why don't you take a look at alcoa. it enjoyed a healthy run from until february of 2011, rising from $13, nice rise, right, up to $17 as its earnings trajectory seemed to have finally turned around. not long after the stock hit 17 it took a quick dive back to 15, no reason i do discern, then quickly reversed and went right back to 17. then it went up to 18 on the eve of the quarterly report. i thought the quarter when it was announced was a fine one, beating both the top and bottom lines. most of the time that's all you can ask for. what worried me was that after initial positive reaction the stock dropped down to 16, 16 and change, on the news of that better than expected quarter. a few days later it's back to 17 and i felt almost vindicated. come on, alcoa ready to take a challenge at that 18 level so i went and bought more. i went and bought more right there. could i have been more wrong? i don't think so. because that 17 to $15 dive point a and bs then followed the run to c, 18, back to 16, d, finally 17, e. do you

i don't even -- let's say it's -- alcoa, and petrobras that's an oil company.'m going to deem that too close to alcoa and you need a drug stock and this time i'm going to give you eli lily. another name doing terrific. i really like it very much. it's anti-alzheimer's formulation. let's take another. why don't we do it. john in florida, john. >> booyah dr. cramer. >> booyah, john. >> my five issues are boeing, ba pot, cracker barrel, under armor, and new residential investments, nrz. am i diversified, doctor? >> i don't like these public real estate investment trusts. i don't like them. replaces the bank of america which bought yesterday for the trust. i don't like the outside yield. potash i don't like it either. underarmour, they might be a little long inventory. aerospace, bank of america there. put a drug company in there. under armor, let's understand that there's probably inventory issues and cracker barrel restaurant, you make those changes and then a lot of work on this diversification game and then i'll be happy. stay with cramer. >>> as we are at the

i happen to think alcoa means a great buyer. he said, listen, don't give up on alcoa. a lot of people have given up on alcoa. >> not elliott. >> not elliott. >> last week, right. and the stock did react positively. >> i think that's one of the a great stories because that's the one that will tell you whether there's any hope for the metals. it's so amazing -- namg me -- i know when you look at the housing companies, i know lennar is a beneficiary company. there is so much going on right now. this is december. we really should be just focused on, i don't know -- >> holidays? eggnogs? >> holidays, yeah. >> drones? >> probably not. >> we should focus on drones. where are they going to land them? in your backyard? what are the dogs going to do. >> i don't want a package on my head. >> no. >> there used to be a big farm i owned that you could drop zone s all over the place. >>> when we come back, the world's most valuable bancht coming up, exclusive june stump f. we'll take another look at the premarket as we kick off december, and we'll get auto sales in just a few minutes

my question is about alcoa. >> alcoa will not start going higher until we get to closer to the breakup of the company. people do not want to own a company levered to any mining. and that is the lightning round! >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. >> it is time! >> caller: booyah, jim! big booyah with cheese on top. >> i like that. anthony in new jersey. anthony! >> caller: hey, jim, how you doing? >> i'm all right. how but, anthony? thank you bob, ceo of disney. what happened? did you bust it? >> your cue hit the camera. is there a yoga mat? do you want me to plank? all right, i'll plank. >> you can plank for this whole segment. >> no, i'm good for a minute plank. could you make it so it's even? that's going to really -- you got to -- you can't have it so it's half on, half off. i've got you, don't i? lululemon, the purveyor of high-end yoga clothes reported a the valuation, it looks a bit stretched to me. so stick with cramer! i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine, i

alcoa, aluminum company of america. it was the first aluminum engine ever built. when it was first used the box split. rather than saying that's not going to work, they said build another one. so the second one didn't split and produce more horsepower than they expected. so they had a great capacity to solve problem but when something didn't work they didn't give up. they never gave up about anything. the perseverance against the odds is a life lesson i think we can all benefit from. >> host: we will put the phone numbers up so you can talk with david mccullough. they have written about paris and other right brothers in the most recent book. we also are taking text messages. you can text a message as well. you can also contact us via social media. we'll put those addresses up as well as we talk. you say they self-funded, did they buy. >> guest: yes they did but not super rich. not like some of the great robber barons of the day. orval more so than wilbur because wilbur died early tragically 1912. he never really live to see -- but they were never in it for the mon

put up alcoa. alcoa is up 10% in two years. two days.here are guys who are trying to play this long for a few days into the santa claus rally. it makes perfect sense. this could be the difference between being in the green for the year and being in the red for the year for a lot of people. look at some of these energy stocks. >> breaking news right now fromdfrom d from dom chu. >> what we have right now, the small cap biopharmaceutical company run by charged martin shkreli. the nasdaq has informed the company that it is no longer in compliance with its listing requirements, citing among other things the resignation of their audit firm as well as their interim cfo. the company is allegation saying it has not yet determined whether or not it will appeal the nasdaq staff decision to d-list the company's securities. the deadline for any appeal is december 28th, 2015. it will be suspended as of the opening of business on december 30th, 2015, the day before new year's eve. so another development here in terms of the whole martin shkreli saga.

reporter: metals and mining companies have taken a beating with mining giant freeport-mcmoran and alcoa two of the worst performers, down about 70% and nearly 40% respectively this year. but the sector's not without a bright spot. construction material stocks like bolkin and marietta which have gone up in a recovery story. both companies produce rocks for concrete, and that business tends to be almost entirely u.s.-based, unlike other commodities that are exposed to china. as nonresidential construction has finally begun to take off this year, these stocks have benefited. analysts are cautiously optimistic on chemicals as well. while lower for 2015, this group has jumped nearly 15% in the fourth quarter, thanks to the proposed dow chemical/dupont mega merger. that could spur more consolidation, and experts say a strengthening u.s. economy could help as well, despite rising interest rates. >> i'm actually not as concerned about the fact that the fed funds rate is moving up. if i take a look at when that has happened in the past, '94 and '04, those are actually years of outperformance for

supported a number of well-known mining stocks, including freeport-mcmoran, reno tinto, bhp bill pin and alcoa. >>> meanwhile, china's central government said it will cut the amount of electricity generated by coal-fired plants. coal supplies. roughly 75% of china's power generation, and the government's decision could add more stress to the struggling coal industry there. eunice yoon has more from china. >> reporter: mined as black gold, coal has been the lifeblood of the country's growth. now its industry faces an uncertain future and trucker li onping is feeling the pain. here in shong she province, they used to earn $330 a month transporting coal, today only half that. trucks are idled, partly because of china's economic slowdown and for another reason. "a lot of coal mines have shut down because of the nnvironmental protection regulations," he says. some other coal-related businesses have also closed because they failed to meet the government's emission standards. at the climate change meeting in paris, president xi jinping reiterated his vow to rein in china's carbon emissions to peak by

it traded lower more than half the time and alcoa tumbled over 1.5% on average.t's traded lower about three quarters of the time. so as we head into 2016 many analysts expect head winds from china to continue to pressure the material sector. they warn that chinese fixed asset investment will be weak again next year having, quote, profound implications for most of the mined commoditiecommodit particularly copper and iron ore. back to you. >> unsurprising the energy, the worst performing s&p sector this year. it's down nearly 24% year to date on the back of the weakness in oil prices. among the best performing sectors, health care and consumer discretion nary which are up 6 and 9.5% respectively. let's just take you back to this energy story as it relates to these riggs in the north sea. particularly the norwegian quadrant of the north sea. conoco phillips, the latest company to tell us there are problems with the weather. it is partially evacuating staff from its field and the others will also be shutdown. minimum staffing at the platform and just an update on the

i know people who are suddenly long alcoa in a big way.ink they are fundamentally long on alcoa? no. they are just trying to ride the wave out. they don't know if this will be into 2016. they don't care. they are trying to improve their numbers. you know what paccar and emerson and caterpillar. it is up 7% so far this week. people are riding the wave. they are doing it with other groups as well. retailers are suddenly up mid single digits. michael kors is up 6%, 7%, fos si fossil is up. riding this wave is serious. speaking of the retailers, i spoke with the retail metrics, earnings only expected to be up 0.4% this quarter for them. that's a pretty dismal number here. revenues are not bad. up 4%. this does not include a lot of the e-commerce players. you know what's been going on, besides e-commerce, the weird weather and heavy competition. they seem to be doing okay. some of the other ones like unicoare doing okay. over retail overall not doing that great. let's take a look at the official santa claus rally. we keep using this. san santa

his father was a alcoa executive who along with his mother suffered bouts of depression. family lived abroad where helms attended the pricey school in switzerland and later in germany. it was a cosmopolitan education that helms later thought was ideal for a spot. that colby became a big man on campus at williams college, but the phi beta kappa keep an harvard law school open to them if you wanted it. colby instead chose journalism. he hope to publish a newspaper one day. he signed on with the united press, and by 1935 he became one of the news agency's correspondent in berlin or adolf hitler was widely popular. his prized assignment came in september 1936 when he covered the annual nazi party congress in nuremberg. after the rally hitler invited helms at a half dozen other foreign correspondents to a lunch at nuremberg castle. helms was surprised to unremarkable the future looked to him. his eyes, edwin claimed, were hypnotic, were actually a dull slate blue pro-consumer from his head in helms that they were ordinary. his pace the white face was tensed slightly pink, gold

a small world pavilion the day after new years in 1996 screaming into a payphone to buy shares in alcoa, u.s. steel, because everyone was so optimistic about the economy's potential growth and i wanted to cash in on that. new years begin with new numbers and when we see the estimates that analysts put out expecting a boom i knew we had to grab for manufacturing and mining stocks with gusto. of course there's estimates and year much less robust. it doesn't matter though. that's how the game was played. i know this because i stood outside of the same payphone at disneyworld three years in a row. '96, '97, '98. not because i was tired of hearing it's a small world after all. it's not the u.s. where hope springs eternal, it's china. don't hear that china is about to launch a stimulus program. because the new themes are hilarious. we're going to build plants in northern china. it would enable the dirty gasoline to be refined to cleaner american standards since their country's gas is responsible for one third of all of that big city pollution. it's old and decaying. and a massive build up in

his father was an alcoa executive who, along with his mother, suffered bouts of depression. the family lived abroad and the attended a private school in switzerland, and germany. it was cosmo poll continue education that helm alerter authority wealth ideal for a spy. back home he game a big man on campus at williams college with the identify beta kappa key and harvard law school open to him. coalbin stead chose journalism. he hoped to publish a newspaper one day. he signed on with the united press, and by 1935, he became one of the news agency's correspondents in berlin, where adolph hitler was wildly popular. his prize assignment came in september 1936 when he covered the annual nazi party congress in nuremberg. after the rally hitler invited helm and half dozen other foreign correspondents to a lunch at nuremberg castle. helms was surprised how unremarkable their furor looked to him. his eyes, everyone claimed were hypnotic. were actually a dull slate blue, protruding somewhat from his head, and helm thought they were quite ordinary. his pasty white face was tinged slightl

anyone knows i traded big blocks of alcoa throughout the birthing, not one of my finest moments. here is how a 529 works, contributions are not tax deductible so you are paying for this out of after tax income. once your money is in the 529 plan you don't pay any taxes on your grains so you let them compound tax free year after year. it's like a roth ira except for college rather than retirement. because of federal gift tax laws you can only contribute $14,000 a year if you're single $28,000 if you're married and file your taxes jointly. that's a heck of a lot of money. by the way, yourhildren's grandparents can contribute to the same 529 plan, too, if you don't have a money a grandparent the beneficiary. let's say for some reason you or your parents are sitting on a huge sum of money. one of the cool things is you can front load five years worth of contributions without incurring the fed cal gift tax as long as you don't write any checks to the plan's beneficiary over the next five years. if you're married and file jointly you can contribute $140,000. for the next five years aft

also, metals producers alcoa, that has tumbled 1.5% on average. it has traded lower 3% of the time.d into 2016, many analysts expect headwinds from china to continue to pressure the sector. morning star is getting a roar, for example. chinese fixed as elt management said to be weak again, having po pro found implications for most mining commodities. particularly iron or and copper. >> thank you very much for that. laying it all out for us at the end. is there any turnaround in sight for the materials? what do we think, guys? >> no, we don't. i'll tell you why. >> one-word answer. >> iron ore, they can't cut production. you would think when there's a rate cut that the material wooz move hire, but they can fight the supply, and what china is doing is don't forget, it's not exactly a free and open economy or, you know, so when they're cutting, they're cutting to stimulate the consumer. >> okay. >> they're not building out the infrastructure, which they've done. the banks are under water. it's just a bad situation there, and a lot of the commodity was also used as letters of credit to g

alcoa doing all the right things, doesn't seem to matter.nd gas infrastructure down dramatically. now starting to have problems with credit. so you're seeing a dimunition. >> the hedge funds roll off, and we keep thinking we'll get these significant restructurings. we have seen some, but not as many as expect. >> we haven't had a new refinery built in 26 years. they built one in bakken, losing money already. everything they touch turns to -- i would say brass. doesn't matter. tin, copper, rubber. there's no commodity that can hold them. kni nickel. >> i understand. i get it. >> this is the second time you got me. you got me with the dalai lama. >> i love the lama. >> i like you assess me for who i am. >> you got that going for you. >> i'm in the present and mindful. >> mindful- >> just mindful. >> don't tell me you meditate. >> yes. >> when do you do it? >> i do it before i go to bed. >> that a good time. >> meditate on this, united an american airlines are in the top six or so the biggest gainers today have double digit year to date losses.

you know about freeport, alcoa, what a disaster mosaic has been all year.ll those up nicely. freeport the biggest loser of the year, down more than 50% on the year. same thing with steel stocks. we may get a bit of news on the steel stocks. there are some reports that the import tariffs for chinese steel may be increased by the u.s. department of commerce. that may be helping steel stocks. it's not helping u.s. steel. allegheny tech, ak steel, cliffs natural on the upside. we're getting the rally we would expect this time of year in the material and commodity names. as for the year of 2015, some interesting statistics from rich capetto. we had fairly good volume this year in the stock market. 7 billion shares. that's everything. nyse, nasdaq, 7 billion shares is that a little? a lot? 9% higher than last year. the highest since 2011. we have seen declining volume for a long time. this is one of those years where it went up nicely. a lot of volatility in july and august helped. speaking of volatility. the average volatility for the vix, 16.7. elevated more in

stillwater, alcoa, all down by 35% or more this year.re going to talk to one trader, however, who believes a major mining company is nearing a bottom. we'll tell you which one it is. plus -- >> the city in today's powerhouse is home to general mills headquarters. peanuts comic creator charles schulz was born here and the mall of america can be found here. can you name that city? >>> welcome back to "power lunch." shares of lending tree up nearly 11% as bank ever america upgrades the stock to buy. recent weakness has made a favorable risk/reward scenario. the stock which was a $1.5 billion market cap is down 15% in the last month but is up 110% for the year. >> that's a great gain. thank you very much. i'll take that any day. let's check out the action at the nasdaq where we find bertha coombs with the latest there. what's driving trade today? >> we are seeing pretty much an overall move to the upside across the board on the nasdaq and all of the sectors, but gopro having great karma. the stock surging after announcing you will be able to

alcoa down 40% so far this year but there has been a bright spot.gan brennan has found it. >> there is one bright spot. it's been a tough year for materials. they have marketly underp underperformed the broader s&p 500. but metals and mining companies have plunged. take a look at construction materials. this is an industry group up about 38% for 2015. so the two names that are fueling that, vulcan materials which has gained more than 46% this year. also martin marietta materials up 26%. morningstar says it's been a recovery story as nonresidential constriction has begun to take off. both of these company produce rocks for concrete and that business tends to be almost entirely u.s.-based. unlike other more valuable commodities that rely on demand from china and other countries. he doesn't expect to see the same kind of rally in 2016 but that demand for construction should continue including for roads with legislation that was recently passed here stateside and that should benefit these names to some extent next year. another group to watch, chemicals

if you look at some of the names holding up the material stocks, freeport-mcmoran, newmont, alcoa, those names are doing very well. they have something in common, they've all been very beaten up over the course of 2015 as well. perhaps just getting a bit of an oversold bounce on these conditions. still materials now off by more than 2%. overall the material stocks certainly a focus for a lot of investors, but at least some of them, the oversold ones, are at least catching a bit of a bid. >> thank you very much. oil sinking again headed for its third weekly loss. we'll get all the numbers now from jackie deangelis at the nymex. hi, jack. >> good afternoon to you. we just hit new session lows, $34.29 is the print we just saw a few minutes ago and it's been a really interesting session. the intraday range really spreading out. $34.29 on the low side, $35.57 on the high side and right now we're trading at $34.41. so what's happening here? this volatility is going to continue as your guest said before, i think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the january contract is going to expire on

another name, metals giant, alcoa, falling 3% as well, and it will be interesting to see how that fairscompany splits into two next year. potential outperformers, monsanto gaining 3%, and mosaic, and steel maker, new core, over the past 15 years jumped on average 2% in january. back to you. >> thank you so much. joining us now, a writer with the "wall street journal," greg, welcome. >> great to be here. >> energy is a choose your own adventure right now. cap x, employment, look at high yield. take your pick. where do we see the effects? >> that's the fascinating thing, the impact, things like junk bonds, broader economy, you know, years ago, tumbling energy prices were good for the market. now we're nervous when the market tumbles and energy is down. the reverberations, other funds that may be impacted by falling enterprises in 2016 also. >> when we saw third avenue, there was an idea there was a con they janet, and then it got quiet. do you think now we're in a waiting period because oil stabilized a little bit but there could be more pain? >> about 25% of all the issues are distressed