jobless benefits get a green light in the senate. what hurdles are ahead. in today's cover story.... "snow day" policies.... are employers being too harsh in the midst of a winter chill? plus... optimisim is in the air! why 2014 could be the year of "the small business." and...gadget lovers are in for a treat. how tech is getting even more personal at this year's consumer electronics show. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's wednesday, january 8th.i'm chuck coppola in for angela miles.in today's first look: stocks go into "rally mode."the market hit its stride on wall

street yesterday with the dow closing up 106 points, the nasdaq, up 39.and the s&p marked its first gain of the year, closing up 11 points.gold fell 7 dollars.oil also had its first gain of 20-14, up 40 cents.the president of the san francisco fed predicts quantitative easing will come to a close this year. however he notes the decision will hinge on improving economic conditions above all else. in after hours last night.... micron technology shares went wild, jumping six percent, as the company beat wall street expectations in its latest round of earnings. while the container store dropped after earnings , due to high costs linked to its recent ipo. and... sony scores big. in the heated battle between sony's playstation four and microsoft's xbox... sony says its sold 4.2 million game consoles by the end of december...far ahead of microsoft's 3 million. larry shover of sfg alternatives joins us now...hi larry!

>>good morning. >>what are you doing to position yourself ahead of the friday jobs number? >>i'm just keeping myself very flat knowing that naything could happen. consensus is about 200 thousand but if we get 150 thousand or 250 either one of those could be negative for the market so i'm just making myself as flat as possible. >>let me ask you about the fed. what will you be watching for from the federal reserve today? >>i think what's interesting is tapering is done. everybody knows about that. i think it's more about the talk if there is any talk with regards to changing the inflation threshold or the unemployment rate floor. any of those things could create drama for the market but not so much about tapering. >>so what's on your buy list right now? >>i still like financials and materials. to be specific, i still like jp morgan, wells fargo. i like owens corning. i do believe we're still in the baby steps of the housing recovery and overall recovery in the united states and those will be the direct beneficiary of any kind of recovery that we

continue to have. >>i have to ask you the flipside of this. what are you steering clear from? >>that's easy. i'm staying away from emerging markets right now. i know there's a lot of emerging markets but when you consider tapering going away, when you consider the risk of capital outflows, i'll wait a year. let somebody else take the risk right now. >>larry shover, thank you so much for joining us. >>you're welcome. with janet yellen now confirmed by the senate as ben bernanke's successor, her historic term as the first woman to chair the federal reserce will begin next month.she faces the delicate balancing act of managing the fed's retreat from the treasury and mortgage bond market while also trying to keep long-term intrest rates low and the economy growing.as if that's not enough, yellen takes charge of the fed as the central bank faces increased scrutiny from congress. j-p morgan chase is paying the price for essentially ignoring numerous warning signs of bernie madoff's ponzi scheme.

the bank's agreed to pay a two point six billion dollar penalty for failing to alert authorities of suspicious bank activity.this includes a record 1 point seven billion dollar payout to the justice department.in 2007 and 2008, the bank's own computer system raised red flags about madoff but bank employees qqqq say the ring led to 24-million dollars in fraudulent disability payments.hundreds more may be arrested as the case continues. a senate bill to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed advanced tuesday, with the support of a

half-dozen senate republicans. the bill would extend benefits for three-months at a cost of six-billion dollars.it still has to clear a final vote in the senate, along with a vote in the house. president obama told a crowd yesterday -- that extending the benefits helps keep americans financially secure, despite changes in the economy. "it provides that extra bit of security so that losing youre job doesn't mean losing your house. and everything you've worked so hard to build for years." house speaker john boehner says the expense of extending unemployment benefits will have to be offset by cuts elsewhere.he added that it also be and tied to exemptions for the affordable care act, building the keystone xl- pipeline and opening energy exploration of federal land. as brutally cold temps continue to freeze out much of the nation, some workers can warm up knowing they won't have to go into work today. in todays

cover story, a closer look at severe weather policies and what employers have to gain by giving in to the elements. the slogan is borrowed from the ancient greek and it's even older than the postal service itself. " neither rain nor snow nor the gloom of night shall stay these carriers from completing their appointed rounds. its not our official motto, but we've adopted it." and mark reynolds of the us-ps says its one the agency takes very seriously, especially in these days of the polar vortex. " we've been able to make all deliveries, all our offices are open, everything is running smoothly." but not all employers need to be such sticklers when the weather gets extreme. now, more companies have severe weather policies in place to keep their employees indoors. "the company does need to make money, but they don't want the company in the headlines for employees injured due to the weather or severe road situations."

the telecommuting trend means many can work from home if the office is out of reach. and trusting in employees to still get the job done can pay dividends for firms when it comes to employee satisfaction, especially on days when weather brings about bigger worries. " the employees become disgruntled rather than having that sense of being valued. its gone. and i've heard employees say that the company only cares about making money it doesn't care about the employees." the link between weather and work is one seen even in the agencies of the federal government. the national weather service -- which thankfully predicts warmer temps for much of the u-s today -- falls under the auspices of the commerce deparment. the fierce arctic weather is wreaking havoc on the nation's air travel system adding to the weather challenges---new f-a-a rules as of january first that

require pilots to have more rest. some airlines were more prepared for these changes than others.one that wasn't---jet blue. it was forced to cancel all of its flight operations in boston and new york, for more than 17-hours, monday. all told, airlines have cancelled more than 18-thousand flights since last thursday -- just as many holiday travelers were trying to make their way back home. the intense winter weather is also having an impact on the nation's utility companies. with close to half of the country enduring subzero temperatures, gas supplies and repair crews are in great demand. consumers will see the effects on their heating bills.in the northern plains, natural gas use has surged nearly 50% from last winter.over that time, natural gas prices have climbed more than 30%. in another sign of the u-s economy regaining strength---the trade deficit fell to its lowest level in four years in november. the commerce department says the trade gap fell 12.9% to 34.3 billion dollars, after exports hit a record high due to weak oil prices.with exports rising and

americans consuming more products made in the u-s, economists have revised upward their fourth quarter growth estimates to three-point-three percent. home prices seesawed at the end of year.corelogic reports home prices climbed a tenth of a percent in november, but in it's pending forecast for december, prices dropped a tenth.still, the year finishes with a year-over-year gain of 11-and-a -half percent. looking ahead, corelogic ceo predicts 20-14 will be a year of regulatory complexities and tightening credit, which may combine to cool the housing market. foreign investors are parking money in u.s. real estate. a new survey finds investors from overseas view the u.s. as a stable place for real estate investment. london is the most popular city in the world for investors to buy...however, u.s. cities round out the top five. those include new york, san francisco, houston and los angeles. foreign buyers purchased 68-billion dollars worth of single-family homes in

the u.s. in 2013 -- or 7% of the total market. union workers in a french goodyear tire factory held two managers hostage for two days. a union representative told the press on monday that the managers would be held until workers got a satisfactory response to their requests. the two men were freed yesterday with the help of police.the hostage drama played out during a long-simmering debate about work at the factory. akron, ohio-based goodyear has been trying to close the plant.but as operations wind down, french labor law requires the company to keep all workers employed-- drawing full salaries despite working only a couple of hours a day. back in the u.s...a solid year for automakers could mean a boost for members of the united autoworkers union. hourly workers at general motors, ford and chrysler are expected to take home a bigger

slice of profits this year.it's after 2013's pretax profits rose due to the improving auto sector. at g-m, workers could see a 300-dollar boost in pay this year. ford employees could expect a 600-dollar bump. chrysler did not specify how much its workers would receive. the boost comes after carmakers pushed u-a-w members to accept a contract that included profit sharing, instead of a raise in base pay. more employees plan to change jobs this year. career builder reports 21% of full time workers plan to get a new gig in 20-14.that's a jump from last year's 17%. the survey found 18% of u.s. workers are unhappy at work due to stress and low pay. as the weather keeps americans cooped up inside...it's worth noting that more and more professionals are making house calls. marketwatch reports that dentists, veterinarians, dog groomers, and even psychologists are offering to come to you for an appointment. the convenience isn't cheap, though.some services may cost up to 50% more than the "in office

price." still to come: is the market about to get more volatile? one trader gives us his take. plus....why this year could be a "turning point" for unemployment numbers. but first.... life changing devices! the companies that are taking the tech world by storm at the consumer electronics show... that's coming up next!

want to know what new features may be in the next generation of cellphones or flat-screen tv's? we have a peek into the future from the consumer electronics show. tech journalist paul hochman joins us from las vegas. hi there paul.

>>hello sir. how are you? >>i'm doing very well. what's getting the most buzz and who are the innovators this year. >>the most buzz is coming from some very unexpected places, at least from my perspective. the most buzz is coming from car companies believe it or not. car companies which didn't even exist here at the consumer electronics show 6 or 7 years ago, now are almost front and center. they take up the whole north hall of the las vegas convention center. kia is one of the innovators. they're jumping in with both feet. samsung, a brand you've certainly heard of, is doing some truly groundbreaking, in fact world record type stuff. lowes home improvementagain a brand you wouldn't associate with electronics getting into the smart home world. and finally some of the brands you do know---sandisk, a big name in storage all over the world. a lot of the biggest servers and hard drives are made by

sandisk. guess what? they're making a tiny device which is changing everybody's life in the car. so those are the big companies and the big trends. >>let's talk more about smart phones. increasingly we have them what's the latest in those? >>the latest in smart phones from my perspective is how much you can control from your smart phone. >>the reason is smart phones have become almost indistinguishable from computers. they have processors in them. in some cases dual coretwo brains that work at once. i could use that. basically, smartphones that can do what computers can mean that the apps that you download to them can control lots of things at once. there are lost of examples of that here. >>very good. what about flat screen televisions? they have become increasingly popular and we've been hearing a lot about apple tv but i know that apple boycotts this particular show. what's the latest in flat screens? >>they're probably right to stay away right now because i have seen the most beautiful tv and they don't want to be next to that right now. samsung, the world's number one tv manufacturer makes the world's first curved uhd televisions. the uhd stands for ultra high definition. it is 4 times the

resolution of the highest resolution television in existence right now. what that means is basically when you look at it it's as if you are looking through a window. it's truly beautiful. the reason for that is many more pixels that create the image but the curvature is what's really interesting in this case and that is sort of an immersive experience. if you've ever seen an imax movie the screen curves at the edges and the same thing happens here. the result is truly gorgeous to look at. >>i may not be able to afford it but i certainly want to just see it. we've also heard a lot about the connected home in the last few years. what's the latest on that? >>that's right, i mentioned lowes home improvement. a lot of people are doing connected home devices that allow you to control things from afar. lowes is doing it for a very low cost. for about $179 for a package for example that you can also assemble yourself in about an hour. it's called iris and it's a free app that you download to your smartphone and you can control your lights, heat, even open the locks for your kid who got home early from school, all remotely from this system. last but not least, i have a device here that looks like a standard thumb drive. a lot of people have seen these. it stores about 64 gbs of information, including about 60 hi-def movies. the benefit here is if you press a button it creates a wi-fi hotspot that transmits out of it and up to 3 different wi-fi enabled devices can stream movies right from this. so the result is, you're on a long road trip and now your kids can watch movies streamed right from inside the car. >>wow. lots to talk about. a lot of new developments this year. paul hochman, thanks very much. >>my pleasure. thank you. coming up...is the banking

sector positioning for a healthy year? that's la

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the past four years for the american small business owner has been a real slog. now, 2013 did show some improvement but it reall looks like more and more 2014---this year---will be a strong turning point. let's talk with michael alter. he is the ceo and president of sure payroll and you take an assessment of small business owners once a month. you're looking at some real key indicators here, particularly optimism, which is as high as it's been in how many years? >>this is as high as it's been in a few years. we're at 70% now which is 7 in 10 small business owners feel optimistic about the future. that's a strong number. hopefully it will go a little bit stronger in 2014 but it's certainly as string as we've seen in a little while. >>you also said that of small business owners say that, at least for last year, they exceeded their expectations. that plays into that optimism. >>right, they met or exceeded their expectations. so that means that only 1 in 4 of them went the wrong way. that's a

positive again because as you look into 2014, when you come off a year where 3 in 4 were met or exceeded their expectations, 70% are feeling good about the future---that to me says we're going to see more growth and hopefully that means we're going to see some hiring. >>hiring is the real tipping point because that's been a real lagging indicator. is it likely in your expert assessment that 2014 will be a turning point there? >>i think if we continue on the direction we will see some stronger hiring in 2014. one of the things you've seen in the last couple of years is a little bit of revenue growth among small businesses. for the most part, the productivity growth in those businesses have exceeded revenue growth. i think we're now at a point where as revenue growth picks up a little bit---we've already gotten a lot of productivity gains, it's gonna be time to start hiring. >>yes, with productivity you can only get so much out of each individual employer. another key indicator here is that contractors, which have been sort of a hedge against hiring, that number is now on the downward side. >> we saw for the first time in

the 4th quarter the number of contractors in our survey fall slightly which means that people are a little bit more confident about the future and more willing to hire full time employees. as a matter of fact, 3 in 4 of the small business owners that we surveyed, said they don't plan to hire contractors in 2014. again, i think that's a good sign for the future. >>that idea of uncertainty, i guess that's the inverse of optimism because that was very high for a very long time. >>absolutely. when you think about what we had for the beginning of 2013, there was tremendous uncertainty. we had the fiscal cliff. we had unknown issues around what our tax rates were going to be. we had healthcare uncertainty. we had a bunch of other global, macroeconomic issues going on. as we move into 2014, there is some uncertainty but a lot of those things are behind us. we have this new deal on the budget which means we don't face this government shutdown again like we did. we've still got some uncertainty around healthcare but i think it's less so than what we've seen in the past. >>michael alter with sure payroll, thanks so much. >>thanks for having me. thank you bill! coming up next in chart talk...a look at the sectors that are starting off strong in 20-14. that's right after the break.

dan deming of stutland equities joins us now for chart talk. hi dan! >>hey chuck. how are you doing? >>how about that s&p? it's back and has joined the rest of us in 2014. >>exactly. we finally found some stability in the s&p after a couple days of weakness. yesterday we saw the market actually firm up pretty significantly and with that we also saw the vix under pressure. >>what are your volatility expectations going into this new year? you mentioned the vix. >>right now you'd have to say that the market was able to find its footing. it didn't give up much ground. the s&p was less than 1% below its all time closing high. so you're seeing vol under pressure. in the short term it appears that the volatility expectations continue to be subdued. we saw in 2013, basically an average of

14 for the vix which is historically a very low average. it looks like it's going to play out in the first couple of weeks this year. but if you look at february and beyond i think it tells a different story where you're seeing the futures a little firmer. >>i know you're watching a lot of different sectors as we start this new year. which one is starting the strongest in your mind? >>right now the one thing that i'm keeping a close eye on is the xlf. it looks like the financial sector is definitely outpacing the rest of the market at least this first week into the year. >>anything you're keeping away from right now? >>looking at the overall market i think the russel looks like it's a little bit under pressure. it's held up pretty well but the small caps typically trend into the end of the year and then find a little weakness in the first quarter. >>very good dan. thanks so much. >>thank you chuck. that's a wrap for us today. coming up tomorrow it's movies and money.we'll take a look at the hits and flops at the 20-13 box office.what a record year means for hollywood's biggest, and smallest studios. we hope you'll join us. from all of us at first business, thank you for watching.

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