christmas spirit going here. connell: hope for the holidayy, the big saying around this time of year no matter how you dress up your house today's report on the real-estate market one of the reports not something to celebrate. another report has a different story. this will bring you one story close to the heart of one of our guest driven by one of the great charities in the country to talk about, and the new technology helping to make travel a little better for the holidays. there is boeing's decision where to build its next generation plane could change the fortunes of one town in indiana, one of these towns left behind in the age of manufacturing. a good story coming up in this hour. we have it and more on markets now. connell: we welcome you to markets now in new york, about housing in just a moment and his

family. a story we were referring to but the stock market, closing up in a couple of hours, christmas eve, they had nearly closed at 1:00 eastern. one hour of markets now. we get you to "countdown to the closing bell". the four traders sing this song the sunshine -- s song they have been singing since the 30s, a tradition on christmas eve. we will go there live and listen to them sing that. a nice tradition the day before christmas but first to the economy, mortgage applications falling 13 year low last week, the fed decision to begin cutting back on stimulus causing rates to jump and craig does join us, senior vice president, chief economist has joined as a number of times from outside the studio but good to have you in new york. some other housing numbers are different, economic figures in general have been positive as we head to tte end of the year. let me start with mortgage applications. what do you make of that? to place into the housing a look for 2014?

>> there are two components. the first is the drop in refinance applications. they are down from when the fed began talking about capering and they are doon 60% and that has one effect on the economy. specifically one of the benefits of having low rate has been homeowners have been able to refinance in lower rates. charles: everyone trying to get in as long as they are eligible. is it over? >> is largely over. the average outstanding rate has 5.5% in 2008 to 3.9% today. that saved homeowners $300 billion in income so they are not making interest payments so that is in one way we have seen disposable income growth grow. absent real earnings growth so it is one of the things that help stimulate the economy. that is largely over. when you look today at the mortgage rate at 460, 15 year mortgage rate is 350. that refinance wave is largely done. the second part is the purchase

applications down 12% on the four week basis. that to me is the bigger concern because it reflects weakness on the construction side and the construction side is where you get economic stimulation, we have lost 2 million construction jobs, they largely haven't come back. that is something predicted going forward because sales are holding out and prices going up, we had the f h f a report on prices, five year high. that all get together and spells watch for the early part of next year? >> prices will be a lagging indicator. prices will be a lagging indicator, one of the most leading indicators will be applications. it tells us the pace of gains are snubbing. higher mortgage rates i taking a toll on the housing market. we saw housing starts bounce back so that gives some optimism they will shake that off but it looks like it is taking a toll. housing slows and as it does it becomes less of a tail wind to

the economy. >> the federal reserve will say how we balance is? other economic figures, durable goods were up and reading all stick to any economy that is recovering and the fed has to rent it in and there's more catering to come. does this change at all? >> it is going to weigh on their decision. every winter for the last three years we had good day and look like the economy is improving, jan. and feb. everybody is bullish and things turn down. those are symptoms of a weak consumption. a weak consumer. the consumer balance sheet is better today than it has been, the debt is down $800 billion. there are strengths out there. the fed will have to take into account what is happening in housing. they did in september when they delayed the caper enlisted one of the reasons the mortgage rates moved higher and they were concerned about the impact on housing. it is something we are watching.

bernard: i don't know that we talked about on the show. but you and your family have been through quite an ordeal and we will talk about that for a few minutes here. craig's son had to fight against a rear pediatric cancer and before we talk about it with craig and his family our colleague at fox visited with craig at the family last month so take a look at this story. >> like most kindergartners, better known as ingraham the conqueror has big dreams. >> what do you want to be when you grow up? >> those dreams may have been cut short if it weren't for st. jude children's research hospital helping ingraham find a brain tumor and bring a form of pediatric cancer. >> ingraham was diagnosed last year, they said he had headaches, 3-year-olds don't have headaches. >> the headaches come back, they

will come out, they had to go up. >> all kinds of headaches and everything and taking ingraham in for this again to get a phone call. what was that like? >> nor pure panic. i went outside and said repeat that? what did you just say? he told me again. okay. >> kind of scary because i heard my mom crying, knew something was wrong. >> the family fought of st. jude, they had been longtime fund raisers for the research hospital, receives 8,000 of the world's sickest kids each year. they never thought their ingraham would fit into that category. >> turns out he has a rare type of cancer, we asked st. jude is this omething you can treat? they came back and said yes, we do treat it and we are running a

study for the national cancer institute. we had surgery, then we did -- the term and what it is. something appropriate and ingraham got chemotherapy. and radiation therapy. >> 22 pounds right now, we expected it. >> you wonder how many days you have left with your child and you wonder how bad it will be and you wonder if your son will get to do all blessings you dream about doing from the time he is born. >> ingraham lost his hair but jack was sure to make him feel comfortable. >> my dad taking myself. connell: great job with this story and the family is here

today. you look good there. what do you think of the tv studio? not bad. how did your dad do on tv in his interview? i thought he was pretty good. st. jude is something else. heard you talking about it but tell us a little more. >> it is an amazing place. it is slow leading place for childhood cancer research and treatment everywhere in the world. when st. jude was founded in 1962 the average life expectancy for somebody diagnosed with cancer was 20%. today it is 80% largely in part to the developments they made. patients don't pay for anything. 75% of their funding comes from the donations from public, 12.5% come from insurance claims, 12% or 13% from grants a largely funded by the public and because of that, people like my son,

people from all over the world, all 50 states get the best doctors in the woold and you don't pay for a thing. connell: especially for people who don't have the financial means to do it. i should welcome ashley, craig's wife, madison, 11, 10 years at the age, you look great on tv. what about this for you having come through this? even talking to us about it? >> and looking at income, no idea it as a cancer patient. >> 22 pounds, and 50 pounds. and he is growing. connell: should have kept the shaved head?

>> a fun moment. connell: we talked about in the peace how you go through this. a lot of time siblings are affected by what their brother or sister goes through but you have done a lot of work and you can tell me -- tell me about that. >> we raised $300,000 were st. jude. we went to companies, may speech and memorized it, going to companies all over the country and we even made a video to listen to a big donation, the big stories that made a video before they can have the come into the studio. connell: any time a parent goes through something with one of their other children and their siblings come up like this, don't want to make you emotional

but that has to make you proud. >> it does. watching what they have done and their mentality is there is nothing they can do. it is a helpless feeling, their brother is sick and the only thing they can do is help raise money for the hospital and that is what they have done and it has been fun to watch. they made the best of a bad situation. connell: we had you on all the time and we will continue to but it is terrific to see this side of you but more importantly great to see ingraham looking this great. thank you for coming. >> when we shave our heads was so neat is i went into the office the next day and one of the guys saw it and 39 guys shave their heads. connell: all the guys on the floor you work with? oh man. >> our company has been a large supporter of st. jude the largest corporate fund-raiser, the annual marathon and to see them and the support they have given us with my daughter having been done it is an emotional

ride. all the best of all of you. connell: great to meet you and great job with everything. they good on tv. another merry christmas, happy new year. a big tradition, the singing of the songs they sang at the stock exchange on christmas eve, wait till the sun shines, years they go. they just wrapped it up. they just wrapped up the singing at the new york stock exchange of wait till the sunshine finality which is the song going back to the 1900s and i have seen it every year working in business news. you didn't miss much. they can't sing. it was great to meet you guys. we will move forward from there. merry christmas to everybody and enjoy yourself. you have big plans to go across the street and see the tree. >> we will.we hope santa confin. connell: look him up on the norad tracker. he is overseas now and will be on his way. we will talk more business news

coming. the retailers getting what they wanted for the holidays and try to wrap it up in grand fashion today. santa is on his way too. china's money being spent in the rest of the world and boeing's decision on the next-generation plane could resurrect a town that has been left behind during the decline. we will take that on christmas eve as well. before we go, let's look at some places where shoppers are spending their money right now. there you go. 7%. [ male announcer ] 'tis the season of more.

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rder now and get a special holiday gift -- a document shredder to keep sensitive documents out of the wrong hands. a $29 value free. ♪ ♪ beuse during the holidays, keeping your identity protected means keeping your family protected. connell: we are back on christmas eve that have not checked in with nicole petallides at stock exchange. she joins us now. greta van susteren that bill but we missed that belly song but we have a terrific story in studio with craig but everybody did a good job. nicole: they did a good job, would you expect, nothing too crazy. you will hear it again on new year's eve so you can stay tuned for it and it's very heartwarming story about our

cancer patient in remission. in st. jude too. the market at record highs, the dow and the nasdaq and the s&p at record highs, the nasdaq highest since 2,000 and the dow and the s&p all-time highs. tesla got a nice gift, the stocks have been soaring and that is on the news that they looked at the model x down at the safety, top notch, the safest car ever and reiterated that and stock is up $10, down 20% this quarter but a winner this year over 300%. connell: thank you very much. we will check back. retailers have been opening their doors early staying open late, some even going 24 hours, but hasn't been boosting sales much this year after a strong holiday season starts, stores have fallen three consecutive weeks dropping 3.1% under

$40 billion for the week that ended sunday compared to the same week last year so shopper track figure has not been encouraging, the data does not include online sales so maybe this is it. we are seeing a big shift this year, how they're trading today, the short trading session and this story, chinese manufacturers well known for taking their existing products and replicating them exactly or taking other existing products and doing that but seems the chinese are forging ahead in the world of architecture now all with interesting results. a local government in beijing in one of the suburbs reportedly opened an office complex patterns after the kremlin in russia. the building housing the town's water services department weather bureau, lansky department somewhere between one$.5 million and the complex opening despite a building moratorium that was imposed as part of the austerity campaign in terms of building in china. the technology behind making travel little bit easier for us

and a lot of people like traveling here today and for the next week or so for this christmas and new year's. it is all about apps. instagram and other things. we will get to that next and the price of gasoline which you might want to pay attention to if you are traveling as well and what we can expect in the next year. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. it's not the "juggle a bunch of rotating categories" card. it's not the "sign up for rewards each quarter" card. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round, no-earning-limit-having, do-i-look-like-i'm-joking, turbo-boosting, heavyweight-chpion of-the-world cash back card. thiss the quicksilver ca back rd from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere,

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connell: hotels taking the power of social media to a new level redefining the travel experience or trying to and the digital age in the first twitter themed hotel, and opened up in spain and now there is the first instagram hotel in sydney, australia so we bring in the travel experts to tell us a little more about this trend such as it is. is it true there is a twitter themed hotel and what does a regular person need to know about something like that? >> thank you for having me. we definitely have the first twitter themed hotel, now we have our first instagram hotel that recently opened in sydney called the eta 88 hotel, and they are apparently the first

instagram hotel, what that means is focused on the fact that consumers use instagram so they have the whole space in the lobby where someone can use selfes comment and there's a screen in the lobby where they magically appear. connell: what could possibly go wrong signing of to stay at that hotel depending on your lifestyle. that said the actual use of social media in your business what do you tell people? do they get good deals? or is it something they should incorporate as they are looking for a vacation deals? >> social media is a huge problem for book deals and we see there is a trend where fans, there is the buying power, structured where if you have

10,000 instagram followers and share photos they will give you a complimentary night so we see there is a buying power, sense of social currencies at is being created and it is no longer just about grabbing friends and having them share photos but -- connell: they get into these things, what you had for lunch, and a sustainable business. any good last-minute deals? would definitely new year's people looking to get away? >> i think definitely take the usual suspects like travelocity, experience. for those who can't get away, hotels, last-minute staycation holiday deals.

connell: stay in miami. >> what can i say? connell: thank you very much. merry christmas to you. how about he and at the gas pump? gas prices have been going up around the nation as you get set to hit the rose for christmas but what about next year? we have the outlook and from ghost town to aviation hub. gary, indiana, manufacturing plant, the mayor will talk about that next. good story.

connell: we are just about at the half hour. still coming up on markets now boeing's decision to build the next big plane will have a dramatic impact on the economy surrounding that plan where jeff flock will take us. he is one town that is in the running, a good story just ahead from jeff and tom closea talking about the average price of gasoline in the new year and we will take a look at the best christmas films hollywood has put out, the best of all time on markets now as we are at the bottom of the hour and we always check in with nicole petallides from the stock exchange talking about social media in terms of travel but a great year for social media investors. nicole: we are looking at twitter and facebook both of which had a great run up this month and they are both hitting new highs today that are notable and when we talk about social media we talk about at revenue and the idea here is they will continue to get more advertising

in 2014 as digital is the wave of the future.6828, a gain of 5 and facebook winner today and up 115% this year. this month of december has been some months, 63% gain from twitter and facebook up 21%. what a run up for these two names, completely different story. connell: at the stock exchange they will close early today, an hour-and-a-half until the closing bell on christmas eve. we have the story about boeing looking for a home for its $10 billion manufacturing plant and searching for a site to build states and municipalities across the country hoping to get the nod and jeff flock live from gary, indiana with the city's mayor on why she likes her hometown's chances. >> when you wouldn't think of. lately, recently, not even recently bought a long time has

been a symbol -- you see the holiday and hotel abandoned across the street from city hall but there's a new spirit in gary and i want to come inside city hall and talk to someone -- zero degrees out there this morning in gary. i want to talk to the woman responsible for the new spirit, karen freeman wilson, the mayor of gary. first woman to lead this long and storied city. thanks for joining us on the fox business network. you are excited about your city's possibility of getting a boeing plant. tell me why that is in a place a lot of americans think of as kind of belated. >> i'm excited because it means tremendous jobs and growth of economic development but we believe we have all the assets. we have a rail, highways, the airport and boeing is at our airport. they have that hagar. >> chicago corporate headquarters and they keep their planes.

>> we think it is a logical place for them to grow their business and a logical opportunity for us to be able to grow around our transportation access. >> this is a city with a tremendous history, it was founded, named after the president of u.s. steel, kind of like calling me tell and jobs or gates and this long history more recently has been difficult. you are a harvard law school grad who has come back to gary and you want to make the city what it used to be. >> absolutely and because of our story history, our relationship with industry and the fact the we were created by one of the largest multimillion-dollar corporations in the world, that does provide promise for our community and the fact that we can -- not just industry but other opportunities, i believe it is transportation and

logistics but we can be a force to be reckoned with in economic development. connell: a lot of things going for you but the more recent history of blight and trouble how do you turn that around? >> by not being a one horse town. our lesson now is that because we were so heavily dependent on steel, we fail when the steel industry fell. when the steel industry made a come back, our come back lies in diversified and it is health care and transportation. it is all of those things. >> appreciate the time. good to meet you in person, great city, gary, indiana, great spot. we will be reporting throughout the day from gary talking about the possibility of economic -- this doesn't come through, she has other big ideas, this town in northwest indiana. connell: so important to towns like that. millions of people are set to

hit the road christmas eve or already on the road. listening to us on serious acts am, what are people paying at the pump and give you bring up the screen and show the gas prices same as last year's so not bad. from gas but, tom closea joins us. next year you expect a lot of volatility, wild ride for gas prices? >> absolutely and i think it will be a typical roller-coaster with the higher prices in the spring when everyone thinks we are not going to have enough fuel and i have a hunch we might see a real baak end loaded year with a lot lower prices in the second half of 2014. connell: the lower price is something we're hearing more about. >> most of it relates to crude and there will be a dialogue about crude-oil exports next year but i don't think export capability is going to be granted so we are going to have a big discount for domestic crude similar to what we had this year and that will

trickle-down to the consumer. my suspicion is we will start blear, get a little spike and go above $3.75 but i would not be surprised if by the end of the year we are not a lot lower and if you live in the middle of the country that is where the cheap crude is coming from from canada to north dakota, from the rockies and you will see better prices than on the coast. dennis: accused business in north dakota and talking about the u.s. team general producing more. i wanted to ask your reasoning for that because one thing i was thinking of, economic growth, the economy might pick up and then you would think the demand for oil and gas would become with it but does one balance out the other in terms of production? >> not much. when you think about it, the key interest rate that is turning over the fleet and we're going to get 36.5 mpg by 2016 sell most of the new vehicles will

get better mileage. a lot of young people are not getting cars, they are not hoping to get their license or whatever so is difficult for demand to advance next year. we will be the beneficiaries of more supply and less demand but we will start the year on a rocky note. connell: the americans will never get smaller cars, some don't even get cars at all but now we are at the pointtwhere people are finding it cost-effective -- even if you get a bigger car is more efficient gasolinewhy is that older cars. >> only thing i worry about is people gravitate to smaller cars and what i see michael bolton advertising on thes italia and gets kenny g we will see those go down into the dumps. connell: line of the year, a toyota gets kenny g we are all in trouble. if anybody gets kenny g. merry christmas, happy new year. the 24 until december, it was worth it.

santa and not the only one working today, repairs to the international space station under way and details on that. we will report on the space walk coming up. dreaming of a white christmas we head to the fox weather center. we will be right back. true? in today's markets, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market cters to look for the best possible price -- maybe even better than you expected. it's all part ofof our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidely investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason

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connell: we have our favorite holiday movies no matter how bad they might be, so today we thought we would spend a couple minutes talking about that and here delivering the top five christmas movies of all time kevin mccarty, fox news contributor. good to see again. we have -- i will go in order to get through this and get your reasoning, top five of all time, people disagree if they want to. number 5 is the christmas story. you go classic on us. >> christmas story ii an absolute classic, it just turned 30 years old in november and i am starting to feel a little bit of gold because i'm turning 30 in march but this film is a

simple story, dealing with a kid who wants the bb gun for christmas and peter billings lee, the actor is now director, he directed couples retreat, this movie had so many classic elements, you had the lead lap, i had two led ornaments at home, it is just a classic and runs 24 hours from christmas eve to christmas day on tv stations around the country. check your local listings. connell: we will talk about home alone in a minute. a lot of people say that is classic christmas as well but going old school it is a wonderful life made the list which it had. >> not only one of the greatest christmas movies every day but one of the greatest movies of all time, did not do what the box office, was poorly received, didn't win any academy awards, one of the greatest movies ever

made, jimmy stewart, the story, a beautiful christmas movie, i watch it every christmas eve and it brings a smile to my face. dark film for the late groove, i love that. connell: home alone would make the list at number 3. is that one of your personal favorite? >> looking back on this movie i forgot how violent this was as a kid. think about what macaulay culkin does, interesting trivia about this movie, the movie he is watching, the gangster film where he says keep the change, you kill the animal, that is a fake movie that was shot for home alone, parity of a james cagney films, the tarantula on daniel stern's face in the movie is a real spider. they had him mime his green and dubbed the scream in later because if you actually screen it would have bit him right in

the face. connell: learning a lot from you with trivia inside home alone. before we get to no. one which we were doing a survey around here and a lot of people agree with you which may be good news, number 2 is die hard. >> i love die hard. the christmas movie takes place on christmas eve, one of the greatest action movies of all time, back in the 60s frank sinatra made a movie called the detective based on a book, that was turned into a sequel which dog art is based on so contractually frank sinatra had to be offered the role in die hard at the age of 73. he turned the roll down and other actors were offered the role but bruce willis took the role when shooting a tv show called moonlighting and now we have bruce willis, that is number 2. number one is something people agree with in the production

meeting. everyone across the board, kevin has this right. can't even remember you saw it. what is number one? >> love actually. i watch it every christmas day. ten interconnected love stories, great cast, liam neeson, hugh grant, and nominated for academy award this year, so many great actors in this film and of course christmas is all around us throughout the whole film. a great christmas movie. i love it as my no. one but there are so many others out there. and scrooge but what is yours? >> that didn't make the list. >> that is in my top-10 but those are my top five. die hard.

die hard -- they are pointing at the screen. >> a picture of you on the poster. connell: literally pointing at the screen. merry christmas, thank you. i don't know whether i saw love actually but i probably did at some point. >> people following me at twitter. >> shameless plug. and nasa astronaut spending a weekend in a completely different way, performing the second christmas eve spacewalk ever trying to repair the cooling system. quite a job to have on christmas eve at the international space station. phil keating covering the story out of miami. first of all any issues with the space suits? a big issue with the italian astronaut, the water filling up but what about this time around? >> great relief today not only

258 miles but houston's mission control, most were blown dry all day unlike previous week to spacewalks including saturday at the end of the space walk and the airlock, and on the backside of the spacesuit, that really does remind us all that the risk is great out there, they have become so routine. mike hopkins, the big boom arm seemed a sparkling, module which weighs 800 pounds on earth, not of their and inside the space statiin, swung him all the way to the other side, and snug in to place. >> another trend to continue. okay. >> mission control and the astronauts in this space walk

for four hours at this point, now at a point where they are trying to attach the fluid lines, each elliptical lines, the fluid lines that will allow the ammonia which helps cool the space station into the module and into the system, tangled up tinker with that this moment. connell: as we follow that, it could wrap up today. could it be christmas day what is the plan? >> it is possible with the current issue with the tangled line and the couple to figure out, and a bump test which will flush the ammonia through the pump module which was towed up there to see if it works and at 8:00 central time, a full line test, the cooling system is again pulling this space station they won't have to go on christmas day but for the past two weeks with only one cooling system working up there it

reduced all the research of fare by 30% and on this christmas eve a lot of mission control during spacewalks nasa reports no conflicts tonight with the big guy. >> i checked with our trajectory and ballistics officer in mission control. we are not working any possible conjunctions or avoidance maneuvers for a sleigh being pulled by reindeer and occupied by a jolly man with vote beard and red suit for the next two days. this guys are all clear. >> that is great news tonight. we will get that red ryder bb gun. connell: that makes asleep allottees year. and the space walk will check back on that later in the day. the weather starting to feel the cold come in. trying to get into the weather in a moment with the latest forecast. ♪

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connell: it looks like it is going to be white christmas for half of the country give or take. there was data from government scientists that as of the week it ended december fifteenth 3% and the u.s. was covered with snow. some of that is still here. maria molina joins us from the fox business what this center with our christmas forecast. >> we had a storm system that warm things up over the weekend breaking records across portions of the northeast and that helped to melt a lot of snow on the i-95 cord or but we have a lot of leftovers know from previous storm systems so far this fall

and early winter. that storm that produced base accumulation across the great lakes and new england over the last several days is finally off the coast leaving behind much quieter conditions so it does look good in terms of anyone traveling to see family, other cities or keep that in mind we are looking relatively quiet. a few snow showers in portions of the great lakes and the rockies. behind the storm you will notice is going to be very cold out there. windchill temperatures below 0 in minneapolis and it feels like 20 below in the city of fargo. high temperatures today only in the teens for chicago, minneapolis, 40s in new york city and as far as who is expecting a white christmas a lot of children and a lot of adults as well, one of the only days out of the you see a lot of snow fall. part of the rockies expecting a white christmas, the northwest across the midwest and interior parts of the northeast, that is where we could be looking at a

white christmas. high-temperature is a little warmer for you in chicago, upper 20s tomorrow, new york city will be a cold one, high of 29. connell: merry christmas, thank you very much. merry christmas everybody watching out there. thanks for watching us on markets now. i will see you there is a. the stock market closes early in about an hour so "countdown to the closing bell" is coming up next. new home sales, santa claus rally, where your money should be put heading into the new year and places you should avoid. got you covered on this shortened trading day. liz claman is up next.

♪ liz: christmas eve. good afternoon, everybody. i'm liz claman. it is a last hour of trading on this, of course, special trading day, and it is jordan, so that is why i am here at noon.

stocks certainly far. santa crop to five santa claus rally, i am making the analogy, like cars on the table. no jumping off. at least not yet. let me tell you why the major indices are higher. they are getting another ramp up today in parts because of a key piece of economic data. we are showing video of aircraft because they fall into that durable-goods orders area. jumping three and a half% in november. the increase was led by a near 22% increase in the demand for commercial aircraft. just another great number. we have an interesting number out of housing. and new home sales number also hoping the market. let me walk you through this. the headline number dipped over 2 percent in november after rising the month before. not great, you say? this particular number is up 16% year-over-year. the actual numbers,