happy new year to you, great to sigh, our market monitor as we wind up the year, sam stovall with s&p capital iq. >> finally tonight, when the ball drops in times square, new york city tomorrow night t will bring in more than just the new year it also rings in the new energy, independence and security actor. a multiful but tomorrow's the occasion all 32,000 balls are energy efficient. the will build is designed to encourage new lighting technology like led and hall o again bulbs, aimed at cutting energy consumption and saving consumers money. thanks to all of those new balls that the time quarter ball drop will use, 88% electricity than previous years. that's it for us for this year and for tonight, it's nicely business report for friday december 30th, the last trading day of 2011. i'm tom hudson. thanks for joining us. from all of us at nbr have a happy and safe new year. we'll see you back here in 2012. >> nightly business report is made possible by:. >> investing takes sper specifickive. it comes from and a half gaingt up and down markets for 60 years, spotting opportunities at hom

s&p's sam stovall believes the year-end rally is largely due to a change in investor perspective. >>use they are now focusing on 12 months ahead rather than only about three months ahead, as we approach the end of the year, then i think optimism takes over. investors put their money to work and basically expect the coming year to be fairly strong. the question is whether this year will follow historic patterns. on the one hand, u.s. economic data seems to be improving. the unemployment rate dropped last month and consumer confidence hit its highest level since july. and judging by black friday and cyber monday results, jingle bells are ringing at cash registers this holiday season. but, there is a big reason december may prove disappointing for the market. as strategist vadim zlotknov explains, the overarching concern is the debt crisis in europe, where the s&p 500 gets 14% of total sales. >> you have uncertainty as to what is the path that europe is going to choose. if it is a path of extreme austerity, it could actually depress the u.s. companies' earnings and the u.s. economic gro

and standard and poor's chief market strategist, sam stovall, joins us with his outlook for stocks in the new year. the u.s. justice department and deutsche telekom have struck a deal to end a bribery investigation. the german telecom giant will pay more than $95 million to settle accusations a subsidiary bribed government officials in macedonia in an effort to gain market share. now, if you're wondering how a foreign firm doing business in macedonia falls under u.s. jurisdiction, it's because deutsche telekom filed u.s. financial statements at the time that listed those bribes as phony business contracts. mortgage rates moved up slightly this week after hitting a record low a week ago. freddie mac reports the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.95%. that's up slightly from last week's low of 3.91%. the rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage now stands at 3.24%. those super-low rates have failed to boost sales, but the mortgage giant says 5% of households it surveyed said they plan to buy a home in the next year. >> susie: everyone points to small businesses as the engine th

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