travel hotspots in 2014... why the buzz is all about brazil. in today's cover story.... how the ipo market is evolving after a record year. plus... bernanke bids goodbye. traders read between the lines of a farewell speech. and... keeping your car in top shape, even when the weather is not so hot. 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 monday january 6th, im chuck coppola. angela miles has the day off.in today's first look: it's the first full week of trading in the new year. last week trading volumes were light after heavy storms hit the northeast. friday the market got a last minute push from fed chariman ben bernanke, as he delivered comments in a q&a. the dow rose

29 points... the nasdaq fell 11, s&p down 1. gold was up 11 dollars and oil moved down a buck 27. traders tuned in as outgoing chairman bernanke defended his policies aimed at economic recovery which included a massive bond buying stimulus program. mr. bernanke also says he anticipates a stronger economy in 20-14. and tomorrow... president obama will host an event at the white house for some workers whose long term unemployment insurance recently expired. he'll deliver a speech urging congress to pass a bill to extend those benefits when they return from recess today. chris gersch of altimus capital joins us now, good morning chris! >>good morning. >>we're now into the first few trading days of the year...what is your gut reaction about where this market is headed? >>my gut reactions is to really

go with what history has told us. and with the santa claus rally that's adding up the five days after christmas along with the 2 days right after new year's. take those 7 days and if you combine the returns if it is positive, 84% of the time you end the year positive. so a lot of traders believe based on that we are going to see continued good times down here in the s&p futures pit. >>while we're talking about the markets i have to ask you what your though about ben bernanke's part of his world tour farewell speech on friday. >>ben bernanke, he's going out but he still moves the markets. the fact that the market rallied almost something like 70 points in the dow in anticipation of bernanke almost throwing a bouquet to the market saying his farewell---that moved the market. then when he started answering questions more about his non belief in auditing the fed and that whole policy and you saw the markets sell off into the close. so the fact that he's relatively out, he's already done his swan song as

far as announcing what he's going to do on the taper. he still does move the markets. >>you weren't really expecting a bouquet from him were you? >>we weren't. the traders were though. i believe that the traders did think he was gonna say something a little bit more positive and move the markets higher into the weekend. i believe that market might sell off this morning. >>let's talk currency. a lot of action on the dollar right now. what's up? >>a lot of action on the dollar is right. the eurozone right now is anticipating as revised pmi's continue to be a little bit lower. unemployment is still above that 12% rate for the eurozone that there's gonna be some quantitative easing. so we had over a 2 penny pullback just in the last 2 trading sessions. look for that to continue this week as well. >>chris gersch of altimus capital thanks so much. >>thank you. 2013 marked a big year for new stock offerings, with ipos raising nearly 60 billion dollars, a 40% jump over 2012. in today's cover story, we explore what drove that activity in 2013 and investigate whether more big bucks will flow to new stock names in 2014. pipeline investor plains gp

holdings was the biggest, hilton hotels the most recognized ,and twitter the most anticpated ipo in a year when a total of 222 firms went public in the us. "with the strong ipo market in the past few months, we can say that the window is still gonig to be open and we're still going to see a number of other strong deals coming through the pipeline. " brian bolan of zacks investment research sees the ipo trend continuing in 2014, so long as the broader market continues to climb. "private firms right now are asking themselves 'what is the best time to go public' and certainly it is when the market is moving higher." ipo deal flow in 2013 was the highest since 2000, the height of the dot-com boom. unlike that year, when tech and internet ipo's ruled the day,

now firms in all sectors are hitting exchanges. "this ipo market the profile of companies has proliferated a lot. from one sector to two sectors, to many ipos in a diversified group of industries.financial to consumer to energy unitilites and technology." for the average investor, backing individual ipos can be risky "many companies go to the market, but only 20-30% would be very good performers and the rest would underperform." however the fpx, an etf that tracks 100 the largest domestic stocks up to 4 years after thier ipo, climbed more than 40 percent last year. josef schuster of ipox schuster helped create the investment vehicle. "in our opinion, indexing actually works best for the ipo market. that's really what apply, a broad diversified indexing approach. to the largest respective ipos." backing investment banks could be another way to capitalize on increased ipo activity. according to bolan, names like goldman sachs and morgan stanley will benefit the most from a strong ipo market. joseph a bank clothiers and

hertz car rentals are threatening to issue a large number of stock shares to prevent hostile takeovers. the so-called "poison pills" have been put in place to prevent men's wearhouse from buying up more than 10-percent of joseph a bank stock. that threshold was lowered friday from 20%. and in the case of hertz, c-n-b-c reports activist investor carl icahn is believed to have bought up to 40-million shares of hertz on a swap. not all of it is common stock but hertz shares rose 2.4% on the news. a lack of tech specialists in washington d.c. could spur action from the government. the wall street journal reports the obama adminstration is getting ready to create a new federal unit to take on technology projects.this, of course, follows the shaky rollout of the government's heathcare.gov site, when silicon valley tech experts had to come in to help fix the flawed site. the changes are expected early this year. facebook is accused of poking around in its user's private messages. the social network is being sued for allegedly scanning private messages, then selling information to advertisers. facebook responded

to the claims friday -- stating they are "without merit." the two men who filed the suit hope to make it a class action suit. the dispute over martha stewart products may be over, but macys and jcpenney are still locked in a legal battle. macy's sued penney and martha stewart living omnimedia inc in 20-12 after the two announced a partnership in 2011 that called for penney's to build martha stewart shops in nearly six hundred of its stores.macys and martha came to a settlement last week but macy's is still seeking compensation from jcpenney for damages to recoup attorney's fees and lost profits. some "temporary" relief for the unemployed in spain. jobless numbers in the european country fell by 107 thousand in december. but the data suggests it is temp jobs that are on the rise, as more stable employment declines. ninety-two percent of new employment contracts in the last year are said to be temporary.pain's economy has been one of the hardest hit by the euro crisis, as austerity measures were put into action to help control it's budget troubles. it's prime minister has predicted that 20-14 will be the year spain's recovery takes hold.

if tourism to vatican city is any indication, pope francis is one popular pope. in the last nine and a half months, the number of tourists visiting vatican city topped six million, triple the number of visitors for all of 20-12.pope francis, from argentina, is the first pope from the americas.named time's man of the year in 20- 13, pope francis has spoken openly about income inequality, capitalism and homosexuality.tourism accounts for a little more than 10% of italy's g-d-p. demand for beef is dropping ...and beefing up cattle prices. the us-da is expecting beef output for 2014 to be the lowest since 1993. meanwhile, cattle prices are on the rise, and top beef processors will pay record amounts per pound for cash cattle in all of the major feeding regions. in chicago, prices for live cattle for february delivery reached a record dollar-36 a pound on friday.

scott shellady of trean says bitter cold weather in parts of the u.s. is having a major impact on prices in the short term. but eventually, high prices will curb the clamor for beef. "it's a demand driven market right now. there will be a little bit less demand for a few days while we're really cold. but ultimetly going forward we are going to have to let that market work itself out, where we see high prices curb demand, not just weather." industry analysts say fewer cattle are coming to market as ranchers take advantage of the cheapest feeding costs in three years to build up their herds. cheerios are now "gmo free". general mills has cut out genetically modified ingredients following pressure from consumers. an executive for the company says the decision is not about safety.while consumer groups have pushed food companies to phase out gmos, few studies have ruled the biotech crops are indeed unsafe.cheerios is one of the most popular packaged brands to make the switch. manhattan real estate is hitting a new high. apartment sales are at their highest in 25

years, according to the national association of realtors.the median price of a luxury apartment jumped 10 percent from a year ago to $4.9 million. prices are driven by wealthy wall street execs and international buyers who want to park money in a safe place, according to brokers. while the president and members of congress try to close fannie mae and freddie mac,the mortage giants continue to send huge dividend checks to the u-s treasury. totaling a combined 39-billion dollars for their last quarterly payment.complicating matters, the two have paid off nearly all of the 188-billion dollars used to bail them out back in 2008, when they were considered "too big to fail."a bipartisan bill would replace fannie and freddie with a government agency funded by industry fees. dreamworks is tapping into tablets. the studio, known for hit movies such as "shrek" and "the croods" is partnering with tech company foo-hoo to create a tablet designed specifically for kids. as younger children are becoming familair with tech devices, companies are hoping to design models just for them. the product will be unveiled at the consumer electronics show this week.

netflix expects to see a continued stream of success in 2014. the internet movie and tv show streaming service benefited in 2013 from more subscribers and a soaring stock price.and now the firm's leaders are reaping the rewards. chief executive reed hastings's salary jumped 50 percent. he'll get $3 million each in cash and stock options this year. shares in netflix rose 300 percent in 2013. still to come: how to protect your car as harsh winter weather takes hold. plus... find out why brand new airline regulations could mean delays in your future. but first... the cities where you can get the most bang for your buck on a getaway. that's after the break!

having fun away from home--u-s travel-related spending brought in about 900-billion dollars, last year.jeanenne tornatore, senior editor of orbitz-dot-com joins us with a look at travel trends.hi jeanenne. >>hi. >>how was last year? what can we expect this year? >>last year was a good travel year. we saw our typical top destinations. places like new york, las vegas, and chicago--- these cities tend to be the ones we see most travelers going to and we saw that again in 2013. as we head into the new year we have some predictions for destinations that we think are particularly going to be hot this year. >>so i remember at the beginning of last year new zealand, new orleans, and charleston were mentioned as the top 3 destinations this year. >>this year we do have an international destination that

we think is going to be really hot is brazil. not only are they prepping for the 2016 summer olympics, but they're hosting the world cup this summer which is arguably one of the largest sporting events in the world. they also host the largest gay pride parade in the world in sao paulo. then, toward the end of the year in november they're hosting a grand prix formula one event, which is a major international spectator sport as well. so expect that this as an international destination will be one that will be on many travelers radar's. >>i'm glad you brought up international travel. do you think there's going to be deals for the traveler in either the domestic travel areas or internationally. >>i think travelers are going to be able to find some travel deals both domestically and on the international side. a lot of that really is when you want to travel and how flexible are you. if you're willing to go during the off seasons, during the spring and the fall, that's when travelers can really find some of the international deals. you certainly will be paying a bit more of a premium if you want to head to places like western europe during the really

busy summer months. >>we've just seen the airline mergers of american airlines for example. some people are predicting higher ticket prices in the short term. what do you think, generally speaking? will airfares go up in 2014? >>i'm asked this many many times and it's just something that you really cannot predict even given mergers. one trend i think is interesting as we've seen airlines bring in millions of dollars in revenue from checked baggage fees and extra legroom fees is that now major airlines are starting to offer these luxury amenities. so beyond just offering wifi to travelers on a flight, things like the ability to rent tablets on your flight, flights offering first class suites that have sliding doors and 32 inch monitors. some flights are even offering concierge service where you can get a car to bring you to the airport. this is another way that airlines are going to be looking to bring in additional revenue in the future and for travelers who are willing to spend the money on it, it might just be that extra perk that will get you on one airline vs. another. >>you mentioned tablets, i'm curiousare there more apps for our smartphones that will enable us to book our travels a little bit easier in 2014? >>there certainly are. there are more and more apps that come out into the marketplace every single day. what we're seeing is websites like orbitz have had apps out for the last couple years and they're becoming more transactional. people are not just checking their flight status but actually going on their phone and booking international flights and same day hotel rooms. this is really forcing travel companies to put a lot of money into the back end technology of these to keep

up with technology that they want to push out to consumers. so they're calling it creating a frictionless booking experience for travelers, but that continues to be a really important part and revenue stream for travel companies like orbitz. >>good advice. jeanenne tornatore, happy travels! >>you too. thank you. the airline industry is preparing for delays that could result from new regulations. pilots' schedules are now being adjusted to insure adequate rest time between flights. industry analysts are concerned that the adjusted hours may result in delays for passengers. however, the regional airline association says carriers have added 5% more staff in anticipation of the new rules. thanks paul! coming up....how to insure your car drives like a dream, even in during weather nightmares. but first... the sector that took an unexpected hit at the end of the year. we'll be right back.

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auto sales missed the mark for the last month of the year. december car sales fell short of expectations, as consumers spent more money on holiday shopping, and less on new vehicles. sales fell 6% at gm, and 2% at toyota. ford's sales grew 2%, still lower than expected. despite the down month, auto

sales for 20-13 hit the highest level since 2008. we've been battered by winter weather around much of the u-s, lately, pam oakes, automotive specialist joins us with some tips for keeping our vehicles running during harsh conditions. hi pam, what do we need to keep an eye on? >>first of all, we never want to drive with the check engine light on. it's very bad. it's the vehicle telling us that it needs help. and why stress it out even more with those nasty, cold temperatures. if you drive with the check engine light you're just inviting a trip to your local auto center on the back of a tow truck. >>what about older cars? a lot of us have not purchase a car in a few years. we're trying to keep our old ones running. how do they keep them limping along during winter? >>the average car on the road today is over 11 years old and it's all about maintenance, maintenance, and ohdid i mention maintenance. i always recommend that everybody choose one day of the month go to a shop or dealership and have them top the fluid levels off, have them

put air in your tires. have a professional set of eyes looking at your vehicle. that's going to save you money, because if you have something going on they're going to be able to catch it right away. >>what about motor oil? are there any new oils that have been specially formulated for use during winter? >>actually what you want with motor oil is whatever the manufacturer---each make and model has specific weight. you need to stay with what the manufacturer tells you and don't deviate. >>mom and dad always said keep a full tank of gas in your car during the winter time. does it really matter? does it really help? >>it really does. first of all, if you get stuck in traffic and you have a full tank of gas you're not gonna be worrying about running out of gas before you can get off the freeway. but the second thing is with the cold weather and you're going

to maybe get some condensation build up especially with the exhaust coming back and warming the tank up. so you keep it full and you're not going to get that condensation build up.it's better to have gas in there than water. plus with the weight, it's going to help a little bit with the traction. >>that's a good idea. low profile tires---a lot of car makers are making cars with wheels that are bigger than 14 inches diameter in the rim. is there anything that we can do to mitigate potholes with those sorts of rims? >>isn't that horrible? you're going to get them because they had them 25, 30, 50 years ago and we have them today. what i always recommend is to follow the path of the vehicle in front of you so you can kind of see what's underneath. you can't see of you so you can kind of see what's underneath. you can't see on either i'm going to pass chemistry, and i'll take it from there. i'm going to do what makes me happy. i'm going to work hard. be independent. live large. make the most of every opportunity. i knew i wanted to go to college. but figuring out how to pay for it? i didn't have a clue. the u.s. department of education has over $100 billion.

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my hands are here for the person who treated those soldiers. i helped connect my son with the care he's earned. mine take care of the person who flew those helicopters. and if life gets overwhelming they're ready to dial the veterans crisis line. the veterans crisis line is here for all veterans and their loved ones. call 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. or chat online at veteranscrisisline.net james ramelli of keeneonthemarket dot com joins us now. good morning james! >>good morning. >>you're seeing unusual options activity in two stocks...let's start with northstar realty. >>nrf is a stock that had a really good year last year. the stock was up almost 90% over the past 52 weeks and is trading just off of its 52 week

highs around $17.91. what we saw during friday's trading session, which was a relatively slow and thinly traded session, we saw them come in and buy huge blocks of out of the money calls out to march on the 18 line. 14 thousand had traded by the end of the session on friday. with the stock just off it's 52 week highs in a chart that you really can't get much more bullish. it's a great looking chart. this is a trade that i want to follow. i think this stock has some upside potential through march and when we see them come in and buy calls on a 52 week high we know that this institutional money has a relatively high level of conviction so that's something that i want to follow. >>through march? i'm wondering if that might even continue further into the summer? >>absolutely. we always keep an eye on what they do with this position after they establish it. they could very well come in and roll it out further and i'm going to adjust my targets as i see them adjust theirs. >>very good. what's the other

one you're keeping an eye on for us? >>cno financial. this is a company that's involved in the business of insurance and annuities but that's not really what i'm looking at here.what we saw was some very bullish option activity during friday's trading session. they came in and bought 3,000 out of the money calls through february. with the stock trading at the level it is, they came in with a relatively conservative target so it's a trade that i like. especially when the stock is trading just off of its 52 week highs in a relatively bullish looking chart. they only bought 3,000 contracts, which might not look like a very big order but that's almost 30 times the average daily option volume that trades in this name. they're getting long through february so i want to do the same and keep an eye on this one for some serious upside through next month. >>any notion about if obamacare may affect this particular stock? >>the stock has been performing very well. it seems like if there were any negatives that were going to come about from the implementation of obamacare that it would have been priced in already and we haven't really seen that. it's been very strong, been trading very well, and has had some serious upside momentum. and when i see institutional money coming in and trying to play for more momentum after we had a nice run up, i think there's gonna be follow through and it's something that i want to play with. >>very good. james ramelli of keeneonthemarket.com thank you so much. >>thank you. it's time for us to close it out for the day. coming up tomorrow on the show...we head to las vegas where the consumer electronics show kicks off. find out which companies are getting ready to change the landscape of technology in the new year.

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