let's go to nicole.le all morning long, downgraded by citi. 2 million share sales of its iphone in china this weekend and it's at 508 i see. >> this is the one we've been watching throughout the morning because it's been all over the place. now it's lower. right, we checked it moments before the pre-market and we saw it it at 510 and then it was down to 508 in negative territory and now virtually flat and record sales in china, but concerns about the supply, the asian supplier, and [inaudible] neutral from a buy and a price target reduction so the new price target, 575. that's down 675, not good if you were really hoping for apple to take off to a thousand. stuart: you know, it's nothing these days for analysts to shift their target price for apple by $100 in a single move. 675? oh, no, no, 575. now, that's quite a shift, is it not? no? >> it is a big shift and now what happened, as soon as it crossed 575, the price target, it's, you know, that's a big deal, right? and keep up with the time. >> it's call

melissa: nicole, thank you very much. proposals to avert the fiscal cliff coming fast and furious right now. we want to get you up to speed on where every proposal stands. for the first time the president conceding on tax hikes on those over 400,000 instead of 250,000 per year. that would raise in theory $1.3 trillion in revenue. speaker benard plans for tax hikes on those who make over a million dollars along with a trillion in spending cuts. although it looks like we may be getting closer to a deal, speaker john boehner is pressing a backup plan just in case. speak i think it is important to protect as many american taxpayers as we can. our plan b. would protect american taxpayers who make a million dollars or less and have all their current rates extended. melissa: but the white house and democrats are rejecting the plan b. saying it does not ask enough of wealthiest americans on taxes. let's bring in matt welch, editor-in-chief of "reason" magazine. i wonder right out of the gate looking at plan a. and plan b., does s

nicole.etal prices skidding after another round of stimulus from the fed. we have phil flynn from price futures group. phil, metals and oil rose on cheaper dollar by the federal reserve and everybody is rushing in to take profits, am i right, at least partly? >> they are. you want to know why? because they're concerned about the fiscal cliff. you should have saw when the metals gained momentum to the downside after john boehner. traders are realizing, hey, we may not get a deal here. if we don't get a deal that is deflation fairy for the economy and bearish for the precious metals. how many times we play this out last couple weeks. talk of stimulus, metals rally. market reverses. metals to go back down. if we get a deal look for metals to absolutely explode. copper is partly down because of the fiscal cliff but they're worried about data coming out of the china. very, very important. if we get strong data out of china tonight that should help industrial metals. look at rest of the markets, oi

nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. welcome back, nicole.s going on? >> thanks, adam and melissa. we're looking at a market holding onto some gains so that is obviously a positive sign. december is traditionally the a great month on wall street. the best month since back to 1950, s&p 500 best performing month, up 1.7%. here is as we see the divergence here's what we're seeing lately as there is so much concern about the fiscal cliff. the nasdaq is down about half a percent. the dow down half a percent. s&p also gaining. dow jones industrials up 59 points. some names leading the you way include caterpillar and jpmorgan. pulling other the way way, microsoft, verizon. the jobs report, everybody takes it what it is. they're well aware of revisions for the prior month which were not as good as they first appeared. back to you. adam: nicole, thank you very much. we'll see you in 15 minutes. melissa: speaker of the house john boehner calling the past week of negotiations over a fiscal cliff a waste. even if both sides come to a deal the federal gov

nicole petallides and sandra smith are with us. first, to you nicole.e: the question here is a real push and pull. is hp better off as one big unit or better off to be broken off into parts? it is not were broken up. he says that the company is so quick to gather.. really, this is a head to head with deutsche bank. karl icahn would basically lead for a push to break it up. now, it is dropping on the comments from deutsche bank. liz: nicole, thank you. now, over to sandra. >> look at these cocoa and sugar prices. cocoa prices flat to down today. up about 10% in 2012. there has been some major supply prices higher. there is almost constant political turmoil. they have also had that coupled with bad weather. the main ingredient in chocolate, those cocoa prices are higher as we head into christmas. also, sugar prices. they are off today. it has been a big recliner in 2012. there has been some supply of sugar and not price is down. one thing to note in the sugar market, when we are talking about hedge funds out of the commodity market, they were seen big-tim

thank you, nicole. that's a no. nicole: yes i would go there.p in at least seven years. >> i like the pajamas. nicole: you are leaving out their best brand, the banana republic. ask the question again. i would go to banana republic more. sandra: it's not just the gap stores is what she's saying. stuart: are they all together? >> under the same umbrella. stuart: who knew? thank you, everybody. >>> we have been talking about the right to work battle in michigan all morning. former nlrb chairman is here with us on that subject. peter, it's going to happen, isn't it? they are going to be right to work, and i want to know -- you're an expert in the labor field. is this going to spread to other midwestern industrial pro union states, do you think? >> i suspect it will, stuart. good morning by the way. stuart: yes, sir. >> i think, you know, the reason right to work laws are being passed is because the predominant union model which % goes back to 1930s, 1940s is really a combative one. it doesn't pay enough attention to the need for an employer to make

nicole petallides. nicole: we will focus on one that has gained in popularity.have watched gold, the commodity itself, pulling back recently. it is down over $26 at 60.93. you have seen, lately, a net of $1.6 billion added into the etf since early october. one of the experts remained bullish on gold. just noting that this pullback is actually being blamed on the fiscal cliff walls. money coming off the table. and a lot of folks are pretty bullish going forward. back to you. melissa: thank you. a strikeout the nations busiest port complex. costing the nation a billion dollars a day. the port of long beach director joins us just ahead. lori: let's see how the dollar is trading. it is a weaker dollar with big euro pushing up to 130. the dollar weaker, really, across the board. we will be back with more after this. ♪ twins. i didn't see them coming. i hai need to rethink the oblco of my portfolio.atio. what i reallneed is sleep. introducing the ishares core, buildi blocks for the hearof your portfoli find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors chse ishares

nicole: indeed. we have been over the 13,300 mark but still holding onto stellar games, lori and melissa. so up triple digits up 110 points so really is a nice showing. 28 of the 30 dow components in the green. we heard from house speaker john boehner. the overall sentiment after he spoke is a few negative pieces of language in his speech that ultimately in the end he was trying to say they're trying to work it out. smooth it over, ultimately. they know a couple of trends we are seeing, technology, materiall, two areas coming under pressure recently starting to turn. europe seeing improvement helping equities along as well. lori: not sure if you mentioned the fed. we were talking about it at the top. talking about their expectations of ben bernanke. nicole: would even throw out the idea of stimulus? that helped things along pushing us along throughout this entire last six months. lori: absolutely. thank you so much, nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. protests turn violent

nicole -- where is it now, nicole? nicole: right now it's still down. iphones, but the news today is they are getting the google maps back for their customers who are excited because they have struggled and been frustrated with the maps program that apple tried to institute on their own. you may remember it actually put a city in the middle of an ocean. stuart: yes i do recall that, yes. all right, nicole thank you very much indeed. stuart: remember the big argument i had with an atheist yesterday about saying merry christmas? john stossel is going to do a version of that on his program tonight. he will be debating god versus science. john stossel joins us now. >> but i will say merry christmas. stuart: that's very big of you. what did you say on fox and friends this morning? did you say i'm a nonbeliever? >> i did. i said look i envy those of you who believe. i know religious people have more peace, more joy in their lives. surveys show they are happier. whenever i run into somebody who is going to africa to help poor people, odds are they are going wi

our own nicole petallides is standing by.nd, nicole, a little m&a action in the mining world today. >> really there is a lot of action in the mining world. we'll take a close look at freeport-mcmoran, a big deal underway here. what is interesting when you have mergers and acquisition particularly in energy this is something that brings positive sentiment to wall street. let's look at freeport-mcmoran. also taking a look at other names that are involved, right? you're looking at, see how they are faring. plains exploration is up 25%. mcmoran exploration up 82%. freeport-mcmoran is buying both of those together. this is $9 billion. this is about oil and gas producers and it will create a natural resources conglomerate. this is a huge, huge move. freeport-mcmoran is a name we always took to when we talk about commodities and things on the move and on a day where oil and gold are to the downside, gold in particular talking about freeport-mcmoran, copper and gold. you can see it is down 14%. that is not unusual to see an acquirer

nicole: let's get down and dirty in washington. markets have been suffering since december, we have seen a lot of down arrows. is this likely to continue? >> i think it will. the margin is reacting to the headline. we have given everything back in december and broke through strong support levels, now is 95. there is a bullish sentiment as long as politicians get out of the way we will let the market take care of itself but until we get to that point we will suffer these headlines. nicole: the breakdown washington and on wall street. tracy: i wish he was right but the politicians have to get out of away. the only way to do that is divert their planes to hawaii or something and they will be -- lori: that did happen with the president. maybe they should all go to oahu. suffer with the headlines. that is will we do with the dow down 134 points. as congress and the white house failed to gain traction in talks to avoid the cliff states could stand to benefit from a surge in estate taxes. gerri willis is on the story. gerri: estate taxes

nicole?e home builders, a great day to take a look, and the numbers, talk about the month over month, down .1%, which is an improvement over what analyst had the exception with a 2%, and year over year with a gain that out paced the analysts' expectations. the group is mixed today. jrhorton down 1%, and kb homes gaining 1%. the group has done well. i chose these names to give a look over 52 weeks. i mean, 376%, that is the gain that we are seeing on hovnanian. 376%. i said it again just in case you missed it the first time. we've seen the housing recovery underway, and today's numbers echo that sentiment. it's been slow; however, and each time you get the numbers in, there's experts like david blitzer saying it's an upbeat assessment saying the recovery is gathering strength. back to you. ashley: encouraging sign, slow and steady, could be awhile before we are close back to normal. >> right. >> whatever normal is. nicole, thank you. jeff, what's going on with oil and line lumber? >> well, tru

nicole: that is right. banana republic and old navy under their umbrella, but is not a good sign with many other retailers doing so well coming up with numbers and sales that are stellar. david: hewlett-packard, carl icahn, definitely the rumors are affecting the stock, what is going on? nicole: hewlett-packard goo a big pop because we saw after the investor carl icahn was buying options or getting in there some way shape or form in hewlett-packard became a top performer on the dow jones industrial. liz: let's talk about other a cap tech names. this is a company that has actually found a little bit more firm footing lately. >> right. he noted they had a firmer footing these days, but also getting an upgrade didn't help because at a price target of a $24 with a buy rating helping it along. the tech did really well. but what hewlett-packard, cisco systems. an apple from negative to positive to negative really giving it a shot. david: always look about what stock really parallels the economy in general. one st

what's going on, nicole? caterpillar joining over a couple of hundred companies accelerating the dividend payout in order to avoid taxes. we are hearing from the ceo who is talking about the fact that because of uncertainty in the u.s. tax policy, that we are acting in the interest of our shareholders, and shareholders could save 30 million dollars by this accelerated payout. stuart: still no word from microsoft i take it? nicole: i will be waiting by the phone. we will see if they call. stuart: so am i. i live in hope. nicole thank you very much. >>> here's another example of -- can you really say union outrage? i say yes you can say that word. chrysler workers fired for drinking smoking pot on the job couple of years ago. do you remember that? >> hey, guys. hate to be a buzz kill but shouldn't you guys be building cars? don't you guys work out at the chrysler factory? you know, the government spent a lot of money bailing you guys out. and you're coming outthere on your lunch break drinking like this? stuart

nicole, thank you. melissa: launched by russian hackers, project blitzkrieg is taking hacking to a new level. this year citi, countless other big banks have been victims of cyber attacks. your money actually could be at risk. but radware helps companies prevent such problems by working with major banks and stock exchanges around the world to protect assets. we have the vice president of rad ware and he joins us now. we were hering about the attacks earlier this year especially on the web sites of various banks in the u.s. and elsewhere and they are trying to bring down the web sites to sort ever slow commerce or cause inconvenience. this is totally different situation where you have russian hackers actually stealing money, right? >> yes. good afternoon, melissa and lori. thanks for having us on board. i want to thank you for that. yeah, the new attacks appear to be focused on actually, at the same time, confidentialty. as we're continuing to have a very massive uptick in availability-based attacks what

nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange. hey nicole. nicole: i look forward to hearing more about that particular story as i watch the stock market here, i do see the dow is down about 1/3 of 1%. majority of the dow components are lower. it is december 24th. there are kids running around here. it's a very random day on wall street. the traders will get together and sing the traditional song which represents hope back in the early 1900s. some names are weighing heavily here on the major averages. a couple names squeezing out gains like alcoa and home depot. let's take a look at the retailer jc penney. you do see it doing particularly well here. oppenheimer has talked about the fact that there's traffic. there's people going into the stores. they are doing a lot of promotions over at jc penney, and that's actually helping them out. a lot of kids here today, obviously, on a day where we're waiting for the big holiday. all right. there you go, merry christmas everybody. dagen: thank you, nicole. dennis: president obama and house speaker boe

lori: let's check the market with nicole watching wall street. nicole: watching green.ooking at men's warehouse. a completely different picture. you see a down arrow decisively for men's warehouse. they came up with a number, but they have t had to cut their fur profit outlook. so with that we see the stock at a lower guidance, down 2.5%. earnings rose 22% in the fiscal third quarter but as i noted the outlook is not a good one. they have seen sales worse for the month of november in u.s. and canada. that is not good news for the retailer down $0.79. back to you. lori: nicole, always a pleasure could thank you. melissa: what is the hottest stock on wall street? could it be an analyst which mark on the firm of buying for bank analyst dick bove. lori: the dollar strengthening against the euro. predicting an even weaker euro zone. we are back after this. [ male announcer ] this is amy. amy likes to invest in the market. she also likes to ride her bike. she knows the potential for making or losing money can pop up anytime. that's why she trades with the leader in mobile tra

nicole petallides standing by. nicole: we are looking good. you mentioned boehner and obama speaking once again. many traders that i have spoken with that something, some white, would get done. we are up about one half of a percent. there is the nasdaq sitting right at the 3000 mark. i also want to take a look at two names that have been making news. that is sprint and clear wire. that is about a half of a percent for sprint which is the number three u.s. wireless carrier. now, they will have full ownership of the spectrum. that is some good news for sprint. you are seeing that clear wire is selling off the news. lori: president obama and house speaker john boehner meeting just hours ago. our rich and thin was first to report this news of the meeting. rich, the house speaker seems to be caving on tax hikes, at least a little bit. rich: they have been discussing the ratio with a 121 ratio. they are talking a trillion dollar spending cuts. higher rates on amount of more than $1 million curbs on deductions congress would work out next year. democ

do they do-or-die a little bit today nicole? we have seen a lot of retailers under pressure. certainly they didn't do so great today. many of these names when we talk about them, they have had a tough year 2012. they really are do-or-die. you talk about management, talk about competition, you talk about how are they going to set up to win as op

nicole, thank you so much.right, after a difficult year at the box office, hollywood is gearing up for a run at the rest of the entire year. dennis kneale has more. reporter: hollywood is gearing up for a manly holiday season. big action films will light up the box office. you have the next tom cruise movie, "jack reacher", and quentin tarantino's "django unchained" and there is also "zero dark thirty." if you're female, what even as the? "les miserables" could be box office blockbuster box office outcomes of the film could reach $26 million in the u.s. opening weekend. 136 million and the full u.s. one. for her musical, who would've thought it? it is produced by comcast universal studios. based on a novel written in 1862. it has been a hit on broadway for 27 years. a built-in franchise. a star-studded cast. you have the gladiator himself, russell grow and hugh jackman. and anne hathaway. ahead by "les mis" would be nice. the batman shooting, the huge flop of "john carter" by disney, and back to you. ashley: yo

ahora tenemos a nicole, que es la competencia de esta semana, a ver cÓmo le va. [♪] omar: ¡ay, benditos tengo una muestra de todas las cosas lindas de mi paÍs, ¡sÍ, seÑor! el equipo de producciÓn de "ritmo deportivo" se luciÓ con la remamaza que les tenemos hoy. [♪] ella es nicole. este bomboncito nos modelÓ y nos enamoro con estos pedacitos de tela. ¿quiÉn fuera brillantes, papalote? como buena caribeÑa, sus curvas no nos decepcionaron y fotografiarla, ademÁs de divertido, fue muy fÁcil con tanta belleza. [♪] si nicole les parece conocida, es porque de pronto la han visto en mÁs de un video musical. tal como lo oyen, amigos, este bomboncito nos ha mostrado su talento de bailarina junto a cantantes como pitbull y elvis crespo. ademÁs, nos contÓ que su hombre perfecto es uno que sepa bailar. asÍ que ya saben, compadres, a tomar clasecitas. [♪] pero no lo es todo. como buena boricua, a esta mamaza le encanta el surfing y el baloncesto. ¡esto es el paquete completo! como me la recetÓ el mÉdico, seÑores. mirada coqueta, curvas peligrosas, amante del deporte y boricua. ¿quÉ mÁs quieren? yo

nicole petallides@a quarter past the hour. nicole: let's kick it off with best buy.alking about the founder possibly moving forward with a buy offer. now the author has been pushing back. with that deadline pushed back, it means this deal is not happening imminently. the 16% gain that you saw yesterday, it was a raised by the almost 16% loss that we are seeing today. that rings me to general electric. raising dividends. the bad news for the shareholder is it will not be moved up to december like so many companies like caterpillar and mason. they are also authorizing another buyback. back to you. connell: it is time. let's bring in charles. let's talk about caterpillar. charles: i like caterpillar. this will be one of my 2013 and investments. i have always liked the company. it is extraordinarily well-run. 20% of the revenue comes from outside of this country. it always feels a little myopic that we are always talking europe and america. this company has exposure to the global economy. what triggered it today was this china pmi number. i know gordon chang has been on.

dagen: nicole 5 on the new york stock exchange. nicole: this is unbelievable. we continue to get the headlines out of washington. we have boehner coming out with plan b. we are getting harry reid response saying that speaker banners -- boehner approach is very far away. the markets have managed to move back higher. there is a look at the nasdaq. the dow is a winner of about .5%. connell: let's follow up on this breaking news on the speaker of the house john boehner. dagen: richardson is live in washington, d.c. with what the heck. rich: the house will vote as early as this week to extend tax rates for those making less than a million dollars a year. house speaker john boehner says he is still negotiating plan a with president obama. the reason for the backup plan, speaker boehner says, after optimism, the white house is latest offer has soured the mood within republicans. >> it was essentially a $1.3 trillion in new revenues for only $853 billion in net spending reductions that is not balanced in my opinion. rich: there are substantial differences. the speaker

nicole petallides thanks so much.eport is out natural gas will boost the economy but what will domestics do to the cost. we have john hofmeister, former president of shell oil and he joins us to break down the pros and cons on this story. what do you think? we have an abundance of this resource because we've become the king of fracking but americans get very insecure about exporting energy. >> but the good news you started with, yes we have more natural gas than we even know, melissa. there is so much there. we have the technology, we have the people. we have the financial wherewithal to produce how much we're allowed to produce, that is the key word. how much are we allowed to produce. this is a government-run market now. it is not a free market. it's a government-run market. so where is the government on your question? melissa: yeah. >> we don't know. melissa: we don't know. >> there has been no leadership. melissa: we don't know although that they are hostile to a certain extent. $47 billion is a lot of money obvio

we have nicole cut -- nicole petallides. nicole: companies looking very close.ng assets in order to pay back the $182 billion from that allow back in 2008. here is the story. this unit has been possibly going to go public. the ceo of aig has been waiting for the markets to improve. the talks are reasonably far along. getting a nice pop here. of 61.30. cheryl: it is all good. nicole petallides. thank you very much. better than expected jobs numbers released this morning. it is because investors are far more worried about the fiscal cliff. first of all, i want to start with the jobs number. the futures were down, market pop up. >> you have some discrepancies in the way the numbers are being reported. you had a better headline number. the new book that what has been impacted by sandy. there is some conflicting information coming out. cheryl: we start to look at the data you get into the data better. if you have 7.7 unemployment rate, it fell because people dropped out of the labor force. were they cleaning up basement somewhere in the northeast, where they hoping v

dennis: stocks now as did every 15 minutes, nicole petallides on the new york stock exchange. nicole: all eyes on washington now discuss the fiscal cliff trying to come to some sort of agreement to make this happen for u.s. taxpayers, americans across the country who are eagerly awaiting a bipartisan decision of some sort end justifies the meeting has brought some optimism to wall street and as result we are seeing the dow up 91 points. focusing on bank of america the top performer on the dow jones industrials. some of the tech stocks are

nicole: i am looking at avon products.ou may remember coty which made a bid and then made a sweetened offer and avon rejected it. now it is up 5%. it is a top performer on the s&p 500. alpha is now reporting that coty may step in again. this was back in may when they raised their bid to 24.75. it sounds pretty good when you are trading at $14. we will see what actually transpires. right now, we may be seeing coty stepping in once again. cheryl: nicole petallides, thank you very much. should the u.s. start exporting natural gas? with the benefits the overall worth it? liz claman talk to a man at the forefront of this. andrew liveris. liz: let's go all in. the report makes a bold prediction. it will boost the u.s. economy $547 billion in just seven years and create jobs, which, of course, we desperately need. >> one report does not make a plan. it is fundamentally flawed. $90 billion at $3 million actually 20 times value that would be under threat if they went ahead and took the recommendations of this report. it ignores the

nicole petallides. nicole: we are looking at a market that is to the downside. let's take a look at citigroup. it is about 4% of the workforce. citigroup is higher. it has had an up arrow throughout the day today. we saw the dow jones industrials this week to the downside. we had two consecutive days in selling. down arrows for the nasdaq. down 1.1%. connell: breaking news out of washington. earlier, speaker boehner speaking about the fiscal cliff. now it is president obama. let's listen. >> we have emerged not yet where we need to be, but we certainly have made progress. the reason we have made progress in part is because of the outstanding management and productivity and gains and efficiencies that you have been able to achieve in each and every one of your companies. i have said this to some of the small groups, let me repeat it to the large groups, i am passionately rooting for your success. if the companies in this room are doing well, then, small businesses and medium size businesses up and down the chain are doing well. if companies in this room are doing

nicole: i am nicole petallides live on the floor of the new york stock exchange.siness, we do stocks now. this could be a record setting day for fedex. they are saying that they plan on moving 19 million packages today. this would be their busiest day ever for the company. they are saying that e-commerce is one of the reasons why they expect this growth. we will see overall, year over year, for this season, possibly a 13% growth year over year. dennis: they are so early. i am so impressed. thank you very much. federal reserve buys $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month. you can see it will soon have a larger or ditch portfolio van fannie mae and freddie mac combined. more purchases could be a good option. tom, thank you for being with us. fannie mae and freddie mac exist to help housing, why could it possibly be a good thing for the fed to be in even bigger landlord then franny? >> i do not know who is saying that. if the fed continues along this course buying $40 billion, they will want to own more than fannie or freddie. the irony of that, which is

lori: nicole, thank you.that is interesting when it plays out whether the blackberry 10 comes out. lori: i'm a blackberry deveto. so much easier to type on. tracy: we'll see. good news for the housing recovery. latest case-shiller report shows home prices in the 20-city index grew 4.3% year-over-year. this is despite a slip one month earlier. phoenix led cities with 1.4% gain. marking the state's 1th straight month for growth. california and new york with only two cities with negative annual returns. this morning's case-shiller housing report could be a sure sign housing strength is do we expect it to gain momentum in 2013. day one of the outlook 2013. here to kick it off, ed pinto from the american enterprise institute. ed, let's say for argument sake we go flying off the fiscal cliff. what happens to housing? >> i think housing to some extent goes off with it. we'll end up with a recession and that will dampen homebuyers enthusiasm for buying homes and we'll see a downtick in house prices and uptick in fore

nicole is at the stock exchange, futures are traded up a bit. and president obama is cutting his vacation short to continue talks on the fiscal cliff. joining us now is dan henninger from the wawr wall street journ. does he want to go over the fiscal cliff? some are saying he needs more than he would just get from the rich guys. >> i doubt that he wants to go over the cliff. and i must say, president obama has repeatedly referred to himself as the unique politician, he's different than everyone. there is no politician i know would want to get into a situation like this. and barack obama marchs to his own drummer and it's possible, but i kind of doubt it. >> you wrote a piece in the wall street journal, called "no guardrails", you said the old society kept the politicians in order in washington, self-order and self-restraint. all of those disappeared as a result of the "me" generation and you say that obama is the epitome of a the "me" generation president that he sees things from his perspective and won't bend. >> the original metafor, you do ha

cheryl: nicole, thank you very much., president obama and house speaker john boehner completing at the white house another round of talks over the fiscal cliff. rich edson with the latest. >> we got the heads up when the speaker was already there. that meeting just wrapping up within the last few minutes here. here is the framework they were discussing going into that meeting. a trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next decade, cutting dollars in revenue increases including the top tax rate of families earning more than a million dollars per year, the rest of the revenue would come from closing deductions and loopholes in the process next year. also the discussions include possible debt ceiling increase, employment iisurance, preventing the doctors who treat medicare patients from getting a dramatic pay cut an in the payroll tax ct extension sort of the other issues they are discussing. they are not in or out yet, but they're part of the conversation. part of the problem is to get kind of a framework like that thro

head to the floor of new york stock exchange and nicole petroleum -- nicole petallides. are a few winners today. >> that's right. adobe, top performer in the s&p 500, historying a new 52-week high. they came out with the quarterly report out after the bell. hot rising 28%. sub skrixs higher --. that is certainly, that pace, even surprised the ceo. even he wasn't expecting that. so certainly enjoying this growth potential here for adobe. as a result it has been a top performer. then you take a look here at alcatel-lucent. alcatel-lucent, telecom equipment-maker, alu feting $2.1 billion financing deal. secondary credit facilities will be underwritten by credit suisse and goldman sachs. you do see that name on the move to the upside as well. one thing i left out and i did want to add obviously sometimes you see analysts jumping in after the affect but it is good to know and add in with a dob systems going for one brief moment you had price target increases from most of the major houses here. jpmorgan, credit suisse and bernstein on board with that. back to you. lori: nicole

nicole petallides is at the stock exchange. nicole: it is red ink.hing a market under pressure today, the dow is down 0.1% and major averages down 1%, selling is broadbased whether it is home builders or autos or financials, selling across the board, concerns about the fiscal cliff, the worries so you had planned the which is not accepted, we don't get news forward with that plan and also seeing action moving into the u.s. dollar. the dollar is very strong today. that will pressure these markets. people going to the places that are best of all in a time of worry. you have than nervousness on wall street and that is why you are seeing down arrows for major averages and financials. cheryl: we will see how the afternoon plays out. we will see you 14 minutes from now. with congress on holiday break america's optimistic that there will be a fiscal cliff deal before the year end deadline. the director of investment strategy with us. i will start with you. they will get a deal, what the use a today? >> our conflict is being tested and john boehner could not

nicole petallides rejoice.to open 1500 more stores in the united states in the next five years. also planning to extend overseas making china the second biggest market in the world. this might indicate the company to be making a turnaround at the closing to percent of its u.s. to respect in the late. obamacare is going to hurt both doctors large and big businesses. our next guest is a small -- a doctor and not read the small business. sorry about that makes up. you are a doctor, chiropractor, and you operator chiropractic office like a small business. >> yeah that right. stuart: you're going to stop taking any kind of insurance. you want cash only. >> the thing is, i decided to start a 1-1 i realize that the bureaucracy was trying to tell me how the practice. but terry is when they come and pay for a service that deserve the best. the reservoir on the percentage you. if i have to talk to somebody about how i treat them and i commend you for it. unlike with your doing. if your clients are paying hard-earned mone

thank you, nicole. well, president obama has always promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, but if he can't reach a deal with republicans in the next seven days, that's exactly what will happen and adam shapiro, i've got to tell you, looking at the numbers, if the president gets every penny from the so-called rich that he wants to get, that would still only be 1/8 of the money that he needs to balance the budget. >> in very simple terms, it's roughly 70 billion dollars is what it would raise, in a budget-- >> if the rates go up and another 20 billion, if you get rid of deductions, but he's increased spending 800 billion dollars a year. >> and to say that 70 to 80 billion in a budget that's 900 billion to a tral over budget. so doesn't add up. where does the other 930, 920 billion where is it going to come from? >> which is why, shibani, a lot of people say, maybe he wants to go over the fiscal cliff because he cares about maintaining that level of spending. he doesn't want to decrease spending,

and next we have nicole agbayani. i think, it looks in my notes she was not able to make it. you also heard henry kevane at our last meeting and next i will call up rita evans. >> thank you very much for this opportunity to come and express my interest in serving on the balboa park station citizens' advisory committee. i have lived in the area near sunny side neighborhood for the past 25 years. and as a concerned citizen and representative of the sunny neighborhood association, i have been involved in attending meetings and responding on behalf of the neighborhood association to balboa park planning. i noted -- i wrote and submitted the neighborhood association's response to the draft eir noting in particular there was no mitigation for problems related to traffic and parkingle. i have attended the meetings related to the loop and avalon developments. i commute on bart every day and worked at uc berkeley at the institute of transportation studies. i have carpooled a few times, but i have taken bart daily and i'm very much able to represent the interest of the bart riders. i f

nicole: we are trend mr.ot far off of the line, like apple has been lower and back in the green and helping the tech heavy nasdaq shows in green arrows and been under significant pressure. dow jones industrials crossing the unchanged line again and again, worries about fiscal cliff tomorrow is the all-important jobs report. right now you see the dow up fractionally, up about 10 points. that is the latest on the floor of the stock exchange. was going on at the cme? phil: the day after the biggest gasoline inventory build in 15 years gasoline futures are up, trading close to 0 one month low. they're under a lot fresher this morning not only from that massive amount of supply but the comments out of the ecb and mario draghi. the good news is retail gasoline prices just in time for the holidays should be coming down dramatically. we are here in some areas where they could drop as much as $0.30. if you look at other markets it is not all good news. we are seeing a lot of nervousness in the gold and silver. to my f

nicole: big deal. industrials, down 2% not doing well with the cholesterol drug they have been working on but the nasdaq composite down 0.one% and the s&p trying to squeeze out a gain sitting at 1436 and change on that level for that index and commodities pulling back but we have big news on the stock exchange, we have been talking about inter-continental exchange moving forward and buying this stock exchange for $8.2 billion, 38% premium. you see stocks moving up 33-1/4% hitting a new 52 week high, some people feel the nyse sold out or didn't do a good job and others they are happy they did not sell to its foreign company. the hole. a bourse deal that didn't happen. two american companies. that is the latest on the floor of the stock exchange. jeff: when is bad news good news? when the bad news is a snowstorm and the good news is it is putting an end to a drought and the moisture problem in the midwest. take a look at the wheat, corn, soybean boards are all down, it is bearish because if you get moist

why is that, nicole? is not good news here, they did a ton of promotions and now they're saying the promotions didn't work and in turn they're expecting numbers for the earnings season that will be below the analyst expectations and they're expecting sales at the olive garden to be down 3.2%. and at red lobster, 2.7% so sales are weakening, the earnings per share below what they anticipated and so, now, the ceo, so interesting, we need to come up with a new plan and we are going to work on different promotion because the current quarter is disappointing. do you think? >> well, nicole, hold on a second. the promotions i'm not sure which restaurant chain did it, but they promoted 2 for 20. two people-- oh, that was applebee's apparently. >> all right. stuart: my chains-- >> and let me ask you a question, general petraeus and broadwell, do you think they were texting? i know they actually set up a g-mail account and write notes to each other in the draft and log on and see the other person's notes without se

, nicole?ve bacon. i once had a lip balm bacon. the movers on wall street, the dow jones industrials are the one index with an up arrow and s&p and nasdaq pulling back. the dow, yesterday, dropped 60 points, but as you can see, none of the three from the changed line. nasdaq just down over one-third of 1% on the day where the vix, the fear index, has an up arrow. everybody, obviously, focusing on washington, waiting on the news of the fiscal cliff. we know they will continue waiting. let's talk about a mover, metro pcs. we talked about potential takeovers, well, today looks less likely. they will make an offer for metro pcs because they are doing a deal with japan's soft bank corp.. ttat's why stock is down significantly over 7%. cheryl: thank you very much. we want to get back to breaking news weave within covering here on "markets now. " these are pictures from cairo, egypt. at this point, an estimated 50,000 protesters are chaptering "down with morsi; down with the constitution." near the pr

nicole: taking a close look at facebook.arket check across thed where we're getting close to the closing bell. less than 11 minutes we will here the closing bell. a shortened trading day today. a loss of almost half of a percent. the nasdaq and the s&p also lower. the majority of shares to the downside going from sector to sector, dropped stocks and bank stocks are lower, earlier we brought you around and showed you mcdonald's and halliburton and goldman sachs and jpmorgan always down arrows. obviously not too much of a conviction to the market one way or the other. everybody is waiting eagerly. take a look at facebook. i look at the users. visit $38 ipo back in may, dipping down below $20 clawing its way back. talking positively about the mobile possibilities for facebook and that is one of the reasons it is so hot on facebook now thinking revenue will pop. as a result, up 2.5%. ashley: nicole, thank you very much. microsoft's new windows 8 failing to have a pop in sales. calling sales of the operating system worse than exp

nicole sort it all out for us. nicole: this is a lot of controversy.1/4%. but facebook, their app that they purchased, instagram, facebook is getting tough -- granted they have the rules, you must be 13. there's all kinds of rules. act responsibly. but here's the part that's making people crazy today, stuart. facebook, which will begin advertising on the site, says all the user up loaded content from instagram is fair game for advertising. that's facebook basically saying all your pictures on instagram, they belong to us and we can use any of them in any way we want. stuart: okay. so all the photographs that you up load using instagram, instagram is owned by facebook, facebook can use them. they can use the pictures. they own the pictures. they can advertise with those pictures, really? they are saying that? and the stock is up? i'm surprised. nicole: i mean, people must be outraged because this has become wildly popular instagram has been growing exponentially. stuart: that looks to me like a pr bad move. charles: wall street wants them to find a way

nicole: that is right.happened here is delta confirmed it is acquiring the singapore airlines stake in virgin atlantic. i know you interviewed richard branson did he was here not that long ago. forming a joint venture. delta's stock is certainly reaction to this news. let's take a look at where it is right now. it is on the move. of course, a continuous with a lot of the deals and prices that it can expand it networks. let's talk about the major market averages. the dow jones industrials continue to gain. the dollar has been weaker. that really gives the opportunity for equity to take off. still moving higher. i was looking at the s&p, dagen and connell, you wonder whether or not taken hold 1400 it is well above that level now. connell: now to the throat union protests in michigan. dagen: jeff flock is in lansing, michigan, with much more. jeff. jeff: first, i want to show you the scene out here. you have been walking around. my guess is about 12,000 people so far. many of them inside. there is not much you

nicole petallides is at the new york stock exchange. nicole: the dow is down about ten points. the s&p pulling back one quarter of 1%. a lot of the retailers loved like the biggest losers. 500 stocks are comprised and represent oriole to autos to airlines. the sector that was really lagging where the retailers. oil has been moving to the upside. there is a lot going on with that. and oil spike of two dollars. now, let's take a look at technology. we do see some of the tech stocks doing pretty well. hewlett-packard and intel have been among the real losers for the year 2012 on the dow. today, you continue to see this trend which is a little better. back to you. dagen: thank you. the senate returning to washington tomorrow. the president, as well. five days left to revert the fiscal cliff. now that plan b is that, will there be a plan c or f for failing? peter: president obama expecting to arrive in d.c. tomorrow. white house says they will let us know if there is any update in the talks for congressional leadership. the leader's office is me no news to report. as of now, we are

nicole petallides, let me ask you?re collaborative, they are tough and they're going to work together. i like the idea. i think it's going to be great. stuart: i'm glad you're on board with a positive approach to the news this friday. thanks, nicole. back to you in a second. and we have apple losing its cool while rim has the blackberry, one last shot. news on two smart phone makers in desperate need of a jolt. that and the opening bell next. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the mercedes-benz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle that's just right for you, no matter which list you're on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 ml350 for $599 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. every human being is unique. and theris one store that recognizes it. the sleep nuer store. the only place in the world you'll find the extrtraordinarily comfortable sleep number eerience. an exclusive clection of innovations that totally individualize your sleep. perfectly comfortable pillows that adjus

nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: we are down about 72 points. the vix, the fear index, has an up arrow today. commodities are pulling back a little bit. i want to take a look at a name that is on the move. it is deckers. you may not necessarily know that you know what it is all about. you know uggs. it turns out they are quite popular. while that chatter has been around, they will give decker a pop. >> could merge with timberland. we will be back at you in 15 minutes. for the first time in nearly 40 years, between christmas and new year's, it comes as lawmakers continue to scramble to get a fiscal cliff deal done. rich edson has the latest. rich: they are considering legislation here in the senate today. president obama says he called to talk to congressional leaders, democrats and republicans, last evening. there is no progress here to report. president obama put it all on the house. >> they are operating without the house of representatives. it is being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority to get what the

nicole boys founder and -- nicole boice founder of the rare disease network hears stories similar tohat of the beery family daily. >> i get calls and letters everyday from different parents and there are common themes common things that all of these families share. a they feel isolated and alone. b, they have had trouble finding a diagnosis or they've had trouble finding the right caregivers. the necessary information that they need. nicole boice founded the children's rare disease network after watching a close friend struggle after the birth of a child. >> the whole entire process you know, the lack of diagnosis, the stress it was their first child, emotionally, physically, financially, socially, just the whole process seemed broken by just felt like there's got to be something that i can help with. >> but nicole boice believes the advent of low cost dna sequencing will help parents discovery of disease and diagnosis. >> what dna sequencing brings to these families is the potential of uncovering what the child has much more quickly. what it provides this community is unprecedented.

nicole: bank of america down 2.5%.als are taking today and such an indication of how market sentiment is on wall street. caterpillar,/4% and hewlett-packard down 1.5%. stuart: thanks. bottom line from all of this is the republicans will not accept higher tax rates and the president does not want to make serious cuts in spending. is a standoff and that is still true on the market where the dow is down 127 points. new subject. the nra's leaderships to speak today, one week after the mass shootings that killed 20 in connecticut. on tuesday the nra released a statement that said it would, quote, make meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again. let's address the company. i have an expert in a second the first of all the company. ssould the nra be saying anything at this point? gerri: i am not sure they said. peck of the point where people are so anxious and nervous and upset about something that you need to back away and now is the time to back away. stuart: say nothing. charles: they should say som

stuart: thank you very much indeed, nicole.to the national discourse following the murder suicide involving kansas city chiefs player. that was over the past weekend. nbc's bob costas used sunday night football as a platform to quote an article written: saying if belcher didn't have a fun -- if belcher didn't have a gun, he and his girlfriend wouldn't have died. what do you make of this, mark? >> if you say you're no longer a functioning fully formed individual citizen capable of making his own choices about healthcare, the next step from that is to say well, if you pump 9 bullets into your wife, you're not really responsible for that. we need to change the laws. we need to eliminate the 2nd amendment. because one guy puts nine bullets into his wife, we need to change the laws for 300 million people. he did this. there's is a lack of -- the great issue, not just in the united states, but in the western world, is the urge to dodge personal responsibility. this guy is the beneficiary of one of the wealthiest most successful socie