and we begin with shelby holliday. it was a dramatic ended to a hostage situation in sydney, australia. >> australian police confirmed that three are dead and 4 injured after the 16-hour siege in downtown sydney. the victims included 2 hostages, 38-year-old man in a 38-year-old woman. and the gun man, a 50-year-old man. in a news conference that 17 hostages total had been accounted for. we found out that a police officer suffered a non-life-threatening loan to the face -- wounded to the face that we don't have information on his injury at this point. >> how did the situation unfold? >> the crisis came to an end after heavily armed police lint chocolate cafÉ

shelby holliday joins me with more on that story. prices creating a win-win for the consumers and for cosco as well. >> the company reported a 17% rise in courtly profits. -- quarterly profits. when oil plummets, costco benefits. costco buys in bulk. they buy very large quantities of oil. they purchase from a number of refineries. one of the analysts told me virtually every refinery in the country. they are buying gasoline 1-2 weeks earlier than many of their competitors and that allows them to capture high margins. they don't have to lower prices when the corner store lowers prices. >> a nice bump for costco. do investors have the long-term vision on this? >> there are two answers. they do care. they talked about it a lot. when gas prices fall, that is the best in terms of profitability. what investors fully care about is the gas business overall. costco is such a smart buyer of gas. they have the lowest gas prices in the country. when drivers come up to the store when the store is open, 50% of them go inside to bible items. -- to b

shelby holliday tells us about one retailer that plans to sit out the holiday price wars. those stories are coming up, but first let's get you to the top stories at this hour. john stump says the u.s. economy will grow faster next year than economist estimated to. his comments this morning run counter to a bloomberg survey of economists who believe that growth in 2015 will be in the 3% range. >> since we are so involved in the real economy we have been hearing from customers about more hiring. our small business survey shows more optimism by them now than any time since 2008. while we do not expect next year , we arebreakout year planning to upper end of the expectations for next year. >> mr. stump says that automobiles, agriculture, and commercial real estate are among the industries doing well. fannie mae and freddie mac will be letting borrowers put down as little as 3% of the homes cost to get mortgages. starting on the 13th, fannie mae will allow the lower down payments for first-time homebuyers, allowing borrowers refinancing to reduce their equity to 3% to cover clo

and we begin with shelby holliday. it was a dramatic ended to a hostage situation in sydney, australia. >> australian police confirmed that three are dead and 4 injured after the 16-hour siege in downtown sydney. the victims included 2 hostages, 38-year-old man in a 38-year-old woman. and the gun man, a 50-year-old man. in a news conference that 17 hostages total had been accounted for. we found out that a police officer suffered a non-life-threatening loan to the face -- wounded to the face that we don't have information on his injury at this point. >> how did the situation unfold? >> the crisis came to an end after heavily armed police lint chocolate cafÉ good gunfire rang out for about 30 seconds after several hostages escaped with their hands up. not seenn who was leaving the building, the suspected gunman, identified as s.n haron moni he is a self-professed muslim cleric with a long criminal record. he was connected to the murder of his wife and charged with more than 50 counts of sexual assault. prior to the host

shelby holliday tells us why printing -- plunging gas prices are a win-win for costco.

and we begin with shelby holliday.

shelby holliday of bloomberg, thank you so much.dropping oil prices, consumers are buying more cars, perhaps. car sales are at an all-time rise ofnovember, a almost 5% last year. one automobile dealer says they have a plan to increase sales even more. rolling out their new service called smart choice express, an online service that allows customers to pick a car and finish their paperwork at home before picking it up at a local dealer. joining us to explain how this new digital storefront will work is mike jackson of automation. mike, great to have you back. >> good morning, pleasure to be here. let how is this different from the other sellers that i see online? like cars direct? >> the third-party providers attract traffic to their sites but then generate leads. they sell the leads to multiple dealers. it is just a different way of marketing, but you ultimately end up back in a very traditional process. i think that the customers are very unhappy and dissatisfied with this disconnect between their online experience and their in-sto