this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- thestreet.com. up to the minute stock market news and in-depth analysis. our ratings service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4,300 stocks. learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. holiday hangover. investors return from thanksgiving minus the holiday spirit. selling off late and snapping the dow's record streak of all time closing highs at 5. black friday frenzy. retailers open earlier and customers didn't disappoint snapping up big ticket items, but is the best still to come? and big name hunting. our market monitor has some well known stocks he says to get you up to 10% in the next year. all that and more for this

november 29th edition of "nightly business report." good evening, everyone, and i hope your thanksgiving was a great one. susie is off tonight. she'll rejoin us on monday. well, it may have been black friday at the malls, but on wall street you could have called it flat friday, markets closing at 1:00 p.m. eastern time and the major stock indexes ending the day mixed, but wall street wraps up an historic month of november with 12 record high closings for the dow. and the dow and the s&p finished this month with their eighth straight week of gains. today stocks faded just before the early closing time, but earlier in the day, the dow and the s&p, and the dow transports and the russell 2000 all hit record highs. here's a look at today's closing numbers, the dow, 11 points lower, the nasdaq up 15, now solidly above that 4,000 mark, and the s&p basically flat about 1 1/2. look at this, blue chip dow

soaring 3.5%. the nasdaq was up 3.6%, and the s&p 500 up 2.8%. a good month all around. while shoppers flocked to stores on this black friday and many more headed out on the thanksgiving holiday, the early word is that the season has started out quite strongly. shares of many of the major retailers started strongly today, but then they faded like the rest of the market. the one stand out, best buy, adding more than 2% on the day. courtney reagan is in dayton, ohio, where she had a front row seat for all the black friday goings on. courtney, let's start with how strong overall the traffic has been where you are. >> reporter: yeah, i have to say, tyler, that the traffic has been pretty strong. i'm pleasantly surprised by what i saw. seems as if we saw a lot of traffic flow at the big box retailers on thursday afternoon and early evening, and by big box, i'm talking about walmart,

target, best buy, the ones who had those door buster specials. a lot of focus on electronics there. then we did see a lull, i'll admit it, overnight and the predawn hours. because of the thanksgiving hours, folks opted not to get up at 5:00 a.m., but as the day's worn on, traffic has really picked up here in dayton, ohio at the mall. i think retailers will be quite pleased. >> how are the centers so far? >> if we think about the winners so far, at least what i'm hearing from analysts around the country, as well as what's really matching here today anecdotally, seems macy's is by far and away one of the winners. they have some really nice door buster deals on strong brand names. there were 15,000 folks, the krae of macy's said lined up outside the flagship store. a lot of bags coming out with the macy's logo. walmart also a winner, they are having their best black friday in history. so far we don't know the exact

numbers, but sounding very promising there. losers, sears and k-mart. k-mart opened at 6:00 a.m. on thanksgiving day. doesn't seem it attracted many shoppers, though. >> quick thought on online shopping. what are you hearing there? >> ibm says that thanksgiving sales online up 20%. department stores, very strong online. they are a standout of 60% sale numberwise from what we saw last year, apparel one of the strongest categories online. so far, decent traffic on the computer, as well as here in the stores. >> bring me back one of those wonderful killer brownies from out there in dayton, will you? >> i will do it. i will do it, for sure. >> have a great weekend, courtney, courtney reagan reporting. it was not all smooth sailing. a fight broke out in a walmart in elken, north carolina, apparently over discounted flat screen televisions. look at that. similar incidents have also been reported elsewhere around the country. and at 1500, walmart stores

across the nation protesters were planned demanding higher wages, more full-time positions, and better working conditions. at this chicago walmart, ten protesters were arrested after scuffling with police. only two of them were actual walmart workers. with sales off to a strong start this holiday weekend, experts are predicting a very merry holiday shopping season for stores. the national retail federation predicts $602 billion in total consumer spending in the final two months of the year. that's a nearly 4% increase from last year. predicting 3.9% growth, so we think it's going to be a very strong season. historically for the last ten years, the average has been about 3.5%. so we're going to do better than that, but we're not back to the pre-recession number of high single digits, and a lot of that is due to the fact you've got these somewhat hollow indexes,

so we look at the stock market, we look at interest rates, we look at housing prices, and that would seem to indicate a robust and growing and healthy economy, but for many consumers, they don't feel that way. >> joining us to talk more about the holiday retail season and small business saturday, which is tomorrow, is ed gilligan, the president at american express. mr. gilligan, welcome, good to have you with us. are you seeing what the individuals from the national retail federation just reported, that is receipts are going to be up by about 4%? >> well, you know, we did a lot of research leading into this holiday shopping season, and it was clear to us that consumers are planning to spend more this holiday season than last year. 3%, 4%, 5% gains certainly seem possible, so we're cautiously optimistic for retailers of all sizes. >> i saw one figure, i believe it was one of your studies or one that you had commissioned, indicating that people on average may spend as much as

$400 more. where are they going to get that money? >> well, you know, there's lots of green chutes in the economy. certainly, growth has been sluggish and unemployment is too high, but this year the stock market is up, real estate prices are back up again, so there's plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic, and we know that consumers do like to shop and spend in the holiday season. what we're calling out, though, is to ask consumers to think about allocating some of their shopping holiday budget for small businesses, and, in fact, tomorrow is small business saturday, but the fourth time in a row, american express is pleased to be the founding sponsor of a movement to get shoppers to think about shopping small, particularly tomorrow. >> that's an interesting and laudable initiative you have gotten behind. what is the traction you're seeing as a result of that? i live in a nice small town in new jersey, i love to go into my local shops and shop local. >> you know, it's undeniable how

important small businesses are to the u.s. economy. 28 million small businesses exist in the u.s. today. half of private sector employment is contributed to by small businesses, and if you go back 20 years, two/thirds of all job creation has been done by small businesses. but sometimes they can get lost in the holiday shuffle, so, you know, there's always been black friday for the, you know, big retailers and cyber monday for the dot comes, but starting in 2010, we created this event called small business saturday that's now far bigger than american express. we have a coalition of 100 companies, 1,500 communities around the u.s., where people are committed to shopping small. last year over a million americans shopped small and spent about $5.5 billion at small, locally owned merchants around the u.s. and we're thinking tomorrow's going to be even bigger. >> well, let me broaden out the

conversation if i might and get you to talk about american express's business more broadly. what segments of the business are performing particularly well this year, and which would you like to see perform even better, where do you need to do some work? >> well, we're really pleased with the progress and momentum that we have. in the third quarter, spending on american express cards around the world was growing at 8%, and in the third quarter, we saw every region of the world, from u.s. to asia, to latin america, to europe, all tick upwards a bit, so we feel like we're doing a good job of executing our growth strategy and outgrowing our competition. and it comes from having strong value propositions and our card products for consumers, small businesses, corporations, from signing more merchants to accept the card, by having new partners around the world that help us grow our business, and through a lot of digital innovation that we're doing. >> mr. gilligan, thank you very much. and i have to say that every time i spend something on my american express card,

miraculously, you guys get it right, i get billed for it. way to go. >> thank you very much, tyler. >> mr. gilligan, thank you very much, president at american express. i wish they'd screw up every now and then, but they don't. we've seen how strong sales have been at some popular retailers, but how have some of those companies performed for their investors? it turns out the results have been pretty good. dominic choo has more. >> reporter: retail stocks become a focus because everyone is out shopping. between black friday and the end of the year over the last three years, the s&p 500 consumer discretionary stocks have returned an average of nearly 4% each season. one area in particular has produced outsized returns, and it's all about the bling. stocks tied to the world of jewelry have been sparkling and shining. take a look at online jeweler blue neal. over the past three years between black friday and year end, the stock has been up around 16% each time. then there's the bricks and

mortar side of the jewelry business. zales is up nearly 19% and movato is up an average of 19% each of the last three seasons. some market optimists think consumer spending will help power retail stocks into the year end. >> early indications are we're going to have a very good holiday season. the stocks moved up, along with a lot of other stocks, very reasonably valued. i think the surprise for the consumer and the stocks will be to the outside. >> many retail stocks do well during the holiday shopping season, there are no sure things. as with each holiday season, the heavy discounting could have an adverse effect on profit margins, and while that is a concern, some experts believe retail companies are well prepared. >> i think the different tranches of deals that companies are going towards in order to protect their margins. >> so now that black friday is just about over, sit back, relax, and take a look at your investment portfolio.

you might find some great deals out there. for "nightly business report," i'm dominic choo. and coming up, our market monitor says dividend plays will be back in play next year, and he'll tell us why. first, the best and worst this month on the dow and s&p 500. archer daniel proposed $3 million bid to take over the grain corp. was blocked by australia, and that's where we begin. the american food giant already owns a 20% stake, but it offered to buy out the whole company last year. australia's treasurer, though, blocked the proposal over concerns the merger would reduce competition and hurt growers. that sent shares of adm tumbling

down nearly 3% to $40.30. exxonmobil has agreed to sell a quarter of its stake in an iraqi oil project. the project is expected to rival some of the biggest sources of oil. agreed to help iraq develop in 2010. a lot of chinese oil companies like petro china have been shopping overseas to expand their production. shares of exxon off just a fraction, though, 93.49. shares of e-bay and amazon popped after a show of cyber monday being promising this time around. a poll found 85% of participants plan to skip black friday and nearly half will shop online during the internet's discount offer day, cyber monday. that is a 30% boost from just last year. ebay rose to $50.66, while amazon rose almost 2% to $393.73. and investors bought up shares

of pharmaceuticals today after positive research on the drug maker. a report from analysts corner noted the recent sale of the rights to a hepatitis c drug to jansen pharmaceuticals, the stock up a dollar to $69.38. our market monitor this week says the market will continue its record run higher, adding another 5% to 7% on both the dow and the s&p 500 from here. he's jim lowell, chief investment officer at adviser investments. mr. lowell, welcome. make your case for why you see stocks going higher, even after such a big run-up in 2013. >> well, before i make that case, let me just say that after heapings of gains this year, i wouldn't be surprised to see the market take an immediate diet of 5% or so, but the reality is there's no negative news, no negative data, either in terms of earnings or economic reports that we're seeing, especially here in our consumer-driven economy, that has us thinking

somehow this market is going to be significantly derailed over the next month, quarter, really throughout next year. we see the possibility of gaining ground, albeit with some slips along the way. >> there are still some washington issues out there, jim. obviously, a new fed chief. there's another debt ceiling debate, another continuing resolution. could those things cause the market to stumble or anything more than a temporary way? >> i doubt it could be anything more than a temporary way. we do have the yellin safety net, which means stimulus remains the rule, not the exception. that's good news for the marketplace overall. that said, we know washington, d.c. has a nasty habit of throwing a monkey wrench into the financial engine, but several object lessons why it shouldn't price the missteps into itself. >> you know, it's been a great year for nasdaq, for the smaller stocks, but your picks are all large cap sort of baseline kinds of companies, beginning with

ford. why do you think these kinds of companies will outperform and take us through your argument for ford. >> well, i think overall we're a little bit nervous about the small and mid-cap names that have clearly led the charge this year in particular, and certainly momentum oriented stocks we're a little bit leery of. when you look at ford, it's certainly reasonably valued. it's got a good dividend yield, 2.35%, but it is up 30% year to date. it's a play on the u.s. consumer and the housing recovery, only an architect drives on to a construction site in a prius, so we know they are selling their trucks at fairly good clips. but there's also a nice play for ford globally, and in particularly, inside the eurozone, which everyone has written off. you've begun to see a turn towards the better there. they can clearly capitalize down the road. >> lightning round time, two more picks, one is amazon,

explain why. >> well, i'm not going to bet against the u.s. consumer, nor the global one. i get everything from a fireplace, fiji water, to my rare books from amazon, so i think that trend continues. they also are continuing to innovate. they've done a beta test with sunday sales, i expect we'll see amazon being a net benefit, not just a big box store, but also for small businesses that can put their products in their pipeline. >> speaking of box stores, home depot is your third and final choice. >> can't swing a hammer without looking at home depot, or lowe's. seems to be a grower, not just now, but throughout next year. the reality is, if you bought a new home, if you are looking to maybe upgrade your home to sell it in the spring selling season next year, or just moved into an apartment, chances are you're going to be going to home depot. >> any disclosers about these three stocks that you mentioned? >> well, they are certainly some

of the mutual funds we own for our clients and adviser investments, and so far i'm thankful that they are. >> jim lowell, thank you very much, chief investment officer at adviser investments. well, like retailers for shopping, tiz the make or break season and campaigns are moving online to win support. a look at how charities are using crowdfunding to raise money. >> reporter: the nonprofit warrior canine connection had an idea, breed and train service dogs to be paired with veterans, but like any start-up, not a lot of money, then the cofounder had a brainstorm. why not a puppy cam on the internet? >> i launched my own little puppy cam, and shortly after that, a large foundation picked us up and started broadcasting it.

>> they got a $150,000 grant and primetime exposure for their puppy cam on explore.org and its dog bless you website, a nirvana for dog owners with 24/7 streaming video and snapshots. for the warrior canine connection, it was a lifeline. having found their target audience online, it was a natural next step to focus on fundraising, and their introduction to crowdfunding. >> first of all, charity is like the warrior canine connection, crowdfunding levels the playing field in pursuit of the biggest crowd of donors of all, people on the internet. >> in less than a year, the group raised more than $168,000 from 1,559 donors through campaigns using the crowdrise platform. twice what was raised through traditional efforts. >> our organization is now pretty much nationally known, whereas, you know, prior to starting this, we were lucky to

be known in our own town. >> sites like fundally, indieggo, and caus vox, at $2.4 billion a year, crowdfunding is a small slice of the more than $300 billion in total charitable contributions, but one with a potential to increase giving from the 2% of gdp it's been for a decades. >> crowdfunding is a great way for nonprofits to get younger donors involved at a small amount and show their results directly. >> even the established players are now in the crowdfunding game. salvation's army online kettle bell ringing added $2 million last year, a drop in the bucket that totals on $150 million in the traditional pot. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pearson. >> and to read more about crowdfunding for charity, head to our website, nbr.com. up next, banks taking steps

to educate their customers, but first, a look at how commodities, treasuries, and currencies fared today. gold ending with its worst november since 1978. ♪ almost everyone agrees that america has a financial literacy deficit, but fewer agree how to address it. more and more financial companies are trying, but they still spend more on brand awareness than they do on consumer education. kayla has our story tonight. >> reporter: amid the bills and catalogs, a familiar piece of mail, citigroup, american express, discover, chase, saying act now and be approved for this one-time credit card offer. those letters and banks cost the

industry $17 billion a year. a new study from the consumer protection bureau says for every dollar spent, $25 is spent on banks-owned brand, a staggering disparity in resources. >> we need to promote informed financial decision making. >> reporter: this means the majority of information consumers receive about financial products comes from a company trying to sell them something. they lack unbiased information and are flooded with offers, the bulk, credit cards, netting seven times more of a bank's advertising budget than mortgages, 20 times more than savings accounts. and that's just awareness. that doesn't even count the pesky direct mail that costs the industry an additional $2.64 billion. slowly but surely, banks are taking the hint. wells fargo recently installed a financial education portal for consumers to find answers to

frequently asked questions. jpmorgan chase as a financial lie bare. bank of america commissioned its own study for 78% of respondents said learning about personal finance is hard. now the banks try to make that a bit easier, setting up the first financial education platform. no mention of its own products and digital educator of the renowned khan academy as a partner. the result, better money habits.com, where a video series walks through everything from adjustable rate mortgages, to tax deductions, and everyday lessons often forgotten, small steps for an industry failing the grade on financial literacy, consumers still have to do their homework. for "nightly business report," i'm kayla toushy. it is rivalry weekend in college football, so that means millions of people will be glued to their tv sets, but as jane wells tells us, one legendary coach is hoping to change the

way fans watch. using what's known as a second-screen strategy. >> run the pistol on us. >> reporter: no one knows oklahoma football -- >> release it out of the back field. >> reporter: no one loves oklahoma football like barry switser. the legendary coach now has a plan to profit through a venture called coaches cabana. >> actually, like a reality show, watching the game in my home with me, but it's interactive with an audience outside my home, which is really neat and that's what the sponsors like. >> reporter: it works like a second screen, you watch okds football on tv, you listen to switser's commentary online, and he doesn't have to pay for the rights to it, so has the ncaa said anything to him about this? >> i didn't even call when i worked for them. i know what the answer's going to be, no, no, i'd rather ask for forgiveness. >> reporter: last season he said

his coverage got 30,000 viewers and several thousand tweets. this season, coaches cabana has gone to more teams and more coaches. >> i think i'll take a drink of diet coke and you can tweet me and interact me the whole time. >> the entire enterprise is a somewhat chaotic rocky work in progress, but it's not costing very much. switser thinks with the right former coaches and the right rabid fan bases, his experiment could expand to 30 schools. the only drawback -- >> i can't drink doing this in the ball game. i like to have a beer every once in awhile. >> especially in his own home. for "nightly business report," i'm jane wells. and that will do it for "nightly business report" this evening, i'm tyler mathisen, and susie gharib will rejoin us monday. in the meantime, have a great weekend, everybody. >> announcer: "nightly business report" has been brought to you

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gwen: now that the leftovers are over, and the football has been played, we bring your dinner table political conversation to our table. tonight on this special edition of "washington week." what were the hot topics at your house? health care? the economy? war? peace? or maybe washington dysfunction? >> why is there no debt limit? >> why are you more concerned with what your party is going to do in the elections rather than how you're going to help the american people? >> i'm wondering what specifically you'll be doing to prevent another government shutdown? gwen: tonight we answered your questions from around the country with peter baker of "the new york times." michael duffy of "time" magazine. karen tumulty of "the washington post." and jeff zeleny of avens news.