for "nightly business report," i'm josh lipton in san jose, california. >>> overall, seems shoppers have done more than their part to boost the economy and retailers profits. sales picked up as christmas approached and gasoline prices continue to fall. mastercard spending said compared to last year, grew 5.5% from black friday through christmas eve and online, sales jumped more than 8%. the figures included hotels and restaurants but not auto sales. so let's bring in our guest now, tom, chief retail central gist at strategy and pwc. hi, tom. nice to have you with us on this day after christmas. >> great to be with you, susie. >> after this very insane crazy shopping season, how do things turn out from your perspective? i know you spend a lot of times in the store. what stood out this season than seasons past? >> this year has been a transformational season, from when the season started in early october to what occurred thanksgiving evening to the redefinition of black friday sort of to a waning of cyber monday and super saturday. what stood out most of all was the move to mobile. a treme

josh lipton has the story. >> reporter: 83 million dogs are in the u.s. and when owners go on vacation they need a place to stay. traditionally, that's meant going into a kennel. now, there's an alternative. it's called rover and it's easy to use. go online find a dog sitter and book a reservation at their house or they can come to yours. there are now 25,000 sitters available across the u.s. rover's ceo said business booms during the holidays. >> unlike the summer where people can travel throughout the summer during the holidays people travel on thanksgiving and on christmas. so there's definitely a wave of people looking to book but pretty much all the same days. so it is a crazy time of year for us. >> reporter: rover makes money by taking a 15% commission from its sitters. who typically charge $30 per night. the company raised $25 million from investors such as menlo ventures. rover isn't alone in the market. there's dog vacate with 20,000 dog sitters that raised $47 million from top tier venture cap lists such as benchmark. >> come on. >> reporter: t

for nightly business report, i'm josh lipton in silicon valley. >> ha nice holiday present for americans 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

let's go live to josh lipton in california. josh, what are you seeing there? what are people up to?reporter: well, the season of giving might be over but retailers hope the season of buying will keep going strong. analysts say december 26th is a busy and critical time for retailers, whether selling clothes or electronics. >> they have an opportunity to clear up merchandise that they didn't get pushed through during the holidays and an opportunity to get another bite at the apple because of the gift card situation and gift cards being prominent and indicating it is number one item that recipients wanted this year. >> reporter: analysts do expect to see strength from consumers as we get into the final stretch of the holiday season due to better gas prices, improved consumer confidence. national retail federation expects holiday sales to jump 4% to $617 billion. where will we see consumers buying today? where will bargain hunters be looking? apparel sales attract a lot of attention. express is having 50% off, not to be outdone gap giving up to 60% off. and this h&m there was a line of

josh lipton live in oakland, california. orter: well, tyler, apple's top executives are taking the stand today, including eddie qcure who is apple's man in charge of itunes. he's there to defend the ipod updates in 2006. remember, it was after the update that music from rivals real networks wouldn't work on apple's device and what plaintiffs' lawyers want to argue is apple made that update because it wanted to still competition, it wanted to expand its monopoly over the online digital music market. they want to say apple executives were worried about real networks that had its own music store and software that allowed music to be played on ipods. in fact, this morning plaintiffs' lawyers showed e-mails from steve jobs to eddie cue and paul schiller and other lieutenants in which jobs referred to real networks as hackers saying they are were breaking into the ipods, plaintiffs trying to portray jobs as a frustrated executive who wanted to crush the competition. cue is taking the stand to argue, that, no, update didn't have any

for "nightly business report," i'm josh lipton in silicon valley. >>> coming up, a classic toy will once again be made in the usa after being outsourced to china for decades. that story nex >>> a sort of year end bonus for people looking to buy a home or refinance their current mortgage. rates fell to the lowest level of the year this week. the rate right now on a conventional 30 year fixed rate low, 3.8%. >>> like ships passing in the night, negotiator i sas they're no closer to reaching the 7 month slowdown at west coast port. resume today with dock workers and shipping lines, terminal from san diego to seattle but shippers say there's a wide gap in talks for a new deal with 20,000 west coast long shore men. >>> a different story for deliveries through amazon.com. for an $8 fee for amazon prime subscribers, offering one hour delivery on items in some areas of new york city. you'll never make in the traffic. two hours, it's free. postal service, it's the busiest package delivery day of the year thanks to a surge in online shopping and an aggressive campaign to take on its private sector

for "nightly business report," i'm josh lipton in silicon valley. >>> finally tonight, news about me. inth starting in january, i'll step away from anchor chair at nbr but a contributor. i'll come on the show periodically to talk about the business and financial news that matters most to you. at the same time, i'll join one of america's preeminent business publications, fortune magazine, to spearhead a major initiative tied to the fortune 500. now, in the 16 years since i joined "nightly business report," i have always felt a deep responsibility to all of you to report, analyze and make sense of business and financial developments so that you can make informed decisions about your money. i am very proud of what we've done here at nbr and it's been a privilege to be invited into your homes every night. so i thank you for your trust and support and i look forward to staying connected with you and tyler, i'm certainly going to be connected with you. it's been wonderful working with you. >> and thank goodness you will be. it's been fun. i hope the viewers know how much fun we've had here.

. >>> we have breaking news from our own josh lipton. josh? >> scott, a jury just right now reaching a verdict in the apple ipod antitrust case. remember this was all about the jury deciding whether this ipod update from 2006 was a benefit to consumers. a jury says it was and that is a win for apple. it was all about this ipod update in 2006. plaintiffs have said that update was made by apple to legally shut out rivals like real networks that apple was just trying to stifle competition and maintain a monopoly over the online digital music market. apple said this upgrade to the ipod back in '06 was done for security reasons. a jury here deciding with apple so this case is dismissed. a win for tim cook and company. >> let's go to final trades. >> stick with xle. >> i like sarner. >> i like "power lunch" because it starts right now. >>> "halftime" is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start right now. >> good afternoon. thanks. if you like volatility and traders do you like whip lash tuesday. we were down 99 points right a

josh lipton is live with a story of this startup offering just that. >> so the question is is leavingl like leaving your child in an orphanage? that is what he says. his firm invested $12 million in a startup that aims to disrupt the kennel industry. it is called rover. you go online. you find the dog sitter near you and book a reservation at their house or they can come to yours. there are now 25,000 sitters available across the u.s. rover makes money by taking a 15% commission from sitters who earn extra income by opening up their homes to your dogs. >> i charge on the lower scale at $25 a night. because of that i think i attracted a lot of customers and have made upwards of $35,000 a year since i started. >> now, rover isn't alone in this space. there is dog vakay which has 20,000 dog sitters and has raised $47 million from top tier venture capitalists. ceo says his company does carry insurance, $25,000 per dog. if your dog gets sick he is covered. venture capitalists are putting money to work in the startups. they know pet care is big business here. americans spend nearly $60 bill

of course that is apple's ceo tim cook along with ibm chairman and ceo sitting down with our own josh lipton july when the companies announced their partnership to develop a new class of made for business apps on ios. today that is coming to fruition. joining us is ibm global services senior vice president. thanks feedback being with us. you have these apps the apps are supposed to link into the cloudy offering and boost the services business. i think it is flat in the last quarter. how long is it realistically going take to start expanding margins and showing up in ibm's business. >> we sbrn entered into this partnership and we are fulfilling that today. and today we released ten of these made for business solutions, or apps, across six industries and we couldn't be more delighted by the speed with which our teams have come together and the collaboration way in which they are working. the way in which you should think ab these apps is that these are really broadly going to change work flow for business professionals who serve customers. what that is going to mean really is two complementary

but first josh lipton has the cnbc market wrap. hi, josh. >> hi, alex. to a lackluster start to the holiday shopping season. the dow doesn't 51 points, s&p fell 14, the nasdaq dropped 64 points, snapping it's longest streak since april. sheets per spill the roll just disappeared. i knew i should've bought bounty bounty is 2x more absorbent and strong when wet. just look how much longer bounty lasts versus one of those bargain brand towels. and that's a good deal. bounty. the long lasting picker upper and now try new bounty nfl prints. available at walmart. my name is karen and i have diabetic nerve pain. it's progressive pain. first that feeling of numbness. then hot pins. almost like lightning bolts, hot strikes into my feet. so my doctor prescribed lyrica. the pain has been reduced and i feel better than i did before. [ male announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda-approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right a

josh lipton out in san jose talking big blue this morning.back the 2015 playbook in consumer names with the dow up about 26 points. "squawk on the street" will be right back. female announcer: get beautyrest, posturepedic even tempur-pedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory. the year end clearance sale is on now at sleep train. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ >>> on this final trading day of the year we're breaking out the 2015 playbook. looking at how you can make money in the coming year. this morning, we're taking you inside what consumer staples, food beverages, and household products companies are going to do in the new year. take a look. growth was hard to come by for consumer companies this year but their stocks held up relatively well thanks to m&a, cheap gas prices and their overall defensive appeal. here's what's in store for 2015. finally a recovery for the low to middle-income consumer. from walmart to mcdonald's, the two-speed recovery has hurt c

josh lipton is live in san jose, california with perhaps a little forecast for us. >> for ibm bulls 2014 can't come to an end soon enough. ibm shares down some 14%. this is the worst year since 2008. it doesn't look good for ibm. he expects ibm to test and break the low of 150. one knock is missed how disruptive cloud technology would be and ceo embraced the flow in time when ibm needed a new approach but is working to change course. ibm is dedicated to growing cloud business as well as making acquisitions. ibm reported about $4 billion in cloud revenue in 2013. that is still a relatively small part of the company's business. ibm expects to generate 7 billion by 2015. company made a $1 billion investment to expand its cloud foot print with 40 cloud data centers. ibm bulls point to other reasons. they say the stock isn't expensive at least based on some metrics. ibm trading at ten times forward earnings. and also the number of analysts on wall street rating ibm a buy is at a 20-year low. that's a possible contrary yn indicator according to the team at canter fitzgerald. >> or not go with

josh lipton is live in oakland, california. >> reporter: well, tyler, apple is back in court here in oakland, california. this time it is fighting allegations that it violated antitrust laws between 2006 and 2009. i can tell you it is a crowded courtroom in there today. a lot of interest in this case. now, plaintiffs lawyers delivering opening statements. here is their take that this case in their opinion is about apple trying to maintain and expand its monopoly that it had over the portable digital media market that in 2004 with the ipod apple controlled about 70% of that market and apple's executives were going to do everything they could to maintain that market share. so in 2006 when there was an upgrade to that ipod apple might have billed that, plaintiff's lawyers say, as an improvement to the product but they say that was not the case. the only point of the upgrade to the ipod was to stifle competition that after the upgrade music from other companies couldn't play on the apple devices and that, plaintiff's say was the real intention of apple's executives. we will hear from som

josh lipton live in san jose to explain. josh? >> kayla, there are 83 million dogs in the u.s.nd when their owners go on vacation, they need a place to stay. traditionally that's meant going to a kennel. but now there's an alternative, called rover that connects pet owners with sitters. go on-line, find a dog sitter near you and book a reservation at their house or they can come to yours. they are now 25,000 sitters available across the u.s. and rover's ceos says every sitter is verified and reviewed. >> we only accept 15 to 30% of sitter applicants. so there is a really high bar to get into rover and we're really focused on maintaining that. we're pretty active about managing the marketplace if we think someone is not a great fit. >> reporter: rover makes money by taking a 15% commission from its sitters who typically charge about 30 bucks per night. the company has raised $25 million from investors such as menlo ventures. rover is not alone in this market. there's also dog vaca which has 20,000 dog sitters that raised $47 million from top investors. benchmark's bill gurley si

. >>> coming up, andrew cuomo may have one, but he didn't want to be seen holding the trophy, josh liptonstocks stand going into tomorrow. u.s. stocks rallied hard on thursday. investors cheering the federal reserve's pledge that it would be patient in increasing interest rates. the dow soaring 421 points. the s&p jumping 48 points. the nasdaq rose 104 points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪ earlyfit ♪ latefit ♪ risefit ♪ fallfit ♪ ballfit ♪ wallfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ rowfit ♪ throwfit ♪ slowfit ♪ olliefit ♪ oopsfit ♪ otisfit ♪ thiswayfit ♪ thatwayfit ♪ daddyfit ♪ pappyfit ♪ datefit ♪ weightfit ♪ goalfit ♪ gooooooalfit ♪ stepfit ♪ stairfit ♪ smartfit ♪ heartfit ♪ spinfit ♪ bikefit ♪ hikefit ♪ yikesfit ♪ wheeeeefit ♪ wowfit ♪ whoafit ♪ findyourfit ♪ it's all fitbit i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. which means it's timeson for the volkswagen

let's get to josh lipton for the latest. josh?on the oracle call, obviously a lot of talk about this company's transition to the cloud. oracle's safra catz saying it was better than expected. and take a listen to what larry ellison had to say about the business. >> next year, oracle will sell about the same total dollar amount of new path business as cloud market leader salesforce.com. it's going to be close. we're catching up to them and we're catching up very quickly. >> so ellison going on to say that oracle intends to be number one in the cloud business. a quick note here on guidance. oracle guiding for q 3 revenue up 4 to 8% an eps between 69 and 74%. the street was looking for 73 cents. back to you. thanks. back to you. >> they seem to have figured it out. they seem to have the wind behind them. their acquisition strategy has been good. a couple of hiccups along the way. i don't think it's that rich at 12 1/2 times. maybe dan will disagree. i think the stock still has upside and it illustrates that companies that do it right

josh lipton live in san jose. >> tyler, the consumer drone market we know is soaring and chances are you may be giving or receiving one for the holidays. the faa wants you to know there are rules with those drones. the agency launching the website know before you fly today along with information on what you can and can't do with drones. there is this video by the agency which reminds those soon 250 be drone operators that they can't be flown above 400 feet or near airports and users should take lessons before taking to the air. the faa points out it is legal to fly drones for fun but illegal to fly for payment or commercial purposes. >> thank you so much. >>> now, what to watch from the auto industry in 2015. the etf tracking the global auto industry calls carz. and some changes are already underway for cuban business. michelle caruso-cabrera has the story. >> there has been relaxing some communist rules and regulations against businesses in cuba. i was there last week to report on the history-making deal. up next i will show you the changes already underway on the island and how the

here is josh lipton. >> reporter: consumers are never own enough gadgets and tech companies keep pushingthem in 2015. but not every tech toy will fly off the shelves. first the crowded market for wearables will get smaller. fit bit and jawbone are now household names and the launch of apple watch next year will make a big splash. but is there really enough demand for so many products that often overlap? expect to see consolidation in the space. jawbone is talked about as a take out target. 2015 could be the year it gets bought. second, gopro goes drone. the consumer drone market is blowing up. and gopro is taking notice. there are reports that the camera maker will enter the space. and while gopro isn't confirming the reports it isn't denying them either. expect the camera maker to move into drones and drive demand for this hobby even higher. third, more trouble for tablets. tablets are under pressure. as consumers opt for smart phones with bigger displays. and so called phablets. the phone-tablet hybrids. expect that pressure to continue in 2015 with the category suffering a slowdown. t

. >>> josh lipton gave us the latest on day two of apple's anti-trust case. >>> and breaking news, sonyth korea as the party responsible for hacking and leaking unreleased movies online. >>> thank you. shippers are trying to avoid last year's delivery debacle. "power lunch" went inside fed ex's express network to see how things work. morgan brennan is tracking one shipment's trans continental journey. >> reporter: six stops, five cities, three sorting centers, two airplanes and three trucks that is the process this package went through. we will break that down when "power lunch" returns. >>> coming up at the top of the hour we have "street signs" a lot of commence from the leaders of the world's largest retailer and largest publicly traded oil company. also fascinating stats of what consumers do with their money when gas prices plummet. and also the report. we will speak all about it. make sure you join us top of the hour when "power lunch" returns after the break. so we're transparent about the fresh wild seafood we sell. and the species we don't. independently rated for sustainability

let's bring in josh lipton this morning. at the apple trial in oakland where the case has taken a surprising turn. >> reporter: yeah this could be a nice way for tim cook to kick off his weekend. a case that has dogged apple for ten long years and threat bdened the company with $1 billion in damaging could now be tossed out. remember apple is fending off allegations it violated antitrust laws between 2006 and 9. plaintiffs say there was this ipod update in 2006 that they claim illegally shut out rivals. but apple's lawyers have now filed a motion saying that the plaintiff's class representatives don't actually have any proof that they purchased the ipods in questions. ipods bought between 2006 and 2009 that were allegedly harmed by the software update. so if they don't have proof they bought the ipods, then there is no proof of damages and apple wants this case tossed out. plainti plaintiffs will respond tomorrow and the judge will discuss it on monday. the judge did openly say she has concerns. she has concerns of whether t

. >>> i'm josh lipton here in oakland, california where the apple antitrust trial has taken unusual turnse past 24 hours. by monday there might not be a trial. remember this whole case is about an ipod update in 2006. apple's lawyers have filed a motion that they want this case thrown out. their argument is that class representatives don't have proof that they bought the ipods in question. if you don't have the ipods you don't have proof of damages. the judge will be ready to discuss the matter further on monday. later this afternoon we could get video deposition from steve jobs. i can tell you apple tried hard to get jobs out of giving the testimony. the reason he was already sick. he would pass away six months after giving this deposition. the case continued for now but on monday the judge could toss the whole case out. now to a "market flash." >> harold hamm has appealed a $1 billion divorce ruling. harold hamm has a 68% stake in the company continental resources that lost nearly half its value in the last six months. >>> we asked will the dow hit 18,000 today? 79% of you said no it wo

josh lipton is in san jose with the story. >> well, from his studio in mill valley, california he createsetches a year which can cost up to $20,000 a piece. it's outside the studio where he has attracted the most attention, more than 40 of his murals decorate the walls of the bay area. these are big, bold images, often black and white figures with a distinctive tribal feel. it is tech's elite that are perhaps biggest fans here. he has painted for facebook, google and lift among others. he describes tech companies as what he calls the new patrons of the arts. >> companies whether we like it or not have the capacity to be the next patrons of the arts that really facilitate whether private museums or whether large scale public projects. >> now, the respect is mutual. john zimmer, lift's co founder tells cnbc he thinks of zigler as entrepreneur. he inherited the spirit of entrepreneurship from his parents who are founders of banana republic. he is enjoying a lot of commercial success. next year he is releasing a line of sneakers for vans boasting his own unique designs. he predicts san franci

. >>> i'm josh lipton with your cnbc market wrap. stocks fall across the board this cyber monday.ow ends down 51 points, the s&p off 14, the nasdaq sheds 64. a report on the health of the manufacturer sector sent stocks lower. a lackluster read on holiday shopping did little to encourage investors. the national retail federation said americans spent nearly $51 billion this weekend, 11% less than last year. that's it from cnbc first in business worldwide. it's not about how many miles you can get out of the c-max hybrid. it's about how much life you can fit into it. ♪ the ford c-max hybrid. with an epa-estimated range of 540 miles on a tank of gas. and all the room you need to enjoy the trip. go stretch out. go further. we are about to make more gooddeliveriesverybody. to more places than anybody on earth. we have the speed. we have the technology. and we have the team. we made over 15 billion successful deliveries last year. 15 billion! football has a season. baseball has a season. this is our season. nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from

josh lipton, what details do you have? >> if you go to apple russia online store maybe looking to make purchases you are out of luck, confronted with a screen that says we will be back. what is going on? apple giving me a comment saying due to extreme fluctuations in the value of the ruble our online store in russia is currently unavailable while we review pricing. we apologize to customers for any inconvenience. the story, as you said, just breaking. we will bring you updates as we get them. >> interesting stuff there especially because the ruble has been halted today. russia obviously impacting online sales. if you can't know what your conversion rate is going to be you can't sell an iphone because it can be worth 12% more or less the next day. >> or in a couple hours. >> exactly. >> going to read this introduction. good intro. >>> in an exclusive interview yesterday bill gross was asked about russia and if he thinks the huge drop in oil could force that country into a debt default like it did in 1998. here is what he to

. >>> i'm josh lipton with your cnbc market wrap.s stage a stunning rally as fed-inspired buying continues. the dow climbs a whopping 421 points. it was the first such gain in three years. the s&p jumps 48, more than 2% and the nasdaq posting a triple-digit gain up 104. oracle shares rising 10%, helping boost tech stocks' second quarter earnings and sales came in better than expected and filings for first-time jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 289,000 and the lowest since early november. that's first from cnbc, first in business worldwide. and cialis for daily useor you. 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

josh lipton we were talking about pets earlier. how does this work?lace for pet owners with pet siters. go online, find a dog sitter near you. book a reservation at their house. there are now 25,000 siters available across the u.s. the company's ceo says, business booms during the holidays. >> unlike the summer where people can travel throughout the summer, during the holidays people travel on thanksgiving and on christmas. there is definitely a wave of people looking to can boo. pretty much all the same days. it is a crazy time of year for us. >> rover makes money by taking a 15% commission from its siters who typically charge $30 a night. menlo ventures invented 12 million in the start-up. rivals include dog vaca, which has 20,000 dog siters of its own. it has already raised $47 million from top tier bcs such as benchmark capital the. not everybody is a fan. just because people love dogs doesn't mean they are qualified to care for dogs. still, rover says every sitter on his site is verified and reviewed and dropping off your dog with a sitter beats

. >> josh lipton has a look at prime candidates for spinoffs in 2015. josh? >> well bill you know breaking up is hard to do but it's not too hard apparently for many tech companies. hewlett-packard, ebay announcing big splits. ibm $1.5 billion just for the chip arm to offload and which will split or spin off businesses in 2015? patrick moorhead says oracle could sell the hardware business growing slightly in the last reported quarter. moorhead says dell could be interested in that business. another potential spinoff in 2015 generating buzz amazon web services. now, amazon doesn't break down the performance of its cloud servers but losses in that business are mounting and competition with google is rising. moorhead calls the cloud service a distraction. >> it would be somewhat of an easy one to break off aenl it's a services play which i think that the market would be really excited about as a standloan entity. analysts expect a wave of tech splits and spinoffs next year as companies try to get leaner and meaner and boost shareholder value. back to you. >> let

josh lipton has the details for us. sh. >> kelly, yeah, oracle just reporting here. 69 cents on 9.6 billion. wall street looking for 68 cents on 9.5 billion and a beat there on the bottom and the top. just quickly, kelly, looking through here, software and cloud revenue, 7.3 billion. new cloud bookings up 140%. new software licenses 2 billion and hardware at 1.3 billion. conference call kicks off at 5:00 p.m. eastern and expecting calls of analysts about oracle's move to the cloud as well as just a general state of i.t. spending. on that call for head lines as they cross. back to you. >> all right. josh, thank you. want to get some quick reaction to the oracle shares up 3% after hours here, as well. then back things out from that for a second and daniel ives in here. what is it that has oracle shares popping higher do you think? >> this is a step in the right direction given the disappointing numbers we have seen over the last few quarters and comes down to cloud. that's putting fuel in the engine. now you start to see i

our josh lipton is wrapping up the retail rush out in san jose. what have you seen so far, josh?, we are at this mall here in san jose, california, where the bargain hunters out in force looking for those deals. analysts say that consumer's in better shape this year and could mean more spending. international council predicts holiday sales jumping 4% to $489 billion. that would be the strongest gain in three years. but as you mentioned, a lot of folks are hitting the malls today, too, to return those christmas day gifts that might have been disapointing but that, too, could be good news for retailers. >> often times you will get money back or credit which you can use towards something else and they may have forgotten or see -- they may see a great promotion they hadn't seen before the holidays to take advantage of. >> reporter: now, consumers also want to take advantage of the sales and the discounts that retailers like express and gap and the department stores like macy's and target where clearance items up to 60% off. analysts expect consumers to show strength heading into the

josh lipton looking at retailers and bracing for what they hope is an online surge in traffic., kelly, in the holidays retailers are tracked a lot of shoppers to their online sites with bargains. now the challenge is to make sure those sites actually work. best buy found out the very hard way what happens when you get a surge in online traffic. the company's website went dark after dealing with overwhelming traffic. best buy wasn't alone, though. according to catch point systems, a company that monitors website performance, neiman-marcus down for two hours on saturday night and j. crew suffered slower than normal load times. catch point analyzed 50 e-commerce sites over the weekend to find out which ones performed the best. and one measure of performance is how fast the home pages of such sites load for users. specifically to the time it takes for the elements on a web page to load and the winners according to catch point, h & m, costco, apple and barnes & noble. among the slowest, walmart and staples. they spend months getting ready for black friday. the i.t. departments test

josh lipton joins us from san jose. you do it on your smartphone the horrific alarm thing? joe. you don't do -- it's not smartphones. it's just two basic old school alarms. but tough have two. that's the trick. >> you need two? i'm sure you do. thanks for doing it for us. what's up? >> splits and spinoffs that was the big tech theme in 2014. analysts say that is going to remain one in e the new year. hewlett-packard, ebay, symantec all in 2014. so where will the splitoffs be in 2015? here's the things. oracle could make big news. comes from software and service. while hardware is a drag that could be sold. so who is a potential suitor? >> if i had to put a name out there, i'd probably put adel out there who currently doesn't have what i call the highest end of hardware that is out there that actually runs complete systems like oracle has out there. but i think it could be a segue for intel to get into that market. >> oracle said revenue in its hardware division rose just slightly to $1.3. billion. another potential spinout in 2015 amazon web services. amazon doesn't break d

here's josh lipton. >> consumers can never own enough gadgets. tech companies will keep pushing their latest products to them in 2015. but not every tech toy will fly off the shelves. here are three predictions. first, the crowded market for wearables will get smaller. fitbit and jawbone are now household names. and the launch of apple watch next year will make a big splash in the wearable space. but is there a demand for so many products that often overlap? expect to see consolidation in this. jawbone, for example, is talked about as a takeout target. 2015 could be the year it gets bought. second, gopro goes drone. the consumer drone market is blowing up. and gopro is taking notice. there are reports the camera maker will take the space. and it isn't denying them either. expect the camera maker to move into drones and drive demand for this hobby even higher. third, more trouble for tablets. tablets are under pressure as consumers opt for smartphones with bigger displays and so-called phablets. expect that pressure to continue in 2015 with a cate