able to make cellphone calls during a flight. rich edson live from reagan national airport with more. can you hear me now?

rich: i can and thank goodness we are not on a cellphone. if we are 25,000 feet from now and we are on our cellphones we can have that conversation at least if the fcc continues to move forward, the fcc will vote to continue considering whether or not americans should be able to use cellphones on flights. as for folks that reagan national airport washington d.c. passengers are split. >> i like the peace and quiet on a plane, like to be able to work or read and i would prefer that other people not be talking around me. >> what difference would it make? i don't see a problem with it. >> nationally she is on the losing side. 59% say they don't want anyone to talk on their cellphones or have the ability to do so on a flight, 30% say why not. as for why the fcc is doing

this, they say this is the technical aspect of all this and they are just allowing the airlines to install the equipment if they so desire and the fcc chairman supports it. >> where there is new on board technology that eliminates that potential for interference there is no need for an interference rule. this is the responsible thing to do. >> also says he doesn't look forward to the thought of sitting next to someone on their cellphone even if the fcc approved this, the airlines would have to say ok and install the equipment. the f a a would have to decide it doesn't impose a safety risk and congress wouldn't have to get involved. it there is a billing congress that would make this illegal. adam: the white done is for loading and unloading only. lori: it is sure getting a lot of reaction. let's bring the topic to our

next guest who believes talking on the phone has become a nasty bogeyman everyone is a necessarily afraid of. joining us to overcome our fear is, this lurking monster is boy group international president, you are not a lurking monster, you say this legislation might -- seems to be just that. i will let you pick up from here. >> congress have legislation on this they should be ashamed of themselves with everything going on worrying about cellphones on an airplane is reprehensible. these guys need to get a job. i think we all talk to each other on airplanes, if someone wants to use a cellphone on an airplane, fine. normally if we use a normal tone is not going to be anything difference though it is one of those things everyone knows. it will be awful. i am not sure it is. won't have airlines jumped at this. they say we want your quiet and won't install the equipment.

lori: people who'd traveled coach, ride commuter rail on regular basis, you are really smashed in fair and even the most quiet civilize phone call can be a distraction, airline the listening to these people but they're obviously conducting a business here, there might be another source of revenue. >> it could be. any equipment you put on an airplane, maintenance and everything else will way that out but it could be a source of revenue but that you can use your phone on penn central or the pass trains or long island rail road, you should be able to use it on an airplane. the airlines will probably say no. lori: what about setting up a quiet car and charging passengers a premium to sit there? >> don't say that! you gave them an idea to gouges with another fee but that is possible. lori: let's talk about easily she mentioned congress should get a real job. part of this budget likely to be

voted on seems like there's already a deal, bipartisan deal, includes higher fees for passengers to ensure security. do you think that is a legitimate new cost for us? >> it is not. the t s a waste more money, they wasted a couple hundred dollars on a silly program for behavioral testing or something. the problem with this new increase the psa what -- it will go into the general fund. all this is is gouging the american public to fund something else saying we will be safer. the t s a doesn't spend their own money properly. lori: i understand what you mean by a general fund. where will these moneys go? >> they will just put into a general fund. it won't be earmarked or funded, that is the problem. the tse would wasted. they are wasting what they have now, not being required to spend what they have now responsibly so why from more money at them?

lori: airfare seems to be going up. and i wrong in that assessment with the consolidatio the usairways ledger getting the stamp of approval, fewer choices for passengers? is this plane into these higher airfare trends? where do you see that headed? >> the real driver in air fare increases is airlines don't want to but more seats in the sky. airlines are not trying to kill each other. like five families they're happy with. that plus fees, plan on it, air fare, the cost of flying will be going the. how much i don't know but it will always go up but these new fees on the american public isn't going to make it any better. lori: we just showed our viewers most are up, a am are happens to be down, a $2 million aircraft order, might be playing into that share action. always great to talk to you. thank you for your time this afternoon. dennis: puerto rico faces the risk of a credit downgrade from

another ratings firm, moody's is warning it could cut the island credit rating to junk and our next guest says the downgrade would trigger volatility in the muni market as 70% of muni bond funds told puerto ricans that. the head of municipal strategy and research at morgan stanley, morgan stanley says 80% of the 570 municipal bond funds tracked by morningstar had exposure to pr. i want to point out you were at fitch. you say people should not be too upset? should moody's or fitch downgrade porter regard to junk status. >> pr is important to the market and is when we held, that being said what happened in puerto rico doesn't tell us about what is happening in municipal credit more broadly. and a positive outlook and therefore any extra market volatility caused by puerto rico

downgrade creates more buying opportunity and sell signal. >> that comes much later and a good time after the downgrade. we are watching the outflows from municipal-bond funds and u.s. households, mom and dads who hold municipal-bonds down to $1.64 trillion in the third quarter so the retail investor doesn't want to buy these things. when would the opportunity to buy come? >> in general for the muni market the best opportunity is to wade through the expected interest rate rides we see over the next couple quarters and outside sensitivity, but rising rates in this environment and debates over the course of 2014, we go through a couple quarters of interest ratings before rate rising becomes more of a neutral factor in the market and things like credit quality and tax value didn't you better risk reward market. until then a transition is

likely to be painful. adam: if a credit downgrade comes, if they do the downgrade then the muni bond funds have to sell worthy bonds to meet obligations required that a governed by and perhaps out lows as people get worried about these downgrades? >> not necessarily correct. without being able to speak to every fund out there most funds have capacity to hold bonds based on the credit rating at which you purchased them and have capacity to hold bonds below investment grade, even international funds. check the fund for what capacity is but we are not expecting that a downgrade is necessarily a trigger for broader selling, more concerned a downgrade sends a negative signal to investors more broadly about muni credit quality, the incorrect signal and that would extend that.

dennis: one thing that is positive in this as interest rates go up as the fed tapirs is the yields on bondss will be going up and that will attract money back in. what returns are you looking at in 2014? i saw your worst case scenario, we are saying we could see a loss of 6.2% to 7.8% and the reality is 1.7% to 4.1% in 2014. >> it is 1.3%. it happens early in the year, most of it is driven by interest rate increase assuming the economy does better, and as the fed will taper based on better economic data in the first part of the year so at that point you expect interest rate risks looking at the balance of the year and it would be less on interest rate and more of all play on what you think about

credit quality more broadly, tax value more broadly and those are the factors that are favorable right now. adam: in your note the got everyone's attention nobody should expect tax reform to jeopardize the issue with municipal bonds in 2014. i will quote your note. it is never fun and eventually it will end. thank you. >> thanks for having me. webmac ending budget brinkmanship. house republicans are rallying behind the plan, former senator scott brown joins us, not so sure the budget deal with the real thing. adam: the fight to save an orange crop that is turning green. lori: a rough go of it. could the real issue be that it is not sexy enough? people magazine's reigning champ adam levine, the sexiest man alive, ready to help, thank

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adam: nicole petallides is at the stock exchange looking at today's big losers. nicole: keeping a close eye on oracle before the opening bell, talking about the fact that oracle is likely to be under pressure. there it is down 2.5%. at the lowest point, some of those losses, there is concern about oracle overall, morgan stanley to an equal rate just talking about the path of growth remains unclear. you don't want to hear that. and outperform and it is up 5%, the analysts seems to think it is fairly valued at the current level. adam: thank you. webmac the latest in washington the house during the put the final vote on a bipartisan budget deal. it is a step in the right direction, next guest says it

doesn't fix the country's biggest problems. republican senator of massachusetts at fox news contributor scott brown joins us. great to have you this afternoon. begin with your take. why do you think congress was able to reach a deal so quickly? >> take the good and the bad. they are getting back to regular order. the senate passed a budget, the house and senate can conference it, creates uncertainty and stability for a little bit and avoid a government shutdown and reestablished all little confidence with the american people saying they did something before christmas. that is the thing that will be left. the bad items are doesn't do much of anything. we are $17 trillion national debt, cuts $28 billion over ten years, those cuts are at the end, doesn't address social security, medicare, medicaid, defense spending and other items that are dragging down and increasing the debt and deficit.

it is better than nothing. it doesn't address the big things. they have to start to do that. they do not continue to spend and go deeper into debt. lori: to your point it is back loaded. it is down the road renegotiated, the budget dealing. >> they have done it before. and their cuts are at the end. somebody has great teeth and what they'd do is pull the good ones first and save the bad ones from last. should be the other way around. they are doing what need to be done at the end and with sequestration i am glad the military will be taking care of and other services that had the president given these

secretaries and others the transfer authority they wanted like the at a received a could have addressed this internally and could receive those cuts. lori: the federal government is not extending unemployment benefits especially on a day like today initial jobless claims were higher, coming off of two months of improving job creation but this is a setback and it is clear we are still in the job creation crisis. >> of course it is. the reason the unemployment numbers are going down is people stopped looking at and it is of problem. two conversations. what is the budget battle, one is dealing with deficit and one is providing benefits for people that need help and there's a role for government but we have unemployment benefits for quite a while. we need to focus more on job creation, job retraining instead of just providing handouts for months at a time. lori: will this add to the incentive for the person who has been out of work many months to get out and find a job or does that job not exist?

this is a touchy issue. >> of course it is. different sectors have more opportunities but if someone trained up properly and have good job training and get back in the workforce there is great dignity and getting a paycheck and providing for your family. we need a transitional period to get off welfare and get off of these benefits so they can transition in to work and not penalize them for getting a job. lori: back to why the budget deal was done so quickly, what is it in the republican strategy, basically hoping the obamacare works in their favor for the midterm? >> it is one factor. obamacare is a mess. people on prescription medication and the high-cost person of the very serious needs are being cut. a lot of folks were misled. the people who voted for this, the democrats who ran to this through need to go back to their home states and explain to the

people why they did this and why they did not allow them to keep their plans and grandfather amendments which they voted against. it is the mess. they need to fix it. there are so many things that the reason they passed it is to have one thing going for them before christmas. lori: thank you so much, appreciate your insight. adam: the sexiest man alive and heading up obamacare, promoting health insurance exchange enrollment in a new social media campaign for the administration. other celebrities including fran drescher, supposedly appeared in daily videos and posts promoting -- just wanted to get in on this because you love adam levine. webmac the wrong adam was selected sexiest man alive. adam: he put out his first promotional tweet. california, you can get covered.

if you are a president so harry. this is not a new tactic for the obama administration. celebrities including lady gaga and carol williams have promoted health care.gov in the past. lori: time to decide. looking for a firm commitment on alan mulally's plan the microsoft tries in a way? adam: a huge day at the big board, back in on wall street, the stock reaction and the second-largest initial public offering of the year. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7. i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech)

you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long sto. well, not having branches let's us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. a new way to bank. a better way to save. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

>> 26 minutes past the hour, this is your fox news minute. john kerry is back in the middle east beginning a two day round of peace talks with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and palestinian leader mahmoud abbas. scientist at trying to fix a problem with the international space station. there the cooling system that is malfunctioning and it cut the cooling ability in half. crews are trying to fix the problem but nasa says it is not

life-threatening. there's new reaction on this line language interpreter at nelson mandela's memorial service. sign language groups say his gestures made no sense with a south african cabinet minister admitting he made a mistake in hiring the man. that interpreter claims he suffers schizophrenia and saying he saw angels that the event. no word how he got in. those are your headlines. back to adam and lori. little frightening. adam: time to make money with charles payne looking at the online retailer, good deals, will it be a good deal for your portfolio? you say you like this. charles: i was on the site on the homepage, lord of the rings bluray said, the robot zombie,

pretty eclectic mix. this is the company, and lucille. patrick, if you are out there please come back. this guy had a personal battle for years, the short position is less than 5% of the vote but he was insistent they were dogging his company. never saw ceo fights back that hobbit got him ridicule as a crazy man. now looks like the company has perfect together. september quarter missed the street by a penny. the next quarter earnings of gone up, consensus has gone up tremendously. next fiscal year the consensus is up big time. the ratio is under one, trading at 50% of sales. this has all your classic pieces in place for a company that seems like it is breaking out, got his act together and they have a ceo who is extraordinarily committed. lori: is it a good thing or bad thing, not necessarily darling tech. charles: it is not amazon.

so funny mention that. in the last earnings report, we sell books at the same price amazon sells accept we have a 15% rewards program. they are in the shadows of the bigger boys but if you look at black monday, cybermonday, these on line stocks have been on fire whether it is twitter, facebook, yahoo! no doubt the transition is being made and it is not all going to go to the big boys. it can be a pretty volatile stock from time to time. webmac more fines from jpmorgan, charlie gasparino on the latest legal claims. adam: more offers in the holiday spirit as november retail sales surprised the street. the best day in the benefit 13 days until christmas. ♪

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lori: let's get you updated on the stock market today. for that we head back to the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, you are taking a look at hilton, today's big ipo. how is it doing so far? >> topped hyatt. the world's largest ipo for hotels by proceeds. look what it is doing. it is up 8.75%. it was a $20 ipo. we saw it priced a day early. blackstone, we'll follow that as well, raised $2.3 billion for this ipo. trades under the tickle symbol hlt. there was certainly a lot of

interest in this big deal. lori: thank you, nicole. adam: holiday shopping season is in full swing. retail sales are surprising the street. retail sales rose 0.7% in november, beating analyst expectations as 0.6%. our next guest is warning of a consumer spending slowdown that could come early next year. marie driscoll. good to have you on the program. you've been here before. are we concerned about the sales in first quarter of next year when we're seeming to do better than expected now. >> the consumer has only x-amount of disposable income. if you spend it now you're pulling from the future and you won't have it to spend next year. that said. areas so strong were housing-related, home furnishings. some you can get credit for. if people start to access the credit lines, which they haven't for years, it could change spending patterns. adam: let me throw something at you. we saw the federal reserve's latest read where we all stand.

actually the consumer has never been better positioned to start spending again. >> right. adam: we have deleverree and at levels that precede big recoveries actually. >> right. adam: if that is the case, could we sustain spending going into the next quarter? >> if the consumer feels confident where, what is happening with their health care spending, what's happening with their taxes, they could start to spend next year and you could see consumer take back the rightful spot of global drivers of consumer demand. adam: what i get confused by retail, we'll talk about winners and losers right now for the holiday shopping season, november and december, are we spending more as consumers this holiday season as we did last year or spending less? >> well looks like, according to the nls, they're projecting a decrease in the average spend per person. they're projecting increase in total spend based on more people. adam: okay. >> so people are still very

value-focused, spending less, trying to optimize every penny. adam: let's talk about winners that will get the spending. >> okay. adam: macy's nordstrom, jcpenney. why those three? why do you think they're win officers. >> nordstrom is high-end. they're doing very well. last conference call they had 2 1/2% comp gain. they're working omni channel. they're working with youth. they have sports apparel. i think they really know their customer well. they have the best customer service. macy's is doing a fabulous job with their localization efforts. their my macy's efforts. that is so important. at the same time their omni channel. they're using their stores to meet their online shopping demands and jcpenney, they're back in the game because they weren't here last year. adam: bargain right now, only $8 a share. quickly we'll look as losers. chico's, i thought at one time, chico's was it as far as women's clothing. >> there is competition from online, hsn, qvc, that kind of

online format as well as nordstrom. that woman is more concerned right now about the economy and she isn't spending freely. adam: marie driscoll, we'll see how december goes and get you back in the first quarter to see what you're saying could happen, actually does happen, that we pull sales forward. thanks very much, marie driscoll. >> thanks. lori: wishful thinking. next charlie gasparino exclusive scoop on the jpmorgan's hope to clean up the outstanding investigations. adam: new ceo for general motors but will ford need the same? the board is looking for answers and cornering if you actually could, ceo alan mulally on his future plans. ♪ [ male announcer ] once, there was a man who found a magic seashell. it told him what was happening on the tradg floor in real time. ♪ the shell brought him great fame. ♪ but then, one day, he noticed that everybody could have a magic seashell.

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than exxonmobil. because using energy responsibly has never been more important. energy lives here. ♪ >> i'm cheryl casone with your fox business brief. martha stewart living omni media is expect to fire up to 25% of its workforce. the "new york post" reports that up to 100 employees could be let go. much of the downsizing will reportedly hit the company's flagship magazine. the lines at unemployment office were longer last week. 316,000 people filed for first time jobless benefits. that is two-month high. worse than the expected 23,020,000. gm will continue its strategic alliance with the peugeot.

gm sold the 8.5% stake in ally financial for $800 million. the automaker expects to report a gain of $500 million from the deal. ally used to be gm's auto and mortgage arm. that is the latest from fox business. the dow is down 80 points right now. power to prosper.

adam: so one fell swoop for jpmorgan. the company is looking to wrap up those legal fines as soon as possible but is it just wishful thinking? fox business senior correspondent charlie gasparino has the exclusive scoop. but first charlie has news regarding sac capital. they're back in the headlines, thank you. >> not sac. just steve cohen. does sac still exist? the government indicted them. put them essentially out of business. they're a family office. see cohen face as civil charge, not a criminal charge. here is what the government is hoping for. they're hoping for the two main

people, mathew martoma and michael steinberg, who is on trial. the trial is not going well for the government. what they're praying, the big thing that the government wants both of those guys get convicted. this is their, where they think their scenario might work in terms of them turning on cohen and bringing a case against cohen that they get convicted, face a long prison term, something like 10 years. insider trading, you can go to jail for a long time. when they think of the prison term, that's when they go after and turn on cohen. we should point out a couple things. cohen has not been charged criminally. the government is still pursuing him. the other thing kind of interesting, the michael steinberg is going on right now for his role in insider trading, mainly shares of dell. now the rub here is that the steinberg case is not going well for the government. the government would concede that. so we should just point out there's a lot of caveats here. michael steinberg has to be convicted.

he pled not guilty as you know. he is basically on trial now and so has martoma pled not guilty. but the steinberg case is not going well for the government. the scenario has to play out where they both get convicted. adam: how much harder for the government to get convictions without tape recordings they had with raj rajaratnam? >> it is harder. it is harder. if you read some of the press accounts, i haven't gone to the trial. it is a lot of he said/she said. it sounds from the press that michael steinberg, it will be harder to convict him. reading press accounts and using that as aeter whether someone will get convicted or not is fool hardy. everybody i know in the courtroom that was reporting, a lot of reporting on martha stewart case she would get off. i will tell you off. i was in the courtroom. i didn't think she would get off. she did not get off. she got convicted obviously. it wasn't insider trading, but obstruction of justice. i take what you read in the papers with a grain of salt. if you read the papers and government is conceding, i'm talking to people in the government that this steinberg

case is not the lay-up that they thought. if they have their wishful thinking that both steinberg and marm toma when he goes on trial for those drug trades, when he goes on trial next year and both face long prison terms and they turn on cohen, i will say this. if i was going, if you're going to sort of surmise anything from what i'm telling you here, the government definitely believes steve cohen, steve cohen is a, still a target. that is not surmise. he's still a target. more than that they believe he is guilty. the government does. we should point out steve cohen maintains his innocence. that somewhere are right now. adam: if they can't get the conviction and conceding as they are to you -- >> that is the endgame with cohen. conviction and a long prison term and turning on him when they think, you go to jail, could go to jail for a decade, for insider trading. the point to them, do you really want, do you really want to go to jail for a decade? you should really be helping and aiding the government.

why take one for this guy? adam: quickly jpmorgan news is that settlement, one billion, two billion, is that done and over and out for jp? >> i will say this. jamie dimon was speaking yesterday at a goldman sachs conference. basically hinted, basically told the world they will start racking up settlements including the madoff settlement. they were a middleman bank as part of this whole thing. whether they are guilty or not doesn't matter. what i know with from people that have spoken with jamie dimon, jamie dimon wants to put most major investigations facing the bank, put it out of his, get it out of his way, put him out of his own misery by the end of this year or early next year in 2014. he is looking to end this as soon as possible. he is telling people that he believes he is, there is outside chance they can end it this year. you no that would obviously include paying a billion plus to settle the madoff claims. maybe a billion dollars on separate fdic claim. adam: okay. >> one thing i think you won't see them settle very quickly is the whole thing whether they

have allegedly bribed chinese government by hiring relatives. adam: children of high level officials. >> they're not only one in there. that will take a while to pan out. most of other substantive things, they think they will get it done early this year and next year. that is what jamie dimon telling people he wants to do. adam: charlie gasparino, thank you. lori: all right, the dow coming back from session lows but still down 84 points at the moment. let's check the markets with alan valdez, dmv securities, joining us from the floor of the new york stock exchange. alan we have all kinds of economic data coming in the end of the fourth quarter. just a couple weeks left in the year. make sense of it all for us. what is driving the trade today? >> pretty mixed bag, you're 100% right. a lot of data. retail sales, pretty good number. jobless claims, very bad number. so you have a mixed bag here. no one knows what the feds will do. will they taper in december or wait to february as most people think? if you look at internals, up volume, down volume, they're

pretty even. that tells us there is not a route going on the sell side. there are no buyers stepping up. lori: i think people are take off early for christmas vacation. >> i think so. thanks, lori. adam: we have breaking news regarding ford. it announced it plans to add 5,000 new u.s.-based jobs, 3,000 of which will be salaried positions next year. the automaker also announced plans to open three new worldwide plants which will drive hiring of more than 6,000 people in asia. so speaking of ford, the big question of the day, will the automaker's ceo alan mulally become the new head of microsoft? liz macdonald has been tracking the story. she is here with the bottom line for us. so, liz, what are people telling you? >> good to be with you, adam and lori. we're talking with people close to the matter. there is still a question mark hanging over alan mulally whether or not he will leave the position at ford. he has been ceo there since 2006. whether or not he will leave and go over to run microsoft. he has publicly stated he

intends to stay at ford until the end of 2014. word that's is when his contract expires. more question marks are hanging over his head. what we're hearing is, according to people close to the matter, is that the board is narrowing the list. they are intending to name a new ceo by the end of this year. and still in the running are nedela, a basically a top executive at microsoft. he runs their enterprise division. kevin turner, coo, still in the running. the former ceo of nokia. microsoft bought the former nokia division. he ran the top business division at microsoft. those three guys are still in the running. here is the problem with the mulally nomination or mulally being in the running. word behind the scenes, microsoft want a consumer devices guy. they want a guy who basically knows enterprise software, cloud

computing. they want a guy that can basically deliver on business strategy and develop mane. microsoft has been really trying to rework those lines of businesses. another piece of information you ought to know, bill gates is engaged in what is going on with naming the new ceo. he is active in the discussions. that is what we're hearing according to people close to the matter. sending it back to you guys. adam: thank you, emac. >> sure. lori: green is the new orange? adam: mysterious disease is plaguing florida's orange crop, changing the color and killing trees. it's a threat to the state's multibillion-dollar citrus industry and it's next. ♪

lori: orange juice is key to florida's economy. a deadly bacteria is killing thousands of orange groves across the sun stein state. fox news' phil keating joins us from clewiston, florida, with details. what is going on, phil? >> reporter: what is more iconic than florida and oranges but right now the industry is under serious threat and in jeopardy. these are healthy florida oranges, plump, yellowish-orange in color, perfect. these are what is happening after trees get infected with greening disease. it turns the oranges into what look like limes. they're tiny and taste bitter and sour. they're absolutely worthless. this whole tree right here has been impacted. 800,000 orange trees have been chopped down just as southern gardens citrus, that is about one of 11 processing plants in the sunshine state which squeeze about 32 million florida oranges every day, taking truckloads of new fruit through the processing plant where 25,000 oranges are

squeezed into juice every single minute. the culprit here is this invasive bug, the asian cilla, which showed up in florida in 2005. it passes so far as incurrable disease, passing from grove to grove and threatening crops and threatening florida's iconic, $9 billion a year citrus industry. >> this insect is as prevalent as the mosquito. we're constantly dealing with the insect. we're doing what we can to control it. >> reporter: do you fear a future where florida and orange juice don't go together in the same sentence anymore? >> it's possible. it's possible. >> reporter: today the u.s. department of agriculture is announcing a emergency response framework to battle citrus greening, after shaving off by four million boxes, about 3% of its florida orange harvest prediction. the university of florida is doing millions of dollars worth of research, stem grafting in the lab with root stocks, all in an effort to discover a greening resistant orange tree.

genetic research bit citrus industry is also underway. all of this is happening because a solution needs to come quick. in the eight years since citrus greening disease first showed up in florida, the orange production has dropped from 150 million box as year, to 120 million boxes. >> that's a distinct possibility. the research community is working as fast as we can. the growers are looking for something to buy time to keep it going. as we mentioned earlier, if the juice plants close they're not going to open back up. >> reporter: all across florida, heart braking evidence of the greening disease, stumps where morning trees used to stand. look at this one grove. it was infested with greening disease. it is invasive bug. it happened in asia. and impacted citrus industry in brazil. for the past years if has been in florida. if something isn't found in the

next decade or so, they fear florida orange juice may not come to america's tables anymore. lori: wow. phil safe to say we're nowhere close to a solution to the greening problem with all the research there has been doing? >> that is promise on a small scale. nothing large-scale. lori: the pictures are horrifying. price of orange juice futures soaring. adam: four-month high. lori: thanks a lot, phil keating. adam: don't go anywhere. the next hour the ftc votes whether or not americans will have say in debate over in-flight telephone calls. tweet us. would you pay more to sit in a quiet section on board an airplane? tracy byrnes, ashley webster take us through the next hour of "markets now." don't hang up. hi honey, did you get e toaster cozy?

yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with n fedex one rate, i could ll a box and ship it r one flat rate. so i kn untilt was full. you'd be crazy not to. is tt nana? [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

try align. it's the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes. ashley: i'm ashley webster. the market is down 94 points. keep an eye on the markets.

it will be the heard down day for the week. not a good as we head into the new year. tracy: we'll talk about fcc, ruling on cell phones, whether or not to allow cell phone conversations on planes. would you pay more? that is our question for today, would you pay more for a seat in the quiet section of an airplane? we'll have answers up at bottom. ashley: i will give you my tweet now. also ahead, jpmorgan getting socked with yet another fine. this one said to be over one billion dollars for ties, yep, you know it, bernie madoff. the question is, is the sec picking on jamie dimon's bank? tracy: hilton shares higher in the first day of trading. we'll see if the hotel stock is worth buying. if you heard of bit strips. check this one out. we have one of ashton. ashley: i'm one in the middle. trace to the right. that is ceo of the company to the far left. tracy: i look svelt. ashley: that is a good word. word for the day, svelte.

thanks for joining us. time to look at stocks. they are down for the third straight day in a row. let's get down to the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> that is very funny. your guest looks uncomfortable during that interview. dow jones industrials down 92 points. nasdaq we'll get to that in a moment. techs are doing a little better. both the dow and s&p are pulling back. the dow is down half a percent. s&p down a quarter of a percent. traders are watching crucial support levels. the nasdaq is managing to squeeze out a gain. i it is up 2 points at 40006. we got in a batch of nick news including retail sales. -- 4006. that was good news and we'll watch jobless claims because the jobless numbers came in weaker-than-expected. more claims than expected in the thanksgiving holiday played into that. also keeping an eye on lululemon

lululemon's complete story, yesterday we focused on the ceo change. today they're cutting the full-year outlook. that is because they have had a lot of quality control issues. they're having a hard time getting some products into the stores. they're saying slow traffic in the stores. one of the reasons may just be the reputation overall. so that has been some quality control issues as well. down more than 10%, 60. tracy: quality control. that is nice way to put it. nicole petallides, thank you very much. five years to the day bernie madoff was arrested arrested ins new york city home. they reached a historic deal with jpmorgan. basically coming down with jpmorgan for not providing adequate warnings. ron geffner, former sec attorney, is jpmorgan really at fault or is this yet another way to cut them off at the knees? >> legally they're coming to the conclusion they're at fault. it is a function of gang

tackling how i'm looking at it. they got a lost tanks. liken it to a police officer pulls you over for speeding. he now notice as broken taillight. he notices this is out of whack and that is out of whack. so they start piling on. that is the best way to describe it from my perspective. ashley: is it piling on if the evidence is there where they knew what madoff was alerting. they've lerted authorities in the u.k. that something not right which they didn't in the u.s. which i have a hard time understanding. >> great point. if they're aware something going on, goes to correspondence internally among employees which we don't have all the information. secondly does not make is sense on some level to me why reports filed in the u.k. or not u.s. maybe guidelines were clear err in the u.k. i don't really know. i don't know why the divergence in the treatment. you would think if you report in one place you do it in uniform manner so that is a concern. what we're seeing with jpmorgan, they're going into deferred prosecution agreement whereby the government agrees not to

file charges for specified period of time, allowing the company to improve -- ashley: that is a criminal -- >> a determine of a criminal action. ashley: okay. tracy: that means it is going to come back. we're not done with this. by them paying all the money, one billion, two billion, wherever we're at at this point, it is not done. >> correct. not that they pay a fine and they're done with the activity. it is function of regulators will look to see what has jpmorgan done and what are they doing to prevent similar circumstances from arising again. but going back to what you said about jpmorgan did something wrong, if jpmorgan did something wrong and it is clear and proveable, right, proveable then why is the government not actually brought an action against jpmorgan as opposed to settle with the deferred prosecution? ashley: it is because they don't want to have a lot of innocent people lose their jobs if they come down hard on a company? look at enron. 20 odd thousand people were out of a job. that was obviously a complete mess but a lot of innocent people were involved. is there reluctance on the

government's part to push with harder criminal charges because of that? >> i don't know that. go back to what you were referring to in 2002, criminal action was filed against arthur andersen which resulted 2thousand people roughly losing their jobs -- 28,000. it was not a fine of $500,000 going to be assessed at andersen. it was more collateral of criminal prosecution weighing against the company's report card showing to the character of the business. it is not clear whether that was the driver or whether emails and correspondence and activity in and of itself was specific to match the burden you need in criminal action versus a civil action. tracy: that's what we're relying on to your point, emails. we still can't believe to this day people incriminate themselves via email after everything gone down through the years. that's all we have, emails, right? >> i don't know. i'm not there in the testimony rooms the government has. when i was in the sec we took testimony from individuals. so we don't know completely the answer to your question but it is shocking in this day and age

employees of corporate entities and corporate entities themselves should do a little more to educate their staff how inconsequential statements might have collective damning effect on a corporate enterprise and taken out of character and consideration. tracy: we're talking about 2008, not that long ago. >> not at all. tracy: they should have known better. ron, thank you very much. ashley: ron, thank you so much. interesting stuff. that's for sure. on to another big story of the day, hilton worldwide checking into wall street. the world's largest hotel chain returning to wall street and the stock is up. look at that stock, up to 2178 -- 21.78. isi group's managing director and partner is not surprised hilton is doing well. thanks so much for being here. priced around $20 on the ipo today. is it overvalued at 20 bucks? >> look there is certainly a lot of hype around lodging today. it's a great time to be a lodging company. the cycle is mid-cycle. investors are bidding these

stocks up. we're not surprised to see the stock trading up eight or 10%. last ipo blackstone put out. ashley: extended stay was up 20%. a lot of excitement around industry. certainly excitement around this name. ashley: why is there excitement? we're seeing global company and that is good for the lodging industry? >> it is twofold. there is lot of supply in the united states. supply is the sword that would kill the recovery at this point. the other side is macro story in the united states and globally is picking up. we're looking 3% gdp next year, job growth is act tell rating and the story in china is working. ashley: fundamentally this is a very strong group, isn't it? what about blackstone who took it private and have a huge stake in this company? what do they do? do they hang on for a while and how soon do they think about >> our thought is is an overhang. they own 76% of the company. reality given in the cycle we think investors want to hold on a little while longer. if the company is starting to pick up with rate being the driver at this point, investors

stand to make a lot of money. we have experience from our research, multiples can expand two turns from these levels as rates accelerate. ashley: what are your biggest concerns about the company? >> i think the bet you're making is you're making a bet on the united states, right? the biggest issue the company has faced is group business. because of 7% unemployment and economy hovering around 2, 2 1/2% gdp, group business is achilles' heel of the industry. you're betting on return to 3% gdp you're betting on 6% or lower unemployment rate. that's a story i think hilton really need to sell to investors. ashley: they have been deleveraging a lot, haven't they, over last 3 1/2 years. is that something they will continue? >> like everybody else they generate a free cash flow. we have them going down a turn on levers. they are more than their peers by four levers. they own $15 billion of real estate. there is opportunity to sell the real estate over time.

convert it into a reit. that could be a big factor in sort of deleveraging the company. ashley: so there is belief that hilton could head towards an asset based strategy where they manage properties as opposed to own them. is that a smart thing. >> that is what investors want. ashley: hedge your costs. >> what you're doing really is generating free structure more predictable than if you're just a landlord. fee business is three to 5% of revenues. those companies tend to trade at higher multiples. it is more predictable business. that is exactly what i would say investors want this company to move towards. ashley: how does hilton stack up against the competition? who is the biggest competition out there? >> we, you know, again one of the largest hotel companies in the world. they're similar to marriott. they have about 680,000 rooms. marriott is 660 globally. their footprint looks a lot like marriott. they're taking similar strategy to starwood globally. they're looking to add about 40,000 rooms in china. china's a very big market for

starwood. looks like that is the market everybody wants to grow only because that is the only market in the world where they can get footprint growth. ashley: where does the stock go do you think, this time next year. >> we're neutral on the stock here at 21.22. ashley: okay. >> we would be waiting for pullback. we would be a buyer at 20. ashley: thanks very much, ian. thanks for being here. >> appreciate it. tracy: we were talking about this earlier, sec voting in moments whether to move forward and allow cell phone calls on planes. we'll have full coverage. i know, i'm kind of against it too, i'm not sure. tweet us, what do you think? would you pay more to sit in a quiet section on a plane? tweets and fcc's vote coming up. ashley: i love you tracy but don't want you to speak on phone. tracy: i get that. >> i would be in the screaming baby section. word that more mutual funds will have to buy the stock. we'll tell you why. tracy: instagram moving into the disappearing message business. is there big enough market for

all that? ashley: as we do at this time. look how oil is trading moving on up, a quarter of a percent at 97.65. we'll be right back. every day we're working to an even better company -

and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger.

ashley: it is time, oh, did you hear that. puberty. finally. it is time to make money with charles payne. this hour we're back to 3-d printing and if you listen to charles in the past, you could have made some big money. you actually could make money with a 3-d printer, ironically. >> you probably could. don't know if you want to use it anywhere. ashley: no, that's true. >> like december, if wall street discovered the 3-d printer. it has been absolutely amazing. december third, freidman billings initiates outperform. can can core says we like it, target 85. pacific crest said hey that is good looking stock. initiate with outperform. target 96. deutsche bank says, hey, what about us? we initiate buy target, 95.

not to be outdone, jeffrey, see your 95, raise you 102. tracy: monkey see, monkey do, come on now. >> the baron's analyst lays out his thinking. what they're saying this is more of a prototype sort of thing but will make catalyst into being computer-aided design and have major impact to manufacturing. it is even 1% penetration in global manufacturing would be equivalent to $140 billion. right now, that would be 64 times the current market size. so pretty good upside potential. ashley: potential of putting a lot of people out of work. >> it does, oh, my god. guys, telling you, if you think of all things, google is acquiring six robot companies. soon as i order something, google, amazon. google took the robots. amazon has the drones. at soon as you order something, soon as you order it, as soon as you hit click robot in warehouse goes to get it. can't do that with human, even with the current computer systems.

ashley: what about the union. >> i read article two years ago about robots being unionized. i'm not joking. if they were unionized --, i'll i'll tell you guys the social human impact i think is something that hasn't been studied but the economic impact, i think it is also going to be pretty clear. ashley: yeah. >> the only bad news with all these wall street firms jumping on the band wagon, i think there will be overreactions. if one company misses by a penny, that kind of stuff. i actually think wall street jumping into it puts onus on these guys to perform every three months which i don't like for growing companies. ashley: they're not at that stage. >> exactly. ashley: charles, thank you. >> thanks guys, see ya. work on the puberty thing. tracy: all right. quarter past. time to check on the markets. nicole petallides on floor of the new york stock exchange. you're watching facebook, huh, nicole? >> facebook because facebook has some big news. facebook will be joining the s&p

500 on december 20th, at the close of trading. what happened to the stock when it goes into this major index? well a lot of people have to buy it because the portfolio managers have to mimic exactly those same 500 stocks that are in the s&p 500. so it will be joining the s&p. right now it is up 4.7%. we've seen facebook running up recently with a market cap that continues to grow. much like google. less than two years after the ipo, and it goes into major index. hey, some other names that will be moving around including abercrombie & fitch. so we're watching that one. facebook will be replacing teradyne. the other two changes are replacement of abercrombie & fitch and jds uniphase with alliance data systems and mohawk industries. keep an eye an ads and mhk. back to you. tracy: thanks, nicole. see you if 15 minutes, sir. new poll suggests americans opinions of congress reaching new lows as it could get into

you new lows. ashley: minus category. tracy: as lawmakers reach a budget deal. we'll have that next on the fox business minute. ashley: you will not believe where in the world jeff flock is today.

>> 21 minutes past the hour right now. hi, everybody, i'm jamie colby. this is your fox news minute. the house is set to vote later today on the first house bipartisan budget deal in years. it has detractors from both sides of aisle. speaker boehner says it will have votes to pass. you're looking a picture from the house floor but that is not the actual vote. it would replace automatic spending cuts with longer term savings. turkey temporarily shut down all border crossings to and from syria amid ramped up fighting between opposition groups. the u.s. announced yesterday it is suspending non-heat al aid after a warehouse was seized by al qaeda militants with communications quilt and medical supplies. >> nominees are out for the upcoming golden globes. leading the movie back, "12 years a slave" and "american hustle" earning seven

nominations a piece and including best picture and best director. that takes place january 12th, in hollywood. back to ashley and tracy with this question, any faffs? tracy: you know, we were talking the best i got for you i could do the hustle. that is all i got. >> that is a start. so i'm voting that next year they have a category for business news. tracy: all right. jamie colby,. >> take care, guys. tracy: retail sales ricing in november while shopper traffic numbers are kind of down recently. well enough to send spin your head back and forth like a speck at the same time tore at a game, maybe, table tennis. i don't know. jeff flock knows somebody about, my god, he is sweat egg. clothes are coming off. look at him! he is still playing! jeff. >> not very well. what can i tell you. this is a fun sport. that is the whole sport of this. if you think of a brand for table tennis who do you think of? well this man is hoping, i have

him with the microphone, robert blackwell. that young lady is probably best known table tennis player in the world. talk to her in a moment. first, i'm out of breath. you would like to turn killer spin into the brand that people think of when they think of table tennis? >> yeah. we think that killer spin is a unique brand. we focus not only on really highly designed table tennis equipment but experiences as well. >> you can unveil live on the fox business network, the latest, coolest, newest table. take the wraps off and tell me what it is. >> this is the world's first white table tennis table. >> wow. >> called revolution sbr. >> gotcha. look at retail sales numbers. obviously very important to you. brick-and-mortar important to you. you sold online. i will get, by the way, silver medalist in the last olympics by the way, playing against on that one. bricks and mortar presence.

>> we think it is important for people to experience a products. to be able to experience the brand. corporations are really a big part of our customer base. so this is a central business district of chicago. we want people to come down to experience see our products and brands and unplug-and-play with people they care about. >> they are the number one selling paddles, number one selling paddles on allison and costco for the last two weeks. featured on costco homepage. can she do interview whether she is playing? when did you start playing. >> when i was nine years old. >> in serbia. >> you are the best known table tennis player in world. did you ever think it would come to that? >> no. i definitely have it. i have a lot of fans on facebook. and table tennis is actually a great sport. we find out there is a lot of fans that following us. >> it has become a hugely popular sport and this is the man trying to ride that wave. robert blackwell.

skiller -- killer spin is the company. this is the killer spin house. people can come in and play, buy. it's a fun thing. i'm sweating. tracy: jeff flock you have a killer spin. my kids play ping-pong all the time. ashley: it is great fun. we were laughing with a white tennis table, do you lose the ball? >> just like golf. playing golf in the winter a little bit. you know. ashley: thanks, jeff. great, from cutting down trees to table tennis. he does it all. tracy: am i only one thought "forrest gump" the whole time? ashley: great, too. on to another story that has been getting a lot of reaction from our viewers, allowing cell phone calls on planes. the fcc votes in moments to give that a green light. would you pay more for a seat in quiet section? there is no such thing on a plane. your questions next. tracy: a cell phone plan for little as five bucks a month. are you interested? we have ceo of republic wireless

coming up next. ashley: bit strips is the wireless craze. their cofounder and ceo is also here to talk about. don't go away. [ male announcer ] e new new york is open.

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and no one applies more technology to produce american energy and refine it more efficiently than exxonmobil. because using energy responsibly has never been more important. energy lives here. ♪ in green on the screen, jpmorgan 2, even after all the news that stock is tough lately. coca-cola procter and gamble says the system that the bottom. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. not the only company beginning to change today. nicole: we talked about health today. let's look at our mark, another important ipo today and we see

the stock up 12.6%, 2257. this is a big mover in the food services business and facilities and the like. many people may remember the old ticker a.m. a, that was the ticker from 1960-1983. then it was taken private. the new ticker here on wall street, watching it moved to the upside, $20 ipo, $22.55. the food facilities in uniform services based in pennsylvania keeping an eye on this ipo. ashley: breaking news. fcc voting in moments whether or not to hang up on cellphone used on planes or to allow the process to go forward. we begin with rich edson at reagan national airport. rich: the federal communications commission beginning a meeting that would basically decide to continue the process or whether

they're going to continue to figure out if they allow a cellphone used on airplanes, they could kill the proposal altogether. the chairman is saying i don't want to sit next to someone talking on their cellphone but we are here to decide if there are technological challenges to this and there are no technological challenges and it should be allowed to go forward. there are other roadblocks to allowing people to talk, if the fcc does clear the way and approve this the f a a could get involved as a safety issue and the at a a is looking into this. there are proposals in congress that would circumvent the process and make it illegal for you to talk on your cellphone on all flights. it does cost money in other countries, $2 committed to $3 a minute, some show varying degrees of usage that people on airplanes even if they can talk on their cellphones opt not to renew the data feature instead. the data features available on u.s. flights so this is

something they are considering. the american public when you look at varying polls, one showed 59% oppose allowing you to use your cellphone, talk on your cellphone on flights, 30% agreed the government should allow it. it is playing out right now. fcc under way on whether to kill this altogether or go for a new round. ashley: without having to do that, thank you so much. lori: would you pay more to sit on a flight to get away from those cellphone shatters? tweet as your answers. and republic wireless co-founder and ceo. what do you think of this? >> the first rule of travel is courtesy whether you are tracking on the phone or doing anything else common sense will prevail and whatever the government decides we all know being courteous to those around us is number one.

tracy: people forget that but that is fodder for another day. let's talk about what is going on, you are using the wi-fi system to offer really cheap cellphone packages to people. explain to us. >> we have four plans at republic wireless and give you the ability to change between those plans twice a month. for $5 a month a terrific smart phone, all you can talk, all you can browse on the web, and limited and wi-fi if you need cellular coverage, not to worry. on the phone itself with one click you can do all the talking and texting you want for $10 a month and if you browse data, 3d for $25 a month for $40 a month you can change plans, when your plans change do so on your phone. that way you have the maximum flexibility might need. tracy: say i am on the wi-fi plan and i need to quickly get

on and look something up, i go, get a $40 plan, i you going to pro rate it and go back to the old one? >> that is a great question. we are not interested in making money because you are on the wrong plan. when you change planes you get the benefit and pro rate that back to you in a month. tracy: to your point, if i need cellular it is on sprint but i am limited. 5 gees worth of talking. >> the vast majority of subscribers have no problem during a given month and if you go through this, we give you a warning, went through max cap, take a look at that but never had any issue as a single subscriber. tracy: the second phone you are offering an four new plans. what has the response been like? i would think people would still

be a little reluctant? >> when we first launch we sold one of these phones a second and it was extraordinary and we had thousands of people join us. the responses of overwhelming to say the least but very exciting and the real amazing responsibility, you can talk and text $10 a month. if you have a child, still reach that child at the end soccer practice, i had six children and offered them straight as if i offered a smart phone to a thousand dollars a month with at&t and down $150 a month. they're doing something i never did which is get straight as and very glad they're doing what we are doing. tracy: i don't want to comment on that. those are heroic. i have three and feel like i climb around every day. let's talk about what happens with those kids if they are not in a wi-fi zone because that would make me nervous. what happens if someone calls

home? it switches over or does the kid have to do it himself? >> the kid does not do it himself. if there's a $40 plant or already on not wi-fi plant it is on the device and you can make fun calls and text messages but on the $10 plan like i do with my eighth grader, he doesn't need to worry about walking in out of wi-fi but always available and important and have two in college, that have wi-fi around the mall the time. and upgrade to 4 g. tracy: you are onto something here. thank you for sharing it with us. ashley: he is still seen with six kids. my bill is a humongous. bit strips, how about that? online comics starring you and your plans and we are apparently having a little conversation

with the co-founder. ashley: martha stewart giving pink slips to 100 employees, the reasons ahead. tracy: this look at 10 and 30 year treasuries, a two basis points, 2.7% in 30 years moving up slightly as well. actually it is unchanged, 3.9%. ♪ [ bell ringing, applause ] five tech stocks with more than a 10%... change in after-market trading. ♪ all the tech stocks with a market cap... of at least 50 billion... are up on the day. 12 low-vome stocks... breaking into 52-week highs. six upcoming earnings plays... that recently gapped up. [ male announcer ] now the world is your trading floor. get real-time market scanning wherever you are with the mobile trader app. from td ameritrade.

yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with n fedex one rate, i could ll a box and ship it r one flat rate. so i kn untilt was full. you'd be crazy not to. is tnana? [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. try align. it's the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align.

adam: adam shapiro with your fox business brief, a new study found replacing $1 bills with $1:cost taxpayers $7 billion over 30 years. the data analysis found higher cost to produce coins versus paper dollar bills, not offset by a longer life. ford says it will add new u.s.-based jobs in 2014 and 3,000 of those jobs will be salaried positions. globally the automakers launching 23 vehicles and get access to manufacturing facilities in the asia-pacific region and one in south america. martha stewart living will fire up 100 employees, 35% of its work force. new york both reports much of that downsizing will hit flagship magazine. that is the latest from the fox business network giving you the power to prosper.

ashley: you have seen bit strips poking up all over facebook but it is more than an apps to create comics with. bit strips for schools uses comic stewing gauge students and all the popularity has scored it as $3 million backing from verizon ventures. jacob blackstock is the founder and ceo joining us to tell us about it. this has come on, taken face book by storm. people using basically comic advertisers to put themselves in the cartoon world but this did not happen overnight. >> no. we have been working on it since 2007 so it has been a labor of love over many years that build up to this. ashley: did you always have the

idea to create comic book apps? >> i have been making, since i was a little kids in cycle hold a pencil and doing comics with my friends is a social activity all through my life so unnatural progression to give that experience to everybody regardless of whether they could draw. tracy: what is it and how can they incorporated into their social media world? >> basically a really fun and visual way to communicate and entertain your friends by making them into a comic strips you can share on facebook, twitter, you can send them by e-mail, by text, make them into holiday greeting cards you can put your friends and family in to. ashley: he mentioned bit strips for schools. how is this getting to the classroom and what benefit does it have for the kids? >> comex, a powerful way to

communicate and having your avatar in the comics makes use the medium of your communication. that is a powerful thing, it gets kids excited about school work, get the reading and writing and teachers are loving it and that has been going on four years. tracy: everyone wants to create their own avatar and they just like the notion they can do it and a person walks through this little world. what is it we want to be in this different place sometimes? >> comex are universal medium everybody loves, has been around for a long time and also an example of visual communication which has been around since the dawn of human history and speaks louder than words and when you add human expression and the motion to the images you are making, has a lot of information in it. ashley: we established it is not an overnight sensation, you had a lifelong love of comex.

i you making money? >> we have a lot of exciting ideas and. we actually -- that is an exciting use we are announcing today, we partner with verizon ventures, a private investment firm one of the most influential businessmen in asia. amazing portfolio companies, facebook and skype and couldn't be more honored to be part of that. tracy: what is the next step? >> an exciting step we took today is we just launched a huge pack of holiday comics that turn bitstrips into a way to create customized greetings that the friends and family and share them by e-mail land your exciting holiday activity. ashley: so much social media is the fat and so much competing for the person's attention do you worry bitstrips will become

old news and some other apps will come along and obliterate you? >> good question. it has been around five years already, has a really strong following, has been growing and exploded recently, people making millions of comics at day. the content is timely. we are seeing new comics not just holliday, expect current events and you and your friends are the stars of these comics and that is always relevant. tracy: people love it. ashley: congratulations and continued success. you go by the name bob. thank you for being here. tracy: another little christmas greeting. it is a quarter till, time for stocks every do every 15 minutes, time to head to the floor of the stock exchange. we are down 64 points. a little profittaking.

no one knows what is going to happen. that is all out there. >> that is floating around right now but in the last hour, there was more selling pressure. a little more pressure going on right now. everyone is waiting to see what the fed will do at the meeting this weekend that will be the tone for the rest of the week. tracy: you have hope for the santa claus rally? >> we always have hope. is the best month of december, we're looking for it but it is a little weak with that hope. tracy: a lot of people closing books for the year and said i and done and being grateful. >> you had a great year. with the last three days the s&p is up 20% so take a little profit, getting out of the way for the end of the year. tracy: you will be leaving for the holidays in too. thank you very much. see you in january.

ashley: disappearing messages on your smart phone in tech minute. why instagram is moving in to snap territory. tracy: business today. what would a baby without a robot? we have to introduce you to a robot that might explore mars one day. ashley: they unionized. let's look at today's winners and losers on the nasdaq. we will be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 70% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to readnd consider carefully before investing.

ashley: breaking news, bipartisan budget deal hitting of a hurdle in the house signaling support for passage later today, peter barnes joining us from the belt way.

peter: the budget deal just survived a vote in the house of representatives, not to get into the arcane rules of procedure but the house debated and approved the rule of debate for this budget deal and the vote was 226-195 so that rule of debate, cleared by a comfortable margin here. we haven't got the party, held the vote broke out by party but john boehner was counting on quite a few democratic votes for this. this is the usual process, there is a vote on the rules of debate, now they proceed to debate him plan on the package itself and we expect a final vote for this, expect it to be approved around the 5:00 hour. we will be watching that as the debate continues in washington.

ashley: thanks so much. all right, it is time for your tech minute. facebook and digital photo service unveiling a new sharing feature for it users. would be enough to make it stand out from its competitors. jo lin king joins us with more. >> it looks like what we expected, nothing that different. it is the messaging service, 1 fifty million users globally called instagram direct center around the iconic photo sharing model that allows users to send photos of videos to one or other of 15 people at a time to share the image privately. it hid the in box button on the top right corner and share with a caption. afterwards you can reply with a photo or send messages back and forth, you can tell when a person has seen a fun mobile little check mark or a heart if they liked it. you can get direct messages from people you follow. for everyone else it will show up as a pending request in your in box.

as for safety concerns, the ceo said instagram does not monitor the content that users can report inappropriate images, flag problems, ignore users or just block them. here is where the money is being made. brands that advertise on instagram will be able to directly send messages to users who follow them, too early to talk about any further type of advertising on direct right now. when i asked about sharing photos that self-destruct like snap chat, they could read this in the future, certainly didn't rule it out. after the launch i got a chance to talk with the ceo and ask what his boss, mark zuckerberg thinks about instagram direct and he said he is among nearly as testers of the feature, he really likes it obviously and neither of them is particularly worried about instagram messaging cannibalizing facebook chat. he said there are different silos that people use, different

apps, talk to your kids on facebook or your colleagues on instagram or whatever. ashley: has to be good. thank you so much. appreciate it. the man in the hood. tracy: meet a valkyrie. nasa's new superhero robot that may be used to explore mars. she is over 6 feet tall, weighs 275 lbs.. very flexible with 44 degrees of rotation in her joints and is powered by a battery back 1/2 and last an hour. un know what happens after that. are they interchangeable? if you ever need to interchange your arm. she can be switched out and replaced in minutes if damage to. the best part is valkyrie is covered in soft cloth resembling her more female side i suppose.

neil more, appealing to human co-workers. does that appeal to you? ashley: i already have five date request just doing this story. tracy: she looks like c 3 b 0. ashley: she is a big girl. tracy: just like c 3 p l in white. the best of the best in the dark but challenge, a test of a robot's ability to function in dangerous environments li nuclear spills or the olympic swimmer robot. ashley: nuclear spills. tracy: can jump over it in a hurry. and there is our robotic story of the day. on "countdown to the closing bell" jpmorgan reportedly nearing a deal with the government whether it turned blind eye to bernie madoff at ponzi scheme. could leave as much as mom to billion dollars in fines. this as jpmorgan considers getting into the virtual currency game. what does he think of this? which bank is the best to unknown especially with that

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risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. ♪ pleasure. ♪ ♪ >> good afternoon, everybody, i'm lori rothman sitting in for liz claman this afternoon. stocks, while they're mostly lower as investors digest a mixed bag of economic data, but we're seeing some buying into the last hour of the session. initial jobless claims surging to a two month high last week, 368,000. that followed a revised figure of 300,000 in the priest be week. retail sales jumping seven- seven-tenths of a percent in november, that is a biggest gain since june. investors also focused on the highly-anticipated return of hilton hotels as a publicly-traded company.