this is "nightly busineness. holiday cheer. shoppers hit the "spend" button, sending holiday sales higher by the most in six years. the big winners, and what investors need to know about what going on in retail. falling apple. shares have their worst day since august on a report that demand for its iphone x might not be up to and three for 18, a trio of stock picks that our guest says need to be on your shopping list all those stories and more tonight on "nightly business fr good evening, everybody. welcome to the program. i'm bill griffeth here at the

new york stockexch tyler and sue have the evening off. it seems many people this holiday season made their lists and checked them twice, or by the looks of things, maybe even three or four times. what i mean is, we were in a buying mood, as shoppers came out in droves this year, driving sales, by some estimates, to their biggest increase since 2011. that naturally sent the retail sector higher on wall street today. as kate rogers tells us now, it might not yet be over. she's in west nyack, new york .or us tonight at, where else, a >> reporter: christm may be over. but retailers have a lot to celebrate. the latest numbers from mastercard point to the best holiday season in more than five years. retail sales rose by almost 5% from november through christmas eve. online sales are up even higher, 18%. overall sales are projected to reach $682 billion. >> i got an apple watch and an

ocustick. >> a universal for january. >> time with the family. my son. >> reporter: shoppers aren't slowing down anytime soon. in fact they're set to spend some $69 billion in the week between christmas and new year's. shopper track projects today, december 26th, as the fourth busiest shopping day of theon we spoke to were eager to take advantage of the deals. >> macy's has a 46% discount. >> maybe foot locker. >> you get good prices, it's like 50 to 75% off after christmas. then you can save it for next year. >> reporter: because christmas fell on a monday this year, shoppers got an extra saturday. this weekend, dubbed super saturday, was set to be the second biggest of the season in terms of in-store traffic. while the holiday shopping season may be coming to a close, it's just the beginning for returns. an estimated 10 million people are set to return or exchange

gifts. and other shoppers, they're just around for the ride. >> i brought money. >> reporter: for "nightly busine kate rogers in west nyack, new york. and many of those sales were delivered right to people's doorsteps. as is always the case, there were a lot of them. those extra packages created extra logistical challenges for the delivery companies like fedex and up so how did the big boys do this career? morgan brennan has our report card tonight. >> reporter: we won't have the full picture until earnings, but early readings suggest ups and fedex pulled over a record peak season, despite warning on saturday that wind shear caused disruptions at the main hub in memphis, fedex managed to delivery 93% of its deliveries on time. adding christmas eve, since some deliveries did go out on the 24th, and fedex delivered 99.9% of its packages on time.

it was a similar performance for ups. after sorting a record number of shipments, 96% of its express packages got there on time, including christmas eve, over 99%. >> three things that helped packages get delivered on time this season were, one, big investments by every in the industry, and better service, better equipment. two, no bad weather. and three, customer expectations. pe in the last couple of wes spent more time going to brick and mortar and less time online. >> repor getting there wasn't easy. ups repurposed several hundred office staff to help sort and deliver packages this holiday season. the company has assembled these so-called ready teams in the past. but this year it did so with less lead time as volumes turned out to be higher than expected in some markets. drivers worked extended hours as well. record volumes, strong service. but executed in the midst of a tight labor market. ups and fedex were looking to hire a combined 145,000 seasonal

workers. it was tough finding folks. >> we'll see more automation, more robotics. coming, like it or not, because they can't find people to do the job. >> reporter: now returns start. as online shopping soars, so too do the packages heading back to retailers. ups expects the busiest day for returns will be january 3rd. for "nightly b. it's no surprise that amazon was one of the big drivers of those package deliveries. this was its best holiday season yet. amazon said more than a billion items were ordered during the period, and that in one week alone, more than 4 million people either became members of their prime service or started a free trial. overall, amazon is expected to grab more than half of new holiday sales this year online. shares were up a fraction today. and looking at ahead, what does the new year have in store for this online retail giant?

our deirdre bosa takes a swing for us tonight. >> reporter: amazon's stock crossed $1,000 this year. it splashed into brick and mortar with its purchase of whole foods. jeff bezos became the world's richest man. alexa became a household name. what's up for 2018? as amazon sells more smart speakers, consumers will shop with just their voice. it will be a battle between tech titans as they battle to it their devices into your home. expect more third party developers for alexa and a bigger skills catalogue. second, we'll find out if 2018 is the year consumers finally embrace online grocery shopping as amazon continues to lower prices and integrate prime membership into whole foods. other grocers are watching closely and already boosting their delivery capability. third, amazon will select its

second home. while the company's seattle hiring boom is cooling off, expect a new growth spurt in a new city. for "nightly business r"n okay. it's the strongest holiday season since 2011. but maybe not for everybody. let's talk about who might emerge as the winners and losers. joining us tonight, a retail analyst at forester research. good to see you again, thanks for jous. >> thanks, bill. >> right out of the black friday weekend, we kept hearing how strong sales were this year. why this year? what was going on? >> well, i think that there are a handful of macroeconomic factors. you have low unemployment, which naturally enables consumers to have more disposable income for shopping. in addition ju hh co confidence. so those are really, really big factors. then you have the earlier-allude monday christmas, which allows for an extra weekend for last minute

shopping. all of those factors together make for great shopping numbers, ultimately, for the retailers. >> 18% gain for online, of course those sales will be smaller than the brick and mortar, so the law of big numbers, they aren't that big yet. but still a stellar increase this year. who are the winners in that category besides amazon? >> you have a handful of pure plays. pure plays are the online only retailers, companies like fc will be doing well. ebay has had a great q4 over the last couple of years, they've had great management decisions and a lot of good promotis for customers. you have company like howe's, an emerging player in the home space. these are big players we see doing really well. you also have a lot of really small lesser known pure plays that are likely to be doing well also, companies like benobos, which has been getting a lot of traction with consumers in

recent years as well. >> and then you have those that blend the brick and mortar with e-commerce, which i think you would agree with the business model for the future. walmart is one that stands out. who else did you see that did well this year? >> well, you have a lot of the small format stores actually doing really well, companies like five below, which are experiencing double digit year over year growth and are just starting to invest in their dot-com presence. you have the dollar channel doing really well these days, they're really good about merchandising their stores with seasonal assortment. off-price retailers like t.j. max and ross are doing well. you have a lot of retailers with strong year over year growth, as wellwarts like costco and walmart, naturally. >> and the losers, i keep hearing this is a make or break year for some of the retailers, the series, the toys "r" us,

companies like that that have been struggling so much. what's your outlook there? >> i think the issue with some of those retailers is that they are particularly challenged. their stores are not in g locati jcpenney is on that list too. we'll see if q4 gives them any boost and any bit of a lifeline for the future. >> all right, thank you so much for joining us, happy new year. >> tha e headwinds that the market of faced today. it was the biggest loser on the dow and one of the biggest on the nasdaq. why? it stems from an article out of taiwan's "economic daily" that says apple will cut its first quarter sales forecas for the new iphone x by 40% and that possible lack of demand helped bring down apple's suppliers as well. our josh lipton has more f >> reporter: the iphone x is the

biggest leap forward since the original iphone. apple investors are counting on apple's iphone x being a big hit. their bet is that consumers all over the world will upgrade to this new device. that optimism is what has helped drive a nearly 50% surge in apple stock this year. apple calls the x the future of the smartphone, with its edge to edge display, facial recognition technology, and price tag of $999. but new reports are throwing cold water on that bet. apple's stock was down today on media reports citing taiwan's "economic daily" that apple in the first quarter is going to cut its sales forecast for the iphone x to just 30 million units. that is down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units. apple's suppliers came under pressure too as investors worried about demand for this new flagship phone.

corvo, sirrus logic, for example, moved lower. one research company notes that the iphone x accounted for just 30% of iphone sales in the month after its launch. the less expensive iphone 8 and 8 plus, in contrast, accounted for 39% of sales. >> it clearly did not meet the hype and expectations, at least based on percentage of share or market share of the total phones. so we were i suppose a little disappoint at that p as well. >> repor not everybody is so downbeat. gene munster of loop ventures or the x, that adoption strong of this smartphone is greater, not less, than what wall street expects. others point to china as a potentially surg bright spot. >> early indication of this market for iphone is that it's doing surprisingly well until

the first weeks of sales. so there could be some upside to iphone x. but overall, the sentiment is down. >> reporter: apple declined comment on these reports. investors should have a better sense of just how the iphone x is really performing when the company next reports financial results early next year. for "nightly business r and that 2.5% decline in apple was the biggest decline they've seen since august. it hit the entire market, especially the dow, where apple accounted for a loss of 31 points on the index. otherwise the dow would have be higher today. it was down just 7 when it closed at 24,746. the nasdaq fell by 23. the s&p 500 was off by nearly three points. oil prices jumped to 2 1/2 year highs today, helped by news of an explosion on a libyan pipeline. domestic crude oil closed at $59.79, its highest level since

june of 2015. the price per barrel briefly did touch $60 a barrel early in the day, also for the first time si june of '15. so with oil sitting at those 2 1/2 year highs at that critical level of $60 a barrel, what should we expect when the calendar hits 2018? jackie deangel >> reporter: 2017 was a volatile year for oil. with barrels from 40 to around $60, crude traded a broad range. the fluctuations in price didn't just impact the futures market. they impacted stocks as well. the s&p energy sector underperformin the broader market. here is what to expect in 2018. crude trades a range. oil prices move because of supply and demand. as a result of the u.s. shale boom, the market is still oversupplied. opec and russia have made an effort to correct the imbalance, but it may not be enough. as long as crude bounces around, energy stocks will too. u.s. shale will pump. the name of the game is rebalance. but that's difficu to achieve

when all the players aren't cooperating. in 2017, u.s. shale producers pumped at record levels. it's likely that trend will continue in 2018, especially if opec supports the market. opec cuts will be unsustainable. opec producers extended their production cut agreement through the end of 2018. but many of the countries will have a difficult time adhering to these cuts as they rely on oil revenue for survival. for "nightly business r" i'm jackie deangelis. coming up, now that we have that new tax bill in time for christmas, all the special stocking stuffers in it are starting to be unwrapped. we'lta

for all the handwringing the housing market has peaknot, home prices are still rising. the index of national home prices rose in october by 6.2% year over year, double the pace of wage more th three times the current inflation rate. strong demand and a shrinking supply of homes on the market helped push those prices higher. the 20 metro areas covered by the index, seattle led the way with a nearly 13% gain followed by las vegas and san diego. the nation's capital showed the smallest gain at 3%.

the tax bill was signed and hung by the chimney with care and in it were some stocking stuffers. better known as special carve-outs for some businesses. ylan mui takes a look at some of them for us tonight. >> reporter: we've combed through the tax code, checked it twice. now we find out who's been naughty and nice. the beer indusg the cut with a provision that lowers excise taxes or two years. for small brewers the tax gets cut in half. for others, the tax is reduced by 10%. the industry has been lobbying for this in the decade. it's had bipartisan support in the past. it was rob portman who delivered this gift for christmas. broadway also gets a tax break. live theatrical productions can take advantage of full and immediate expensing for the cost of their show. the tax break was actually passed by president obama and

was championed by senator schumer but it expired for the new year, and now it's back in. florida's citrus farms get a carve-out for replacing the cost of damaged plants, particularly important after the hurricanes this year. growers are upset they still haven't gotten the full disaster relief package yet. this could help tide them over. florida congressman vern buchanan worked on that gift. he also happens to be a member of the tax writing committee in the house. but perhaps the biggest present goes to the accountants. they now get to spend 2018 unwrapping all of those tax reform stocking stuffers. for "nightly business r. mallinckrodt inks a billion dollar drug deal. it says it will buy secampo pharmaceutical adding experimental rare disease treatments to its portfolio, at

a time when mallinckrodt is looking to reduce its dependency on its top drug, which has experienced declining sales. mallinckrodt shares were fractionally highe on the day. meanwhile shares of secampo climbed to $18 even. brokefield property partners is reworking its offering for mall owners ggp after ggp turned down an earlier proposal. last month brookfield offered $15 billion for the shares of ggp that it don't already own. "the wall street journal" says creating either a firm is now its cash bid while fering or b still offering some stock. shares of brookfield property partners rose fractionally to $21.69. samsung may dethrone intel as the world's largest chip a japanese newspaper says samsung is expected to outpace

intel, potentially ending intel's 25-yea. and aerospace parts distributor klx may sell itself for one of its units. the company said it's exploring strategic alternatives after it received inquiries from interested parties. klx said it has yet to set a timetable for that review. shares of klx popped about 10% on that news at $69.28. and get this, garmin has launched tracker, saying it can hold a charge for more than a year. the device maker says the product has an always-on color display s with your smartphone. the user can set it and forget it, literally. garmin shares up a tick to

$59.27 "today" today. elon musk says tesla will begin building its first pickup truck after its model "y." musk tweeted that he's been dying to build the truck and has been envisioning the design for years. shares of tesla finished down more than 2% today to $317.29. coming up, a special week of market monitor picks for the new year. we'll get things started with a trio that our guest says will pay dividends for

here's a look at what to watch tomorrow. we get a fresh read on where consumer confidence stood this month. and housing will once again be in focus with the release of pending home sales. and the latest data on how many potential homebuyers applied for a mortgage. that's what we watch for on the final finally tonight, we have our market monitor segment, the first of several stock picking segments we'll be bringing to you during this abbreviated holiday week. tonight's market monitor has three dividend paying stocks that he says have strong fundamentals and attra valuations. the last time he was with us was 2017, and at that time he picked cypress semiconductor,

significant in don, good to see you again, welcome back. >> those were such gre performers. stay with those, do you sell them now? what are you doing with those? >> we still own cypress semiconductor and think there's a runway of growth there, just because of all the products that their analog semiconductors are in. they have a big move in margins coming. we think they can end the year with margins much higher, next year i'm talking about, with margins much higher. so we stick with cypress. i'm a mid-cap manager, it's a great reason to sell. my favorite reason to sell, which is when stocks like sherman williams and cygna get into the $40 billion range, i turn it over to the big cap folks and let them have it. i would not be afraid of owning

those stocks in this outgrew your portfolio, got it. >> that's it. >> let's go through each of them here. zimmer biomed. >> a medical products company. we like the characteristics of dividend paying stocks. we're not yield investors. we just like the dividends and what they provide us, you know, more than just yield. and so when you look at zimmer biomed, the dividend yield isn't exceedingly great or anything. it's something we like to see in all of our companies' capital allocation. zimmer brought in a new ceo from medicitr medtronic. they've had some executions issues getting new products to market. we think if they can execute over the next 12 to 18 months, the vap and margin gap enclosure will drive the stock price much above where it's

trading at now. >> let's quickly get these other two in here. here is an infrastructure play, martin marietta materials. >> sure, martin mariett materials is great. it will benefit from the rebuild in texas, the rebuild in the southeast from the natural disaster. the state highway funding bills will provide a long runway of growth for them. they have pricing power. rocks and aggregates, you can't make them in china and can't sell them on amazon. this is a great business model, great company. if we do get a federal infrastructu bill, it's going to be icing on the cake for this company. >> and finally, a familiar banking name, first republic. >> first republic is great. they're up with a growth strategy that i really like. they're going out and trying to grow their new customers by refinancing their student loans at very rates. they're being very, you know, particular about the industries that they're doing that for, in the hopes of, you know, five, ten years down the road, there

will be wealth management, there will be home loans, other loans that these people will have that relationship with first republic and use them for. we really like this company, great manage good company, and we think they're going to do very well over the next 12 to 18 months. >> great stuff, very good. don wardle, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. that is "nightly business . i'm bill griffeth. thanks for watching, every

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