bertha coombs, "nightly business report" in new york. >>> more on the close in the dow and s&p with jobs and worker productivity which grew at a faster than forecast pace at 2 and 1/3%. the nasdaq added 18 and the s&p was up by 7. >>> stocks up. today, another top fed repeated his call to raise benchmark interest rates too and do it soon. charles plaser said keeping rates near 15% near the central banks goal is too risky and said it's time the fed moves towards lifting short-term ranks. >>> the federal reserve's final beige book survey of the year was released today and its outlook was a bit more upbeat than past readings. that's good news ahead of the november jobs report. steve liesman has more. >> reporter: the fed's beige book, from the 12 federal reserve throughout the country backed up recent strong economic reports. the economy is in good shape. not great, it's good. it's rodney dangerfield economy. hasn't gotten a lot of respect. >> reporter: improved in that retailers on holiday sale and would help consumers out when they went to stores for the holiday shopping season. the main

bertha coombs. >>> call it the party economic indicator. a new survey shows that nine out of ten companies are planning holiday parties this year. a survey of hr professionals by challenger, gray and christmas, found that almost 90% of their companies will have a holiday or year-end party. that's way up from the past few years. challenger says this year's results are the roseiest since 20 thousand 7. retailers are in the mood to celebrate thanks to a storm job market and stock market. >> enjoy your party. >> that's "nightly business report" for tonight. thanks so much for watching. i'm susie gharib. >> i'm tyler mathisen. >>> "nightly business report" has been funded in part by -- >> thestreet.com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portolio manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. ♪ ♪ i've never known a girl ♪ that makes me feel the way that you do ♪ ♪ you're alright... announcer: get ready for the return of "motown 25," here on your p

let's get to bertha coombs where nat gas is falling today and dropping below $3. the first time in a couple of years. >> it is. certainly welcome news if you heat your home with natural gas. if you are long the futures you are really feeling a bit of pain here, worst performer this week. the issue is the weather. we have balmy temperatures across the east coast for christmas day and the forecast is not calling for any demonstrbable cold weather over the next week to ten days or so. you have seen the pullback. i was talking with steven. he says technically there isn't a real level of support here. you start looking at some of the 2012 levels and says this could fall towards $2 if we don't get any new weather coming in. part of the issue is the fact that we had such cold winter last year. the year over year comparisons as we start getting stock pile reports if we don't get big draw downs the surpluses are going to grow, prices will feel pressure to the down side. right now, though, when you look out to the further months, future month contracts not down as much as t

bertha coombs is following carnage at the nasdaq.bob pisani is with me at the floor. >> high yield to the down side. we are seeing weakness on the global growth story parallel to the decline in oil there has been a separate story of weak global growth. the sectors for the s&p. i want to emphasize you have the right idea here. materials are performing much worse very much exposed to the global economy much worse than even energy. energy is fourth worst sector out there. see the big names in energy. you can see chevron, exxon, usual big names are down today. it's not a great day for them. it's not as bad as some of the declines in the materials names. this is the slower global growth story. those are the names that work a lot out to the united states. another interesting thing seems to be mild panic going on. the vix at the top there at 20 is higher than the futures vix out several months from now. you don't see that very often. what that means is that traders are sort of panicking short term but not long term. i find this interesting

as bertha coombs highlighted for us bio techs getting crushed today.e than 5% right now. one day to go until christmas. have you done all of your holiday shopping? what about the holiday tipping? do you feel pressure to tip this year? go to cnbc.com/vote and weigh in and we'll be back in just two minutes. stay with us. helps you be ready helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or

let's goto bertha coombs. >> you look at some of the usual suspects often the most volatile. is time to sell people hit the sell button. go pro now off 6.25%. tesla, netflix, these are names that when there is a sell off get hit hard and are leading the way down. apple is the big one with its massive market cap and despite the fact that we are seeing analysts continue to be bullish about their prospects as we go into the holiday season for iphone sales it is getting hit hard and responsible for about 15 points. bio techs continue to hold up. that is the one bit of positive news here on the back of the acquisition news for cubist. >> thank you very much. we should note that the 30 year long bond has extended gains. that is pretty much the case all the way across the curve. the money is going into the safe haven of the bond market. it certainly is leaving the nyse. mary thompson is here with me. it is energy stocks but seems to be more to it than that. >> talked to a couple of traders and they said actually it was technically driven. you have the s&p falling below support here

bertha coombs, "nightly business report," new york. still ahead, how is the holiday shopping season shaping up for one of the major retailers? the interview with macy's next. . >>> good news for drivers, gas buddy.com reports that gasoline can be now found for less than $2 a gallon in 13 states, from virginia to new mexico. if you ever wondered where your money goes for each gallon of gas you buy the government's energy information agency breaks it down. right off the bat, 13% of every dollar spent goes to taxes, in connecticut the most. this pays for marketing and distribution and trucking gas to the station. 8% goes torre finding costs of turning crude oil into gasoline. and the biggest costs of all, 63 morris of every dollar goes to pay for that crude oil. now, profits for gas station owners have to pay rent, salaries, rental equipment fees and the like usually work out to a few penneys per gallon. >>> with fuel costs steadily heading lower and airlines pulling in profits, should airfares will less these days? senator chuck schumer

back to you. >> thank you, bertha coombs. when we come back "the interview" that sparked that cyber attack available in 331 theaters. how did it do on its first day? we'll talk to a theater owner who screened the controversial movie. elon musk tweeting this over christmas. roadster upgrade will enable nonstop travel from l.a. to san francisco, almost 400 mile range. why is tesla up $33 in a week? they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. they're still after me. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world pr

let's bring in bertha coombs. what have you seen? >> hi, mandy.don't have official numbers from federal officials but the states reporting high have yums and the insurers. we are here at oscar insurance in soho. this is their second year in the business and today down stairs in the call center it's bedlam. even the co-ceo is manning the phones, helping people enroll here for the last-minute for coverage starting on january 1st. big thing this year is re-enrollment. coming into the weekend when you add up the numbers that the feds have reported and the states have reported so far, about 1.8 million people signed up, expecting huge numbers by the end of today. but what we're seeing in the trends is half of them were re-enrolling. for people coming back from last year, nearly 7 million, if they do nothing they will be automatically re-enrolled but that's more difficult for insurers to reconcile and might miss out on better coverage or subsidies so a lot of insurers whether it's giants like anthem or small ones here in oscar, they're not relying on th

. >> bertha coombs is covering the action. where technology, biotech, left out of the dow 18,000 party. what is going on? >> biotech is the whipping child for the last couple of days. part of it is a fallout from the express scripts salvo on drug pricing. also a bit of selling of your winners and what traders are saying. look at the index. it is the best performer by far. still up 45% even with today's pullback. the nasdaq biotechs have been particularly strong, as well. that's really where you're seeing the source of pain today. they're getting hit hard. the ibb, etf is trading at 200% of normal daily volume compared to two thirds of a percent for the overall market. meantime, it's express scripts not incidentally today the best performer in the nasdaq 100 in terms of gains but it's being offset by big losses and those players today, last ones this morning with a downgrade after of the hep c drug didn't work quite as well on its own and seeing the pressure. g ilead the real sort of ground zero for all of this after express sc

let's get to bertha coombs. >> still hasn't taken out the all-time high but getting a lot closer. if you look at big caps that is where you have seen some big moves. nasdaq 100 up nearly 20% for the year. interestingly the big leaders include chips. no surprise there. they are usually among the big leaders. mobile chips in particular and xp. also two coffee makers or two caffeine makers, if you will. green mountain coffee and monster beverage. maybe that says something about silicon valley. chips and caffeines power. the best have been bio techs today down hard because of the big decline in gilead. taking aim at pricing on the hep c drugs and now they fire the final shot at the end of the year and not include them in the formula. meg terrell will have more on that later. when you look at gilead this stock hit an all-time high back on october 31. it is down nearly 20% from there almost in bear market territory. a lot of analysts say they will recover from this and will not lose all business on the hep c franchise. certainly this is something that has investors taking pause. overall

mary thompson at the new york stock exchange and bertha coombs. mary, what has been the latest push to the down side? >> it seems some of the traders were telling me it was a technical issue for the markets. we had the s&p break below support. and then a decline in oil prices. we started the day below 65. energy stocks leading the markets to the down side today as we take a look at the energy index. a contributing factor was the leg down in tech. not only is the energy sector being impacted take a look at the high yield market. a number of these markets, these are energy companies. this is taking a hit, as well. we want to end with a number of energy stocks. whenever you have crude up and nat gas, all of these taking a big hit down more than 6%. the dow down 136 points. back to you. >> let's get to the nasdaq now and what's happening over there. >> same story. a lot of traders saying this might be something to follow. we saw the nasdaq 100 trading near the 200-day moving average and falling below that, a real technical selloff. among the big names

bertha coombs is following that and the other movers at the nasdaq. >> sue, it is interesting how we are seeing these moves in relation to energy prices. small cap energy names today have been part of the reason why that we are seeing the russell 2000 up more relatively than the other major indexes. some of the stocks down 60% just during this quarter. is this the bounce that they really need? apple has been trending with the blue chips overall after hitting a fresh six-week low, had bounced and moved the big caps into positive territory. it is fading along with the rest of the overall market. chips are holding on. those are one of the few bright spots when looking at the caps here today. microsoft a loser on the downgrade and seeing the russian telecon and tesla today under $200 for the first time in seven months. this is a bit of an energy fallout. are people going to want to continue to move into electric cars if oil and gasoline are cheap enough? that said tesla shares are still up 35% year to date. back to you. >> thank you very much. >>> telecom is rallying today, one of the wo

bertha coombs is live at the nasdaq. >> good morning.s the big names on the nasdaq that are moving the big caps, definitely, a big drag and the biggest drag of all, not surprisingly is apple. right now it's responsible for about a third of the point impact to the downside on the nasdaq 100. a few things going on. morgan stanley out with a note on outlook for 2015 saying it's trimming about 1% of the position on apple because of the stock has doubled over the last three years. we're also talking to traders and some are thinking a little bit of self program, a little bit of collateral damage on the real negativity over retailers and consumer stocks after the nrf report over the weekend. amazon certainly getting hit with that despite the fact that amazon said it sold three times as many kindles and fire -- fire tablets over the weekends. they also did see over at amazon moody's putting the outlook on the credit to negative as amazon is issuing more debt. over although if you come back it's the momentum names today that are getting hit prett

bertha coombs and the panel here. you because little notice is a fact that the nasdaq was the underperformer of the session today, was it not? that's my fault. bob, let's start with you. bob? >> yeah. what we saw today was obvious collateral damage of oil and the canadian banks hit and russian markets and commodity markets around the world get hit on oil and also more importantly slower growth concerns were the issue and i think that's by and large the bigger issue with all of that said i'm not in the camp that thinks lower oil is a disaster. the s&p just off historic high. off 30% in the market today? >> that's facts. rick santelli, what are the next levels to watch? >> well, i think when it comes to oil, you know, anybody who looks at a 10-year chart of oil, only two spots to pick. 40 or 60. it isn't whether you hit them on the dime. it is about what the mean of trading will be pricewise two months from today. the mean closer to 40 or closer to 60? that's the way to look at it in my opinion. i'm going with the latte

. >> bertha coombs is at the nasdaq. >> it's the best house in a bad neighborhood today.at is only adding about four points of upside. some of the big caps are getting sold off on those concerns of a bit of a slow down and some have also just done very well. apple down about 4% more the week. the nasdaq 100 overall though not o down as much. and in fact the smallest decline of the major indexes these week. a real reason for that. biotechs continue to be strong. today they are just fractionally higher and for the week they are the only ones put in any sort of increase as that group. and we also see the positive side of those lower gasoline prices from that oil pull back when you look at the retail names. they have had a spectacular week. staples of course is in play in terms of the activist investors but with that consumer number today guys we are seeing the retailers today really outperforming. back to you. >> all right thank you for that. carl, i think i could start impersonating you on the phone perhaps. watch out april 1st. this week's kick starters projects. adel ear

bertha coombs at the nasdaq and our panel of experts over here. what stood out to you, bertha? and s&p with brutal weeks and brutal for nasdaq, as well. >> it was but it was a relative outperform. not down as much as the blue chips. but, you know, you take a look at the like apple for example this week. technically weak note back below a one-month low and people not just doing tax loss selling but selling the winners it looks like maybe to preserve a little cash, take a little bit of cash off the table. at the same time, where you're really seeing the pain is in the small caps, small caps, russell 2000 is now fractionally negative for the year and what you're seeing there is some of these small cap names in energy in particular getting sold off although they don't have a huge weighting down some of them as much as 90%. and you're also seeing the regional banks, particularly the oil exposure selling off. small call industries tells me that people are worried about expansion and growth. at the same time, you have some names on fire. we had nike here. hort hortonworks. that's a pl

bertha coombs is live. >> we're at oscar insurance, an insurance start-up, in their second year, dealing. expecting a very long, very busy day here. coming into the weekend, they've seen a steady increase, 20% increase today. of course, today is the deadline for people who want to renew their insurance or sign up for insurance starting on january 1st. they have been very proactive, reaching out to people who need to renew, go in, check to make sure their income and levels are still the same, coming into this weekend on healthcare.gov, things were working well but only seen nationally 2 million come in to get enrollment for january 1st. about half of them were reenrolling, that means a lot think, perhaps they can reenroll automatically. but that could cause problems. part of the issues, things have been quiet, no big headlines about healthcare.gov, nonetheless, insurance officials say, coming into this weekend, they did start seeing a large number of callers inquiring on the phones. >> we're hearing quite a lot of volume over the weekend and i think the plans are feeling very encouraged a

bertha coombs is covering the action in times square. >> apple goes so goes the nasdaq today, bill.e the 30-day volume. as it was hitting all those all-time highs today. selling down hard off of the lows right now. nonetheless, it's responsible for about half of the downside point impact in terms of the big caps but it's not alone today. a mott of names like tesla, gopro today hit hard and you had facebook and amigen responsible for another ten points downside in the nasdaq 100 and seeing a few, a handful of stocks managed to move to the upside, though. microsoft is a standout. sy man tech is a standout today and express scripts and amgen hitting 52. week highs and fallout of the small cap drag on the nasdaq with did regional banks in texas, may have loan exposure to the shale plays and also dry ships which has a unit that does a lot of rig transport so you're seeing collateral damage outside of the oil patch in the services for them. back to you. >> all right. thank you, bertha, very much. joining me right now to take us to the close, larry mcdonald and bob pisani stopping by, as w

written up by bertha coombs based on the conversations of nat gas traders and a lot of them seeing natural$3 level we're at and then mentioned it in the tease, we have six, count them six, retailers with return policies that aren't so great. a lot of restocking fees. i hate those. you got to have the receipt even though it was a gift. do you have the gift receipt? all that. people are eating up that story. for some reason it's popular today. i don't know why. >> oh, people have returns. when's the worst? >> sears which you mentioned. >> yeah. >> okay? buy.com. american apparel. they have these strange categories of people into it and then keeping the other three secret and go to the website and check it out. >> good tease. >> shameless plug. >> take care, guys. >>> flatbread pizza not part of the traditional holiday menu. mabel at kenny's house. >> of course it is. he has a great recipe i'm sure for it. for a town in new hampshire, rustic pizza with a place in the heart of the town's people. a fire destroyed the company's factory in pittsfield in march and quick action saves the jobs and t

bertha coombs at the nymex.. >> it's been quite the bounceback we've seen over the last few sessions. obviously folks thinking maybe some of the sell-off has been overdone in energy. we are seeing energy prices overall, futures bouncing back today. the whole focus in terms of this pullback seen future prices down 50% for the year has been about supplies. there's intensified fighting around some of the major ports in libya. libya did have to declare on some deliveries. that is putting the issue of supply back in focus. that's part of the reason we are seeing some stabilization here today. we are also hearing from a number of these oil-producing nations as they look ahead to 2015 and what oil prices mean for their budgets. the russian finance minister says they could see if prices continue to stay around this level at $60 or so, russian gdp dropping by some 4%. for russia, it's not just oil prices, but the international sanctions that make things difficult for them. they are looking at $70 for a break-even point.