general motors turns a corner-- as the government backs out of its bailout. in today's cover story.. will it be clear skies ahead for the new american airlines? plus --the great divide...the trick to making money as the income gap grows wider. and ...and the surprising connection between making travel plans and technical stock trading. first business starts now. good morning! it's tuesday, december 10th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: gm is no longer government motors! the treasury has sold off its final stake in the bailed out automaker. it ends "that" chapter of the financial

crisis. gm shares are trading near the high of the year-- and gained 1% yesterday to close at $40.90. the s&p closed at a new high yesterday. the rest of the market at modest gains and loses.. wicked weather continues. heavy snow is expected to the east.. while in the west california citrus growers fear freezing temps will damage crops. and, a final farewell to nelson mandela today. as 91 world leaders, 4 american presidents and masses of mourners pay tribute in south africa. jim richter of performance trust joins us on this tuesday morning. good morning, jim. > > good morning, angie. > > we're hearing more from the fatheads those fed presidents now starting to leak that maybe we will see a taper before the end of the year. how is the bond market reacting? > > well the head of the richmond fed president who has been fairly vocal in his

opposition to the quantitative easing programs has come out and said he expects a healthy debate and even the st. louis president who has historically supported all this using quantitative easing himself has said with the improving labor market that he expects the odds to increase now with tapering. > > how does somebody prepare for a tapering? what would you do in the bond market right now to maybe profit on this? or maybe escape some sort of a collision that could happen. > > yeah a great question-- definitely if you look back to may when the taper discussion was put on the table, that was a very painful time to own bonds. really june and july-- i should say the summer was a tough time and if you take a look back the 10 year treasury

at the time was trading around a 180. today the 10 year treasury is trading around 290 and ironically you could make a case that a lot of the taper is already been priced in the market. we're 110 basis points higher in yield on the 10 year treasury from where we started back in may. > > good to know thank you, jim. > > all right. after the international machinists and aerospace workers union voted overwhelmingly to reject a boeing contract offer, washington residents are bracing for the strong possibility that at least part of boeing's future could be somewhere other than the pacific northwest. washington state's largest private employer is now shopping around for another state to build its new triple-7x jet after that vote. california, missouri and texas have all submitted formal appeals for the program. meanwhile boeing has begun testing models of its new triple-7x -- this is done with miniature models in a wind tunnel and is a major step in a plane's development process. a 2-day investigative hearing gets underway today in to the crash of asiana airlines flight 214. 3 people were killed after the jet built by boeing crashed on approach to san francisco international airport july 6th.

the hearings in dc will focus on pilot awareness in the aircraft which was highly automated. testimony will include the design of the b-777, pilot training of the high tech instruments on board. and how the korean government overseas the training program. there will also be comments from the san francisco fire department on the emergency response. the new, largest airline in the world gained a little altitude in its first day of trading... floating above $25 for a brief time. american airlines group-- the new name for the merged american airlines and u.s. airways opened on the nasdaq under the ticker a-a-l. our cover story examines how it looks on takeoff. (clang, clang..(opening bell)) american airlines group starts off as a philosophy as much as its name. the pilots, flight attendants and ground workers backed american's merger with u.s. airways, largely after u.s. airways chairman reached out to gain their support...offering them a better deal than american, which was in bankruptcy restructuring. essentially, you had labor

pushing with the smaller company to get the bigger company to do something it probably didn't want to do. as part of the restructuring, american's flight attendants, for example, will receive from nine-to-11-million shares in the new company. there was also a deal for the justice department: both airlines agreed to sell off to competitors nearly 140- takeoff and landing slots in new york and washington, d.c., to increase competition for consumers. you'll see this type of merger for the last ten years and it's worked out for consumers in lower faires....higher fees, but lower fares. analysts say most of the management will come from u.s. airways. but integrating the vast computer system for reservations will rely on american---easier for the larger system to absorb data from the smaller one.at the initial announcement. the value of the companies was 11 billiion. it's now 18 billiion, which tells me they're making strategic moves by both managements. and i think that investors may want to buy now, rather than wait to see how things work out in 18-months.

a couple of mergers to report from the food industry... sysco-- as in s-y-s-c-o is buying food distributor u.s. foods for $3.5 billion in cash and stock. once the deal closes sysco is expected to turn out annual sales of $65 billion dollars. and post-- the cereal company behind honey bunches of oats-- is agreeing to acquire golden boy foods. post is looking to expand its presence in the sport nutrition bar category. another miss from mcdonald's. the burger giant posts another month of sluggish sales. at resturants open at least a year, sales slid point 8% in november. analysts had expected a sales gain of point 3%. mcdonald's has been struggling for more than a year now --as its market share is eaten away by competitors. tweaks to its budget-conscious dollar menu were the most recent move. whether those resonate with diners will show up in the chain's december numbers. a price jump is happening at the gas pump. the average for a

gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $3.26. up 7 cents from a month ago. phil flynn -- a fox business news contributor and oil trading pro at price futures group joins -- why the increase phil? you know we've seen a significanjt jump in the price of crude oil. we saw a big pop up, we had a few refinery issues, and i think it's the increased demand that we've seen. us demand has really exploded over the last couple of weeks and that's a good thing. my belief is that the longer-term trend we have the brend crude coming down, that's usually good for gasoline prices and the us refiners are producing at a record pace. so the good news is that the short term we saw prices go up, but the longer trend is still down." thanks for the update.. a new study by the association of executive search consultants says the biggest demand in manufacturing is for executives who can motivate as well as manage. the study ranked the top skills sought by industrial and manufacturing companies

ready to make a change at the top. they prioritized in this order, the rest of what they considered key skills: leadership, strategic thinking, sector knowledge and ranked last--communication. some manufacturing is in fact, coming back to the u.s. and with some automation to overcome the cost, it will bring manufacturing closer to market and that will create some jobs in the united states. as for what to expect in 2014, executives from the manufacturing sector believed the most impact will involve cutting costs, human resources and automation. questionable hiring practices in china by jp morgan chase are being reported... according to the new york times, federal authorities have uncovered documents on the bank's decision to hire children of top chinese government officials. emails reportedly detail accounts of jp morgan's sons and daughters hiring program. it includes

spreadsheets listing ways the bank converted t "hires" into business deals. the times also reports- -there is no indication people at jp morgans headquarters in new york were aware of the practices. the bank is declining comment. there's good news coming from capitol hill -- that's right good news. it is looking increasingly likely that congress will strike a deal on a 2014 budget before adjourning for the year. given the rancor of the past several months, this is causing many raised eyebrows. the plan funds the government for the next 12-months for slightly more than a trillion dollars. the negotiators are house and senate budgets chairs who could send the budget to the full congress this week. as it stands, the budget does not extend emergency unemployment benefits but does lift some sequester cuts. despite a shareholder protest-- abercrombie and fitch is re- newing the contract of its controversial ceo. the new agreement extended for 1 year-- ties compensation for ceo mike jeffries to the company's performance. last week, hedge fund firm engaged capital--

launched a campaign to have jeffries replaced due to "many years of mismanagement" sales have declined 7 months in a row. the stock closed down 2% yesterday eight major tech companies in the u.s. signed an open letter urging the government to make sweeping changes to its surveillance laws. writing that people won't use technology they can't trust, the letter urges the government to be more transparent and accountable about its practices. the letter was published on the website reformgovernmentsurveillance.com . senior executives including some ceos from companies such as aol, facebook, google , linkedin, microsoft, twitter and yahoo signed the letter. a new sympathy button is said to be in the works at facebook. for now facebook users have two choices on the website: a thumbs up if they like a post or thumbs down if they don't. the bbc reports-- developers are creating a button that would reflect- " hey" i sympathize" with what you are posting. the report says a facebook created the new button as an internal project-- and

there are currently no plans for its launch. it's a new year and a new chief executive for hologic. former head of stryker corp., james macmillan, is in the top spot. it's the third ceo in less than a year for the medical device maker. jack cumming took over for robert cascella in july. the company also named two new independent board members, both managing directors of icahn capital. it's a not-so-happy anniversary for victims of bernie madoff. this month marks five years since madoff was sent to prison for 150 years for bilking billions of dollars from trusting investors in a ponzi scheme. so far, courts have recovered more than $9.5 billion to distribute to former-clients through an ongoing claims process. but most are struggling to move on after losing their life savings. hilton worldwide is moving up the date for its ipo to "this" thursday instead of friday. the potential $2.7 billion ipo

could become the second-largest of the year. hilton plans to sell up to 130 million shares for around $18 to $21. shares would trade under the ticker h-l-t on the new york stock exchange. it's suggested the change of date is due to strong demand from ipo investors. still to come... as the rich get richer---- how to up your chances of making more money... plus-- how to use trading skills to get cheap seats on flights... and later on... cheap eats. why mcdonald's could fatten up your portolio-- stick around...

top business economists are offering upbeat predictions about the economy... in a new survey by the national

association of business economics... leaders say unemployment will continue to fall next year with 200,000 jobs added each month. and that, wages will rise by 2.4% the one caveat-- consumer spending will remain tight-- growing just 2.4% in the midst of continuing economic struggle in the nation comes word that household net worth has hit an all-time high.new federal reserve data just released says net worth for households increased $1.9 trillion to $77.3 trillion in the third quarter. the gains are thanks in large part to the increasing value of stocks, mutual funds and real estate. economists caution that these numbers are just one indicator and only represent those who own equities and their own homes. the great gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing wider-- chris kahn of bankrate.com is here with the stats via skype this morning.. hello and let's break this down. how quickly are incomes growing for the top 5% versus the middle versus the bottom

5%.? > > yeah that's a great question and a great place to start. just to back up a little bit just to recognize bank rate, what we did for the last several months is really focused on income numbers from the u.s. census over the past 20 years. we really wanted to see how fast is that income gap growing? and is this really just one segment of the population that's responsible for the growing gap or is this really something current that's going through the entire economy. we basically looked at 18 to 24 year olds all the way down-- every single age group that we found that the gap is growing for every single age group from 18 to 24 all the way to 65 and up. the biggest income gap that we found is really 35 and 44 year-olds is growing the most between 20 years ago and today. > > what's the problem? because the labor market is growing-- it's improving. > > yeah you really have to look. when you talk about income gap, you're talking about

the distribution of incomes within the society. so you're looking at the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor and everything in between. and when you're really comparing 20 years ago with today-- you're really taking a look at two different economies and that's really important to take a look at. first of all the economy is a completely different place. we have maybe a million or so immigrants that have recently come into this country. they on average make less than your average native population. that's one thing. you have to look at the change in the the manufacturing of service sectors. the employers have sent millions of jobs overseas over the past 20 years and many of those folks had to find other jobs-- lower paying jobs-- maybe jobs with fewer hours-- that's another issue. finally on the other end of the spectrum you talk the state taxes state taxes that system is one of the main ways the government has redistributed income over time. that whole system has been decimated over the past 10 years or so. we see the government allow wealthy individuals to send more and more of their income to their children and grandchildren. > > and very quickly before and you take off, how critical is it to have a college degree in the current environment? > > education is essential every single thing that we look at shows us that the higher education level that you attain, the higher your income the better your health care and the better your able to have

control over your financial future. education is everything. you can't emphasize it enough. > > great to have the on the show. thank you, chris. thank you. coming up... the surprisingly savvy way some "traders" get deals on airlines tickets- and why one money manager is beefing up his portfolio with shares of mcdonald's. that's after this in the know message

see these hands? they gripped the wheel of a humvee in afghanistan. twelve years, flying choppers.

my hands? they're here for the person who fought in afghanistan. i made the call and got support for my sister. mine take care of the person who flew those helicopters. and if life gets overwhelming they're ready to dial the veterans crisis line. confidential help is just a call, click or text away. well one path to entrepreneurial success - take what you know and apply it to a wholly different application, need or setting. well that's what robert & heidi brown did. took their knowledge & expertise in the algorithms of options trading and... > > well we applied that to the travel industry and essentially giving people an option on an airline ticket or the ability to hold a flight for up to three weeks while they finalize their travel plans. > > options away is the name of the company you recently won $10,000 as sort of a shark tend tank competition-- congratulations. so it's not that you cracked the code of dynamic pricing that the airlines use. what exactly did you do?

> > we merged a few things together. it's those algorithms that we use in the financial options market. a very good understanding of revenue management and the airline's space and the consumer behavior around needing more time to wait until the weekend when you can kick back and relax and take time to decide about an airline ticket then. > > robert tell me about the moment of epiphany when you and your wife came up with the idea. > > it was a few years ago, actually. we were in london-- i was working in the futures and options industry for a division of cantor fitzgerald and we ran a hotel in london and heidi, a former fx trader, was trying to decide how to start a company and said we should take something we know and something we love and merge them together and having traveled the world together and looking from the financial industry that's we did. we put those two things together and formed options away. > > and you mixed in sort of a third component which was human behavior.

> > yeah exactly. everybody's short on time right now and as much as people are interested in locking in the price of a ticket, a lot of time it's a matter of saying when will i have time to decide if the trips even going to work for me. we give them that time that they need. so this is a b to c play, but how do you compete with the others out there like kayak and price line? they spend a lot to offer full-service deals. > > yeah these guys are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on customer acquisition and to be honest we launched our b to c play because what we're doing is so unique and different, but were in the process now starting to work with some of the major on-line travel agencies global distribution services and ultimately we want to be powering those solutions as the cme or cboe, the exchange behind-the-scenes and so they can offer options to their consumers as well. > > well if you get some deals there certainly you will take off as a successful company. it's all ready doing very well. options away. robert, thank you. > > thank you very much. love those trading tricks bill... still ahead -- why now could get a good time to get a taste of mcdonald's stock-- chart talk is next with

matt shapiro, president of mws capitol joins us right now and

matt, good morning to you. > > good morning, angie. > > you have an appetite for mcdonald's but why buy this stock? > > well i've been accumulating it actually in this weakness that we've seen. yesterday they had, of course, disappointing same-store sales comps and investors beat up the stock a little bit dropped a buck but i'm making it one of my largest holdings in the top-10 at mws capital because it's sort of long-term hold you got to buy it when they kind of are having a little bit of a tough time. what the report revealed yesterday was that their u.s. strategy is not working that's exactly what i think but i think there's room for big turnaround. and the global numbers were not horrible-- they weren't off the charts bad... > > they've been ok but they're soft spots here and there, but the people have to bear in mind that this company returns about $5 billion to shareholders so while you wait for a turnaround for them to change u.s. product strategy, which i agree has not been great-- you still get over 5 percent on your money.

> > alright so you're accumulating here, what would be a level where you would stop buying the stock because the price to be too high? > > well i'm comfortable buying it all the way up into the-- up to a hundred or so. i think it's going to be stable right around here. you'll notice that the stock has actually, on a technical basis, set some higher lows and higher highs as a short-term basis over the last three months. so if your a technical guru i think it looks good and should hold here around 95 and 96. > > well we relish the thought that you'll see a good return. thank you. > > you're welcome angie. we are running out of time for today... coming up tomorrow-- ideas on how to invest in in the growing area of fish farms. we wade into the waters wednesday. from all of us at first business.. .have a terrific tuesday!

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