a new shopping season is born as retailers embrace the post holiday hustle. in today's cover story...why shipping companies are in the midst of a p-r nightmare. plus... tips on how to handle your end of the year charitable giving. and...stocks on a hot streak... our traders tell us whether or not these shining stars can keep up the good work! that's all ahead on today's first business! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's friday, december 27th.i'm chuck coppola. angela miles is off, today.in today's first look:stocks soar on wall street.the dow and s&p hit new highs, pushed higher by postive jobs data and gains in the

retail sector. the dow gained 122 points, breaking a new record high. the nasdaq gained 12 and the s&p also pushed its way up to a record at 18-42. gold gained 8 dollars, oil up 40 cents. a sinking feeling among investors of the empire state building...they've filed a lawsuit accusing a real estate team of ignoring cash offers worth billions to enrich themselves in an i-p-o, instead. president obama signs a bipartisan budget deal while vacationing in hawaii. it eases military cuts under the sequester, but pares down pension increases. it also combats sexual assault among troops. and gasbuddy-dot-com predicts gas prices will be temperate in 20-14 but may spike to just below four-dollars a gallon by spring let's get our day started with ben lichtenstein of traders audio good morning ben! >>good morning. >>new record highs in the market yesterday. what's all the fuss about?

>>well, higher highs and higher lows for the most part. i think it's just a continuation of the pattern that we have been seeing in this holiday market. it's been kind of a thin trade but you have to give it to the bulls. again, conviction to the upside. basically zero in terms of any real pullback and zero in terms of any real rejection. we saw the jobless claims come in a little bit lower than expected but for the most part that wasn't the real catalyst. we saw some divergent type activity developing throughout the day. the nasdaq just didn't want to partcipate. the russell spent most of the day in range. the russell wasn't exhibiting the type of energy yesterday that we saw in the major markets. but for the most part, it's just this continuation of the pattern. it's this euphoric type pattern that we have been seeing. the market recently went into vertical development which is the phase where it seeks value. in this case it's vertical to the upside so right now this market is seeking value to the upside and will continue to go higher until the

perception of value has changed. right now the perception of value is higher. the ony reason to short this market is if you don't like money. >>give us your take on this week's drop in the jobless claims. it was the biggest weekly drop in more than a year. >>i think potentially seasonali just heard somebody talk about it after that most recent surprising gdp number. a couple of really positive economic indicators that we've seen over the last week or so but we need to see some repetious type activity. one blip on the screen isn't necessarily gonna be some major groundshaking type event. this marketit wasn't due to jobless that we saw the higher highs today for the most part. for the most part, the initial reaction at 730 yesterday was that we saw those limited reaction to the jobless data released yesterday. for the most part, this market is just a continuation of that pattern that we've been seeing. the trend is higher right now. i think that anybody that doesn't see that on the screen should probably not be trading. >>ben lichtenstein, thank you so much. >>my pleasure, thank you. diane moca joins us now with a look at how an increase in holiday shipments actually hurt u-p-s.

chuck... in today's cover story... u-p-s is fielding a slew of complaints from customers who say the shipping giant delivered empty promises instead of gifts... falling short of consumer expectations at the same time they were exceeding their own projections for volume. "it's crazy. we can't even sit down for lunch." despite u-p-s employees working long hours this month... the parcel service wasn't able to prevent delays in shipments that were supposed to arrive by christmas. "it was said that you have to tell someone, i ordered your christmas present, but it's not here." that's what brooke bucher told her grandma... arriving empty- handed more than a week after ordering online. experts say bad weather... a shortened shopping season... and ambitious delivery guarantees created a perfect storm. "a lot of consumers were waiting for deals and that allowed them to procrastinate and wait 'til the last minute." u-p-s spokeswoman nataline godwin says the company... expected an "8 percent" increase over their average daily delivery of "16 million"

packages..but the "volume of air packages exceeded the capacity of the network." "they get their money back if it was some problem that was a ups problem other than weather." the company decided not to send out trucks on december 25th...eliciting both criticism and support on the u-p-s facebook page.federal express and amazon-dot-com's pages were also littered with complaints about christmas deliveries not arriving as scheduled. fed ex says "we experienced no major service disruptions in the week before christmas despite heavy volume... we will... address any isolated incidents. " amazon-dot-com says it "processed and tendered customer orders to delivery carriers on time for holiday delivery." "i would suspect next year we would see fewer guarantees from retailers or perhaps looser guarantees." "does it make you hesitant to order online in the future, especially around the holidays? no, because i find the best prices online a lot of times." the u-p-s spokeswoman says the company made "every effort" to

deliver delayed packages the day after christmas.stock prices for u-p-s... federal express... and amazon-dot-com were all up slightly.. during a day of low volume. u-p-s isn't the only one with a holiday hangover. a surge in post holiday shopping has commenced even as the christmas season comes to a close.big discounts and sales continue today at retail stores around the nation, and online. walmart is offering 25% to 50% discounts, target is cutting prices by 40% to 50% and amazon is slashing prices by up to 60%. usa today reports retailers are hoping for a big bump after the holidays. mastercard is already reporting that consumers spent more this christmas than last year, as retailers pulled out all the stops with discounts and promotions. a former blackberry co-founder is dropping out.. and cashing in. co-founder michael lazaridis scrapped his plan to buy the company and take it private with another executive. he sold $26 million worth of shares. it brings his stake below five percent.it comes one week after the struggling smartphone maker posted a huge quarterly

loss.blackberry shares open today, up 2%. it may be a softbank landing for t-mobile. the tokyo-based bank is in talks to purchase wireless carrier t-mobile from deutche telekom in a deal valued at 20-billion dollars. it comes less than six months after the federal communications commission approved softbank's aquisition of another carrier-- sprint.if finalized, the combination would create the world's second-largest mobile carrier, by revenue.but the justice dpartment has indicated that it intends to scrutinize any consolidatation bids.and the f-c-c denied a-t-and-t's application for t-mobile, two years ago. t-mobile shares were up 2 percent on thursday. start ups are surging in japan. hundreds of entrepreneurs are launching internet and tech companies in the eastern nation. the country has lagged in its contributions to the world of tech, as other countries such as south korea and china have sprung ahead. now, with help from japanese universities, more energy is being poured into helping launch smaller ventures. the new york times reports the

japanese prime minister shinzo abe has created an optimistic tone in the economy, and a rise in interest from investors. china's top economic planning group says china's growth is slowing. according to the state- run news agency, china's national development and reform commission forecasts that economic growth for 2013 will finish at seven-point-six percent.that's a tenth of a percent less than last year's growth. higher labor and environmental costs pose challenges for business, according to the commission. china's new president is trying to restructure china's economy to be driven by consumption and services, rather than exports and investment. a nationwide strike in cambodia is snagging production in the garment industry. workers also want to oust prime minister hun sen. they say he won his election through vote-rigging and has boycotted parliament for more than five months. workers are protesting the government's decision to raise the industry's minimum wage by 19 percent to $95 a month, starting in april.it falls far short of union demands for $160 a month. garment workers'

salaries are currently equal to wages 13 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. back in the u.s...more than 335-thousand american express customers may see refunds to their accounts if they haven't received them, already.the consumer financial protection bureau has ordered the company to refund 60-million dollars to customers for what it calls "illegal credit card practices."the federal agency says american express charged customers for identity protection but didn't provide the benefit unless customers also provided written consent.the agency says 85% of customers were unaware of the additional requirement but had been billed for the service. wall street is extending its hospitality to the hotel industry with an increasing number of ipos. among them, blackstone group is planning to spin off la-quinta hotels. details have not been announced. two other blackstone- backed hotel companies recently went public with positive

results. earlier in the month 'hilton worldwide' went public in a 2.3 billion dollar ipo - the biggest hotel ipo ever. and 'extended stay hotels' raised $565 million in its ipo last month. 2014 could be the year for home building stocks. traders are watching momentum building in the housing sector. 20 of the industry group's 26 stocks made gains in the market this week, thanks to continued positive data. d-r horton, lennar, and standard pacific are all trading higher.as tri point homes, and toll brothers are already reporting strong sales growth for the year ahead. mcdonald's 'employee website' is making headlines again. the chain is currently fixing its worker site "mcresource line" after it received a wave of crticism for telling employees to avoid fast food due to possible health problems. mcdonalds says the advice was taken out of context, and that a third party vendor supplied the content. it says it instructed the vendor to take down the site. in july, the chain was criticized for being

out of touch with employees' needs when another employee guide offered advice on how to budget life while earning minimum wage. florida's is facing a squeeze in its orange crop. oranges in the state are at the lowest production rate in over two years due to an insect infestation that causes fruit to shrink.it may also cause prices of orange juice to pop. orange juice futures are expected to increase by 18% to a dollar-sixty-four a pound by the end of june.that's up from a dollar-thirty-nine per pound now, according to bloomberg news. more fans of bubbly are "cheering" cheaper options. global sales of champagne are down for the second year in a row. sales are expected to fizz out by three to four percent this year, after a 4 percent drop last year. however, other bubbly options like prosecco or sparkling wine are on the rise. still to come on the show... trader insights following a headline grabbing move in the treasury. plus.... the stocks that are turning heads on wall street...

is it time to buy or stear clear? but first... our next guest gives us some creative ways to give back as years end is fast approaching. stay with us!

the end of the year is always a good time to give back. philanthropic consultant lisa dietlin joins us. lisa, welcome. >>hello. happy holidays. >>happy holidays to you too. it's a couple days after christmas and what can we do to continue the giving spirit? >>it's fairly important to keep giving back. yesterday or the day before we probably received a lot of gifts. yesterday was boxing day and great britain, australia, and canada where they actually box up their gently used clothing and toys and give them to non-profit organizations. one of my

friends in california, she an her daughter, decided to declutter her room in anticipation of the holidays and actually called the domestic violence shelter who said we have these women with children and they don't have enough toys, could you box those up? and so they did an amazing job giving back. >>good ideas. how do we make sure the charitable organization we're giving to receives them before the end of the year? >>we have to get them in before december 31st at 11:59 pm. that's just before midnight. so when you're making a donation via a cashier's check or money order, it's actually the postmark on the envelope that has to be---doesn't matter what check says---it has to be the postmark on the envelope. so, you want to make sure it's mailed in time. if you're giving by credit card or stock donation, you probably want to do that in the next couple of days to make sure that transaction gets processed before 11:59 on december 31st. >>we always think about

charitable giving especially at the end of the year but a lot of organizations need our help throughout the year. how do we give them a leg up in 2014 and get the ball rolling so they have a better idea of what resources they mayhave to work with in 2014. >>i think we have to make a plan---you are absolutely correct. 80% of non-profit organizations receive 50% of their budget in the last 2 months of the year. so they are holding their breath all year long hoping it happens. we as donors can help them by making a plan. i've got this new acronym called let's rave about philanthropy. let's review what we did last year. let's assess where we want to go this year. perhaps someone in our family developed an illness that we want to start supporting. let's valuelet's put a monetary value to that. and let's explore giving throughout the whole year. >>lisa dietlin here for rave reviews, thank you so much for your help. >>happy holidays. happy new year! coming up.... room to run. the stocks that the guys think are going to be winners *again in 2014. that's next in traders unplugged. and later on in chart talk... how long will this santa claus

rally last? we'll be right back. if you'rclosely to the ten "voices of meningitis." it was a tuesday. becky said she didn't feel well. on wednesday, we said our final good-byes. i was there when my son took his first breath. and i was there when he took his last. not everyone who gets meningitis...dies. i wasn't sure she'd make it. the infection spread so fast. we learned about the vaccine after he got sick. we are the "voices of meningitis." (overlapping voices) join school nurses and families nationwide by adding your voice. meningococcal meningitis may be rare, but it's often devastating... ...you can help prevent it. get vaccinated. health officials recommend vaccination for preteens and teens. talk to your child's school nurse or health-care provider,

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traders unplugged is back in action on this friday.alan knuckman and scott shellady join us from the trading floor. good morning guys! >>good morning. >>let's get right into our first topic. the 10 year treasury note hit 3%. what does that mean for the stock market? alan: nothing. absolutely nothing. it's a sign of optimism. it means, if we close above 3%, we're going to 3.5% because we've gone from 2.5 up to 3, so a half point move to the upside. good things are happening in this world my friend. scott: he's a fundamentalist and he does actually believe that economy is doing a lot better. the 10 year has slowly but surely moved up and that's a good sign of steady and stable progress, however, when

we do get to that 3 level there will be automatic selling of stocks. i think that ultimately you will see that 10 year go back to 2.7 because we don't have the solid footing that i think the rest of the world thinks we're on. alan: you gotta believe! please just believe. scott: that's called hope and we don't do that in trading. chuck: let's talk about some other areas that are doing pretty well. there are 10 s&p stocks that are up 100% for the past year. which of them are still a good buy? scott: i'm gonna go with netflix. even though that's been up 300% the last year, i think they've got some market changing technology. they're now dialing up shows that you have on demand rather than the ones we see on the networks. alan: so you watch tv?

scott: i don't watch tv but i know what my daughter does and i know what all of her friends do and it's the way of the future. they dial up things. they don't like watching it live. alan: my stock is boston scientific. the stock stairstepped---it went from 6 to 8 to 10---so now it's going to 14. it's medical devices so with an aging population that's gonna be helpful to people in the future. look for a $2 move rather quickly. chuck: moving on to topic number 3. general motors used to be called government motors. they paid back a lot of that money but still 10 billion dollars outstanding. should it make good on the rest of it? alan: no, they don't have to. that's the deal they made. they actually paid it off early. i'm from michigan. it was very helpful and that's part of the reason that the stock market has come back because people have a little confidence that the right thing was done---and this is america. scott: he's from detroit that's why he thinks it's the right thing to do. i don't know if the general u.s. population

believes that the government knows what to do with our money better than we know what to do with our money. clearly, they know what to do with our money better than we do because they've given it to a company that doesn't feel like they have to pay it back. i've got family and friends i can lend money to and they won't pay it back. i don't need to do it to gm. we should have let them go through the bankruptcy process and they'd be a much healthier company today. alan: it wouldn't have worked at that time. no one would have let it happen. the portfolio of companies that they helped out, the portfolio made money as a whole--- chuck: alright guys i gotta finish up with a bonus round. the new film wolf of wall street is based on the true story of wall street crook jordan belfort. around how much money did belfort rip off from investors prior to his conviction for securities fraud in 1998? is it: $200 million, $400 million, or $800 million ? alan: if it was $1 it was too much. he was a very scummy individual. scott: i'm gonna say $200 million. alan: $200 million! that's like nothing. scott: well they only recovered 12 million so that's 10 cents on the dollar. chuck: scott you win it! $200 million. thanks for playing guys. have a great day. first business continues right after this. i'afeck,

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in chart talk today we're joined by ira epstein of the linn group. good morning ira. >>thanks for having me chuck. >>the 10 year treasury note hit 3%. what do you see here? >>it's interesting---the scrimmage line moved is what happened. if you recall, the fed started talking this past summer about tapering back a little bit. the market got very nervous and we saw some

negative reactions. then people were talking that the 3% number on the 10 year would be a number that slows the economy down. you hit it today and the result was all time highs in most stock indices.so what has happened is the market has become accustomed and believes that the interest rate sector is going to go higher but the economy is healthy enough to absorb a 3% let alone maybe a 3 . beyond that you will probably get some nervousness. >>also let's get your take on momentum in the market. what are some of the indices that you're watching? >>if i had a big white beard i could call myself santa claus because this is the traditional santa claus rally. it began as soon as uncle ben, that's ben bernanke, announced the taperingwhich i think took a lot of analysts by surprise. the market didn't react to it in a negative way and it has not looked back basically at all since that occurred. here we are in the christmas season and the market's rallying up. it's day after day of record highs.

it's hard to get into the market as you know because it doesn't give much of a pullback. what will probably happen is we'll continue this way into the 1st of the year then more of a trading band will start developing in a number of markets. >>i suspect ira that you're watching a number of currencies. which in particular are you watching? >>you have to watch the japanese yen. japan is determined to get their currency down. australia is probably another one that wants to get their currency lower and the reason is by doing so their export businesses pick up. don't get me wrong, we've got the same argument in the swiss and that currency particluarly because it's tied itself to the euro. the simple fact is it all depends on what the dollar wants to do. and her we are with 3% 10 year instruments being hit and the dollar is really flat in the water. the flat dollar has helped to see something of a rally in the gold, silver, and copper markets. on tuesday we saw the copper markets absolutely leapfrogso much by the way that the exchange decided to cut some trades off that occurred overin the march contractthe 342 leveland made that the high when it really wanted the 344 and ½. although they said that those trades were being disallowed. the important thing here is shortcovering, not necessarily new buying. gold still doesn't have an inflation argument so i don't see it more than shortcovering in the short term. but in 2014, it could be really hard for gold to drop another 15-20% in my opinion.

that $1000 level is probably gonna offer some support. it may not even be breached in fact. i think that by the end of the 6 month period, we'll start hearing that maybe the economies of the world are picking up, that people are starting to think not deflation but the seeds of inflation. not inflation yetjust stopping deflation. >>good insight. ira epstein with linn group, what you are about to see is one ladder-the strongest, the safest, the most versatile ladder in the world. the american-made little giant ladder system. twenty four ladders in one. coming up, you'll see amazing demonstrations and hear compelling testi