this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathison. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com and actions alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr. still running the dow ends higher again. this time, the index having its strongest six-day streak in more than four years. >> different views, stocks are sitting at or near record levels. the economy seems to be gaining strength, as well. but do wall street and main street see things the same way? and crowd funding a cure. how hope and generosity are working to ending a deadly disease. we have all that and more

tonight on nightly business report on wednesday, december 4th. good evening, everyone, and happy eve. >> yes, i'm bill griffith. wishing you a happy holiday. tyler mathison is off today. we did have a record breaking session on wall street. but just barely this time as the dow did edge to a fresh closing high. with the markets closing early ahead of the holiday, stocks faded into the close ending mixed and little change. here's how the major averages ended. this quiet dayen on the street. you see that the dow was up six points, was much stronger than that earlier. any positive close, though, good enough for a record high. it's the sixth strai we've seen for the dow. the nasdaq was up eight points when all said and done, but the s&p snapped a five-day winning stre, losing a fraction of a point on the close. in the widely followed energy markets, a rising u.s. dollar and a sizable jump in u.s. crude inventories sent oil prices

lower today. unused u.s. stockpiles rose by 5 1/2 million barrels last week. when analysts had been expecting a decline in those inventories. and with domestic crude oil fell more than a dollar, closed at $ $55.84 a barre also down more than a buck. that closed at $60.24 a barrel. well, with stocks marching toward record highs as the calendar kicks down to 2015, there's a lot of talk about wall street being in a so-called santa claus rally. dominic has more on what's behind the year-end run-up in stocks. >> 'tis the season for stocks. the holiday season's been known to bring the gift of market returns, often times referred to as the santa so, what does kris kringle have to do with the stock market? anecdota anecdotally, stock prices rise between christmas day and new year's day.

it's not clear what fuels the rally. it's got something to do with people getting their annual bonus check, or maybe everyone's full of holiday cheer. these days, the term has referred to any kind of bullish stock move in the final two months of th the investment group over the last century the month of december has brought an average gain of around 1.4% and it's been positive 73% of the time. no other month even comes close to that kind of consistenc for higher returns. there's no guarantee on what happens , but wall street hopes that santa leaves gifts and not coal for investor stockings. >> more good news today about jobs, as well. initial jobless claims fell by another 9,000 last week. so how is that going to contribute to growth to december's jobs report? and what is the labor outlook as we head into 2015. hampton pearson takes a look. >> reporter: in 2014, the job market has been on the economic equivalent of a personal training pro and the latest data is showing newfound strength.

first time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 280,000 last week. the fourth straight week claims had declined. >> it is a good sign. and this is cons with the labor market improving. to some extent, the job market was really a missing piece in the recovery. >> in december of last year, overall job growth was anemic. employers adding just 84,000 workers to payrolls. last month, a blockbuster 321,000 new jobs, moving the average for the last three months t 280,000. part of the best year for job growth in more than a decade. looking ahead to 2015 leading economists see more jobs, lower unemployment, and, yes, wage growth. >> the unemployment rate is just now approaching levels that have been c with an increase in average hourly earnings in prior cycles. and, of course, we're also seeing nonfarm payroll growth

that's pretty robust. and that is absorbing a lot of the surplus labor. a year from now, i think we'll be at 3%, maybe a little bit higher on average hourly earnings. >> and what are the concerns about washington from those leading ? their advice, do no harm. there are concerns the federal reserve could move too quickly to raise interest rate or that a gridlock congress would fail to act on tax reform or infrastructure. to help build on the momm already being created in the private sector. for nightly business report, i'm hampton pearson in washington. >> and also, more good news for a lot of u.s. workers as we ring in the new year, especially at the nation's largest private employer. walmart says it needs base salaries for employees at a third of the locations because 2015 will bring mandatory minimum wage hikes in 21 states. and, of course, as we've been reporting, the stock market

continues to shatter records, the u.s. economy is all revved up. and wall street investors are exuberant. but are ordinary americans on main street feeling as good as wall street is right now? let's talk about it. joining us right now to talk about it is chris christopher director of u.s. consumer economics at ihs global insight. and chief investment officer at adviser investments. good to see you both. thank you for joining us. chris, you know, the stock market. the old saying is the stock market is not the economy. it not even a reflection. it's supposed to anticipate what's going on down the road. do you think the stock market is too optimistic about what the economy will look like down the road >> well, the stock market represents a certain part of the econ however, median household income adjusted for inflation is about 8% below where it was in 2007, 2008. so wall street's doing well, however, main street or your typical american household is still struggling. >> and struggling in which way,

chris? >> well, their incomes are not growing very fast. and most of the income growth we've se is in the top 5%. however, recently, pump price relief and also pretty good employment reports are making all types of americans a little bit happier. >> what do you think, jim? are wall street and main street telling two different stories ri >> no, i don't think so. i think chris is exactly right. the most recent data, whether it's the jobs data, whether it's income spending sentiment savings are all beginning to trend a little bit more favorably in terms of the overall u.s. consumer. and i agree that it's certainly been the top and it's benefitted the mo. nevertheless, i think the trend going into 2015 is that the overall consumer's going to feel a little bit better about the prospect for being able to hold on to their job or trade up to a better one. and that typically translates into a little bit more spending. in the immediate start of 2015, maybe wall street's a little bit ahead in terms of price direction.

i still expect we see some sort of pullback. but the overall catalyst, the driver for both our economy and i would argue for the market gains remains the u.s. consumer. so if they're okay, i'm okay. >> you know, jim, as we see all of these stock market records, a lot of people have benefitted not necessarily the individual investor. since the financial crisis f, a their money out. their retirement funds are not increasing with the way the markets are going. i mean, what's your take on the individual investor and the mood th >> so you're exactly right. we constantly say it's time in the markets not market timing. and they're just terrible exampl of many investors bailing out when they basically should be getting back in. or investing in only one thing where they should be reasonably well diversified. we have seen this year obviously the s&p 500 just trump 15% year-to-date if you p include the total return number. and compare that to the broad

measure of the international markets, down about 5% for the year. so investors who only invested in that one index are probably feeling smart. but a diversified basket makes sense. and now, with everybody fearing europe, it's probably a good time to check under that hood. >> chris, as we all mentioned, wage growth on main street has not been there. it's been pretty stagnant. but just lately, and i realize this is only anecdotal, but we've heard stories about wages goin. at wal-mart, they're going to make adjustments there, the minimum wage is going up in 21 states. american airlines, their bottom line has been so strong that ceo doug parker is giving their flight attendants an additional 4% increase in their wage on top of a 10% increase they were going to get anyway. my, do you think we're going to start to see more wage increases coming down the pike in 2015? >> yes. we start to see a little bit right now. and in 2015, things will be

better on the consumer side, on the wage side. in addition, because of pump price relief, lower gasoline prices, whatever wage growth we do hav, given wage will go further. >> chris and jim. i'd like to get your thoughts on both of this. we hear from a lot of anecdotely from a lot of surveys that the american dream is beyond the reach of the new generation of americans. what do you think? chris and then jim. >> well, recently, we've seen a rise in student loan debt. it's over $1 trillion. a younger age cohort in the uniteds is sort of struggling. a lot of them don't leave the nest in any way after college. so that is changing a bit. they're not doing as well as their parents or grandparents are doing. but things are starting to, and will make some traction in the economy. >> jim, your thoug

>> i think the american dream is just that. it's a goal, the reality is, of course, day-to-day, year in and year out, it's a long road to being able to really succeed well. and so i wou encourage everyone to -- if they have one job, look for a second job, build that dream brick by brick. it's the only way you're going to make it. >> all right. chris christopher from ihs global insight. jim lowell from adviser investments. good to see you both. merry christmas, thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank big news from sony pictures about his controversial comedy "the interview" after it canceled the film's debut last week because of threats from hackers. well, starting today, sony will make the satire available for purchase online through a host of services including google play, youtube, xbox video, and the dedicated website seetheinterview.com. for anyone who wants to see the flick, sony's allowing 200 u.s. theaters, all small chains and art house cinemas to show "the

interview" as originally scheduled starting on christmas is also in talks with netflix to stream the movie. but if a deal comes together, it will not be ready for release by tomorrow meantime, more troubles for the ride-sharing service uber. south korea has now indicted uber ceo travis kolanic and the office for what they call violating a law governing transport. prosecutors say that uber's local service did not have the appropriate lice or facilitate transportation services. in a statement, uber says its service is legal in korea and that it's being welcomed and supporte by consumers there. you don't need a smartphone app to tell you that this is one of the busiest travel days of the year. but some wicked weather is making it tough for millions who are trying to get home for the holidays. kate rogers has more. ♪ have a holly jolly christmas this year ♪

>> reporter: another holiday, another headache for travelers. this christmas eve, two separate storm systems bringing rain, wind and fog to the northeast, heavy snowfall and precipitation expected in the midwest and even more rain in the pacific northwest. unwelcome news for travelers on one of the busiest days of the year. aaa reports 98 million people will travel this holiday week and 5.7 million will do so by plane. but passengers at laguardia airport were hopeful the weather >> i was glad the weather was okay, you know, no snowstorms or anythi >> i'm actually headed to iowa through chicago today. >> and how is everything -- on time? >> looks like it's on time so far. they're saying rain, but maybe in chicago, there might be a little bit of a delay. so far, looks pretty good. >> were you nervous at all flying on christmas eve you might not make it? >> i've done it before. i feel confident today. >> christmas d also

looking far more optimistic. ♪ rudolph the red nose reindeer ♪ >> were you nervous at a? weather issues? >> kind of prepare for the worst. >> we expect the wind and the rain to sort of moderate overnight and actually tomorrow we might see that strange light in the sky that we know as the sun. we're hoping that travel won't be affected tomorrow. >> reporter: mean whiwhilemeanw carriers are waiving fees for passengers making last-minute changes ahead of the storm. the silver lining for many travelers, a drop in fuel prices. the national average for gasoline just $2.35 per gallon, meaning more people hitting the roads. this holiday, we're seeing plenty of motorists, grounded planes and perhaps for some, a white for "nightly business report," kate rodgers in new york. coming up, what the most popular high-tech gifts will be

this holiday season and whether they are or any of your other gifts will get to their destinations on time. another legal setback for mf global. the bankrupt trading firm once run by former u.s. senator jon corzine. the firm folded in 2011 after losing billions in bad trades. well, today, mf global was ordered to pay $1.2 billion in restitution to its former customers along with a $100 million penalty for misusing

customer money. >> all right. switching now to technol and what are certain to be some of the hottest high-tech toys found under the tree this year here's josh lipton with more. >> reporter: tech spending during the holidays will reach a record $33.8 billion according to the consumer electronics as so what will be the hottest tech gifts? the consumer drone market is soaring. but one problem can be the price of those unmanned aerial vehicles. especially a worry for rookies who might crash and break their drones on the first flight. one answer, buy a small, cheaper drone like the hubson x-4 which sells for about $40 on amazon. >> all the propellers and pieces all come in easy replacement kits and you can fix it yourself. this is a great way to s flying a drone if you've never done it >> wearables are also all the rage with the apple watch

expected early next year. but there are options already availabl. >> this is the moto 360 here. >> which costs $250. fans appreciate its design, and all the usual features of a smartwatch, including notifications, voice control and apps. >> it'll work with almost any android phone made in the last year or so. if you have an android phone, it'll work with this. but if you have an iphone, you're stuck getting a picture of the apple watch this year for christmas. >> finally, go pro is expected to enjoy a big holiday season. the company now offers models at multiple price points ranging from $130 to $500. >> go pro is the market leader when it comes to action cameras. there are competitors. sony has an action camera. garmin has an action camera, and there are others, as w but gopro really established itself in the market really early on. >> so the expectation is that drones, wearables and action cameras will all find a lot of new this holiday season.

and added bonus, they're all easy to stuff in a stocking. for nightly business report, i'm josh lipton in silicon valley. >> ha nice holiday present for american airlines flight attendants. and we begin our market focus. as mentioned earlier, the airline announced it plans to hike wages for flight attendants by 4% thanks to stronger profits and falling oil prices. plummeting energy prices have drastically reduced cost for the airline which is poised to save more than its competitors because it did not hedge against prices rising. shares were up about 2.5% to $51.43. investors got their first chance to react to earnings and they dumped shares in today's session. the largest egg producer missed wall street's earnings expectations. and as a result could be impacted by new rules for egg producers in california. shares tumbled about 4% to $42.45. norwegian cruise lines says

an engine room fire will shave 5 cents off earnings in the fourth and first quarters. that fire forced the complete cancellation of one cruise and parts of another. but despite that, shares rose slightly to $47.66. elsewhere, also saw shares rise after that company got the okay from the food and drug admi. the fda clearing the company's injectable diabetes drug as a treatment to fight obesity. here in the united states, as a result, shares popped by more than 2% today to $43.67. and citi is going to sell the banking operations, according to reports, that sale will be to japan's bank for about $330 million. all of this comes as citi's japan consumer banking business has been hurt by weak loan demand and falling interest rates in that country. shares were up slightly, though, to $54.54.

and tico energy agreed to extend the closing date for the sale of the coal mining business by about two months. that sent shares higher today. that company said in october that it would be selling its coal subsidiaries for about $170 million because of the market slump in coal. shares were up about 2% today to $20.53. the clock is ticking and the big day is nearly here. that means millions of package deliveries should be where they belong so how did the nation's shipping giants make out this year, morgan brennan takes a look. >> it's the final countdown. tens of millions of express packages need to be delivered today. to avoid a repeat of last christmas when 2 million shipments were late. the big differen t, u.p.s. and fedex are saying no to some last-minute orders. parcel carriers and retailers agreed to some limits ahead of the holidays. and now the shipping giants are refusing some packages above those limits.

so how is it going for the packages they are deli well, experts say it's going relatively well. >> it couldn't be better than this to be performing at 99.6, 99.3, for this carrier, that is very, very impressive. >> overall this season, ship matrix says fedex and u.p.s. have improved their on time delivery performance compared to on monday, u.p.s. projected busiest day, both companies got 98% of the shipments out on schedule, up from 90% last year. fedex says weather's not having an impact. and u.p.s. and fedex say operations are running smoothly given the high volume. analysts note that up until this point, the extra workers, network upgrades, added planes and trucks alem but there's one other name to watch today, and that's the u.s. postal service. it's been handling the lion share of amazon shipments this season, delivering on sundays and on.

monday set a record for the postal service, 28 million packages delivered, 10% higher than last year, five days later than. but again, it all comes down to tonight. and the big wild card is the bad weather affecting so much of the country right no for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan in new york ci. well, it's a merry christmas at apple headquarters. that company's market cap went up by ab $160 billion this year so far, at least. some perspective, though. only 24 companies in the s&p 500 have a total market cap of $160 billion. to put it another way, apple's $660 billion market cap is more than that of facebook, google, cisco and amazon combined. not too shabby, huh? apple shares up about 40% in the trading this year. up next. how the gift of giving could help save lives. we'll explain coming up.

some older patents used in mobile devices apparently are still worth a lot of money. namely, nearly $1 billion. a consortium including apple, microsoft, blackberry, erickson and sony sold off about 4,000 technology patents they acquired a few years ago from the telecom company nortel networks after it went belly up. a patent management company called rpx corp. paid $900 million for those patents as for

the group of tech titans, they are known as the rock star consortium. they are holdi 2,000 other nortel patents. finally tonight, a christmas eve story about hope. hope for a young woman battling a rare form of cancer. and the hugely successful crowd funding drive to raise money to research her illness and help find a cure. meg turell has the story. >> reporter: just a month ago, li zpr liza thought she had weeks to live. a rare cancer had returned. three years after she beat it the first >> it probably was one of the worst weeks of her life. >> but liza and her boyfriend wyatt didn't want to waste the time they had left. the couple pulled together a wedding in two days, surprising friends and family they also started a fund raising campaign to support research on liza's cancer and other forms of sarcoma at johns hopkins. there's no playbook for sarcoma, and because they're so rare,

sarcomas are often some of the last cancers for which new medicines are tested. >> normally speaking, the funding for sarcoma is sometimes as rare as the tumor itself. the generosity that she has shown will really serve as an incredible, incredible start and continuation of some of the research t going on at hopkins and sarcoma and allow us to make more strides. >> liza initially thought they might raise a few thousand but with help from a moving video made by her sister and friends, donations have skyrocketed. to $350,000 in less than a week. fund raising site go fund me said the love for liza campaign is among the fastest growing ever. >> certainly, i've never seen anything like it before. >> as for liza, everything changed the day after her wedding. her condition improved enough to start treatment with chemotherapy. now she's taking it month by month and hopes to continue to raise funds and awareness for rare sarcomas like hers.

for nightly business report, i'm meg turell. >> great story and a great use for crowd funding, as well, right? >> worked out for her. >> exactly. that's "nightly business report." thank you for watching. >> have a great evening, everyone. and merry christmas. we'll see all of you again tomorrow night. >> nightly business report has been funded in- >> the street.com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link shared their investment strategy, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr.