Gains overseas, and nearly 3 rally in oil prices. All ten s p sectors are in the grin pushing the s p back into positive territory. Talking about is it finally here. The market seems to be just going up and down with the price the longterm trend it looks like its going to raise rates. Thats not you really we saw stocks despite the continued massive drop in oil. Well, i think, mandy, what you got iran, for instance, comes on the market. The opposite it went in the opposite direction when he did that. Same thing with our fed. Oh, this is going to strengthen the dollar too much. Were going on see the euro fall apart and the dollar is going to rocket up. Opposite happened. When iran comes on with additional supply of crude oil next year, doesnt mean that crude oil is going into the lower 20s. I think the read might be just the opposite. Dave. Look, weve seen markets go up during the year despite oil being a one way trip down. Yeah, were finishing up the year. Flat on the s p. You got to look for stocks where oil is not going to impact it. Stay away from the oil service stocks. I would tell you that secular issues. Alltime high today. Exactly. What im saying is that this provides opportunity. If the market is being traded because of algos, our relationship there between oil and equities. There are plenty of equities there that are you should valued because of this ridiculous pressure on it. Look past that. If you look at the longer term, rather than day to day, you make a lot of money with that. You head into the ring. Pete. Its been about rotation, and this rotation caused this grind, and the grind suddenly we find ourselves somewhere between call it 2050 and 2100. You look at the trend. You look at the volatility index. Thats been staying somewhere between call it 15 and 20. Thats where we are again today. We did have some early moves out of financials. I thought that was pretty encouraging. Up about 1 early. It was, again, the dash for trash. Just like last week. Once we saw Oil Prices Start to rally, then you suddenly look. Whats leading the market . Its the oieh. Its the xle and the materials. Its those kind of names. I think were still in this little trap where people are trying to find the right spot. I will point out something very, very important. Volumes yesterday. Yes. Nine million option contracts total traded. There was a full day of trading yesterday. We have the week before averaged about 13 million. The week before that we were averaging closer to 22 million. It gives you pirs picture of just how much volume was missing. And to to their point, todays move doesnt mean theres a santa claus rally. To me what it means is cash selling is over. You have two trading days left in the year. Now you are seeing buyers come and setting you up for january. Okay, guys. Well get back to you in a second. We have breaking news with sue herrera. Sue. Thank you very much, mandy. This concerns dupont. Dupont is going to be laying off about 1,700 of its employees. Of course, as you know, that stock has been in the news in a big, big way. Along with the sobering news, they say, in their news release, of those layoffs. The wilmington area reductions, thats where those layoffs will take place. They are able to announce as well that the Corporate Headquarters for the combined postmerger Specialty Products business will remain in wilmington, delaware. They say it will be a Technology Driven innovative leader focused on unique businesses, so as a result of this particular merger, we will see some layoffs. About 1,700 layoffs. Man mandy, you can see depont is up almost 2 . Back to you. Thank you very much for that breaking news. Sue herrera. Steve, what do you make of this news. The stock is up nearly 2 . I guess after any merge ever of this level, you will expect thats the down side of m a, and its the down side of activision as they look to cut costs. I would think it would be the tip of the iceberg. You have to feel terrible for the people who get notices. Absolutely. A merger this size, theyre definitely more heads to fall. Jim. I got to agree with that whole heartedly. 1,700. Belief me, im not making light of this. I feel for those people. That is a small number for these two companies and their size, so you should expect more. Wilmington, unfortunately, is going to be ground zero for this. Its always terrible to receive this kind of news in the holiday season. Of course, our thoughts are with the people who will lose their jobs. With just two trading days left in the year, what can we expect in 2016 . Its time to duke it out. Joining us now with a technical take is jonathan, chief market technician of mkm partners and making the fundamental case is jeff sort, chief investment strategist at raymond james. Both of you, great to see you. Jonathan, i believe you think if you were waiting for santa, you have missed the boat. The santa claus rally is obviously the last five trading days of this year, and the first two trading days of the new year. Whats interesting, theres about a 1. 4 average gain during that period historically, but we had about a 3 rally leading up to that period. The first three days of last week actually up almost 3 . We think perhaps there was some frontrunning. We saw this last year as well. We wouldnt be getting too excited about the remainder of the santa claus rally. We think up side is probably capped, you know, in this 2080 range on the s p. What do you think from the fundamental side . Have you given up on the rip your face off rally yet . You know, i think the setup was right for that. You had a 90 down side day on december 11th. 90 . The down volume came on the down side, and then you had three 80 up side days. I think the thing that changed the rhythm of your rip your face off rally was the 1. 2 trillion dollars expiration that occurred on the 17th and 18th. I think were back in rally mode. I continue, as i did a few weeks ago, to think the market will trade to new alltime highs. I know you are a guy that focuses on tech a lot. Is tech really going to be i mean, there are essential some underperformers. I know you are going to talk about some in just a bit, but are there any certain names or are you not going to go into specific names about tech . I was in your town a couple of weeks ago. I spent three hours with ron barron at barron capital, and one of his Larger Holdings a company we follow, and we have a strong buy rating on it. Uridium. The stock jumped after the successful spacex launch, and then recovery back down here in florida. We think the stock has legs to the up side. I think it turns sfwu a huge cash flow story in 2017, 2018. Hey, really curious about that. If you also follow ordcom, a competitor. Yeah. Ordcom, we follow that one too. Our analyst has a fundamental decent rating on that one. Positive rating on that one as well. That also should turn into a huge cash flow story once the capx gets into the rearview mirror. From a technical point of view what are you waiting to see in the market to be able to give you more confidence that we could sustain continued gains into 2016 . You know, a lot has been made of the weakening internals of the market, right . Thats exactly it, manndyman. The market is essentially unchanged from last year. If you look at the percent of stocks above the 200 day mooufk average thats from 77 down to about 48 . Weve had a massive move down in the actual number of stocks that are participating, and really what concerns us is the ratio that this has been going on. Were now approaching the sixmonth mark where that percentage is below 60 . Historically since 1990 the only other times weve got tony that sixmonth mark on that measure have been in bear markets. In 2000 and 2002 and 2007, 2008. You know, the whole story this year has been lagging stocks are going to play catchup and finally move to the up side. Theyve been given all year to do it, and they havent. The story this year has been a handful of stocks that have been moving higher when the majority of stocks have been moving sideways to down. You know, that certainly could happen in early 2016, but, you know, from our perspective, if they were going make their move, theyve had ample time to do so. Its jim levanthal. I want to discuss this further to you. Im definitely in that camp that thinks that the they have to approve. Weve localized this to about ten stocks in the s p 500 that are up for the year, and the other 490 have had terrible years. Doesnt that speak to a rotation that should come in early 2016 . I understand it didnt happen in 2015, but it seems more likely that the other 490 stocks are going to come out of what has been a bear market for them than the ten stocks that are leading will take the overall market down. Well, you know, you could look at it that way. You could also say that, you know, whats telling the true picture. 490 stocks or ten stocks. Again, historically, if you look at the data, i would agree that for three or four months into this, right . You just havent seen instances in history when theres this few stocks participating, and then all of a sudden they start to participate. If you look at, you know, at the stock level and just look at a lot of the indexes and the sectors, there is not much that is in an up trend right now. A lot of stocks are below 200 day moving averages, which is something we havent seen in the last foo few years. Again, you know, were open to keeping an open mind, but, you know, when you see the structural picture of many stocks in down trends, it makes it much more difficult for them to rally as opposed a handful of stocks that could seemingly pull back. Jeff, this is pete. Real quick question for you. I tend to be more bullish than bearish, and you talked about this rip your face off rally. My question to you is this. Do you have any concerns related to the high yield market . Some of the lack of liquidity there in terms of the bullish case for the s p to be able to move higher . Yeah, i do have concerns about the high yield market. I have concerns about the entire fixed income complex and the rising Interest Rate environment. The point that he makes about the majority stocks being in down trends is absolutely valid. You can turn it around and say, you know, a lot of these stocks are down 20 or more, and theyve already been in a bear market correction, and i agree that you probably are going to get a rotation in the new year and the laggards will start to move up. Thank you very much for your debate. Tesla speeds ahead on hiring news. Is it the best play in the auto space right now . Well ask our experts. Plus, the brothers will go headtohead on two of carl icahns troubled trades. The debate on which stock the billionaire investor should dump coming up. We also want to hear from you on that particular point. You can go to our twitter page Halftime Report to vote for your pick. Also, with the sector up nearly 20 in the past three months, is biotech finally back . Cnbc, first in business worldwide. In the next four years. As well, mandy, Companies Growing extremely fast in 2010. Had less than 900. Its going to be 14,000 workers after this. And that 15 million tax credit doesnt hurt. Stocks up 4 right now. Indaed. Okay. Weve got also the biggest laggard on the dow its what they call defensive. There are no such thing as defensive names. Thats where we want to put our money. If you want to be in that i think theyre kicking their butt right now, and the 3 yield and the fact that they got all of this stuff with the gift cards. Theres a lot of things moving in the right direction right now for target. Okay. Its currently up by 2. 5 . Also, Dunkin Donuts partnering with Madison Square garden. Coffee, baked goods, providing for big deal here, jim. I really like the stock, but i dont like this deal. The official monitoring of msg on Dunkin Donuts rsh where there people going to msg who dont know who dunkin doughnuts is. Thats a good point. This is what you do when you are making too much money, and what i would rather see dunkin do is pay down some debt. Moving on to whole foods. Paying a 500,000 settlement over accusations of overcharging customers at its new york city location. Steve actually, this fine or this settlement, i should say, is somewhat less than what they were expecting. They were expecting 1. 5 million. I cant have the same passion about this company, whole foods that, pete or jim had because its meaning it isless. Half a million bucks, this Company Needs nothing but the fundamentals. The bigger issues they have are competition in the space with the Major Grocery chains going organic as well. Thats been the trend. Yep. Okay. Thank you very much, all. Coming up, winter storms and forecasts of Colder Weather putting oil and nat gas higher. How the Energy Experts are trading it. Thats coming up next. Plus, the big hedge with steve weiss. The moves, the big money is making, but should you maybe have a feeling about being a little more bullish . Halftime is back after this to discuss. Welcome back to cnbc. A check on some consumer stocks. The best performing dow stock. A lot quicker than i expected. Thats hats off to the management there. I think the next thing weve got to figure out is what comes after allday breakfast. Theyre going to have to have something new that propels the stock from these high 100 teens into the 120s and beyond. I think the something new is theyre going to finally really start to address the menu. Weve talked about it and talked about it. Too many different items on the menu. Theyve got to reduce that down. Thats going to help out all franchises. I think they have streamlined. Theyre trying to get more and more all these guys are trying to get into that competition, the four for four, the two for four, the dollar menu. I think there are clever ways. Heres a question for you. Should they go healthy or less healthy . When i go to mcdonalds, im not going there for the salad. I dont think they have to go healthy. If you didnt have kids, would you go there . Of course not. I think the issue is that the easy lifting has been done so far with the all day breakfast. Management did do that. The other managements didnt. At this point now its getting much more competitive, and theyve got to change the menu, but others are doing it as well. Yes. I saw the stock lower about six points lower. I dont think its cheap. I think its still playing out, though, the all day breakfast. Its got momentum because theres an awful lot of folks who havent taken advantage of that yet, and when they do, then they get back into that cycle of going multiple times a week rather than just one. Nothing better than hashbrowns at 4 00 p. M. Doigs doing a little research. Okay. Awesome. Mcdonalds is in the airport. Yeah. Natural gas is surging again today. Its up more than 5 and hitting a sixweek high. Massive pop yesterday. Jack yes deangeles has the futures now crew. Jackie. Thats right. Colder temperatures across the u. S. , some bad weather in spots definitely sending the nat gas trade higher. As a matter of fact, were up 40 from the december 18th low. Short covering. Is that whats fueling the move . The weather and expiration have forced a lot of shorts to cover. Theres 370,000 in the market right now. 5 added in the last two weeks alone. Sfla winter is getting started. It has to be colder than it is right now. Jim, i know in chicago it certainly is. Would you be scared to get into this trade at these levels . Midwest is the biggest deal because the highest proportion of homes are heated. The next four days are supposed to be seasonable, and then saturday its supposed to get warm again. However, were talking about a sevenyear downtrend here. Im pretty sure the downtrend is not going to be broken by one ice storm in the middle of the country. I think to me its supposed to be a sell. This thing could settle above 2. 6. Maybe some of the more medium term shorts start to get nervous, but right now its a Short Covering rally. All right. Gentlemen, thanks. Well be watching. Well come to you with the online show today. Were talking to miller, matt, on why the dollar index could see some real difficulty in 2016. Its exactly what we saw last week as we headed into christmas in the threeday weekend. Weve got new years and another threeday weekend coming ahead. We had a more than 3 selloff, and you have people buying the dip and getting a little bit long before we head into the new year. Still the majority of traders are still worried we could touch those lows that we saw in 2015 early on in the were. We get back to 3810, well be even on the week. Thank you very much. Are there any diamonds in the rough in the Energy Sector . Probably. I think you have to look very, very deep. The problem right now you are facing is all of this little the world has gone to these energy names, and the high yield markets have really caused a lot of headaches there. I hi you have to tread you need to be very careful, and dont just go for the dividends. Everybody always wants to go for the dividends. Oh, well, theyre going to give you 4 . These stocks can move a lot further to the south and not give you that 4 deal. I think we might see some of that. You have to be careful. You have a cold week. With the storms down in texas, and cold hitting the midwest hard moving out here, thats another reason that nat gas gets a bid. John, i listened what you said about iran. I think theyre going to flood the market. I think that might overwhelm the normal, you know, buy the river, sell the muse. If thats the case, i want stocks and companies that are aing nostic when it comes to the price of oil. Things like refineries and peoplelines. Pipelines have gotten crushed over the last several months. Oil is spiking because trade rersz flattening out the short positions going into a long weekend. Weve seen the saudis come out before on a long weekend like thanksgiving, and crush the market. Maybe they do the other. I dont think they will. I look at oil this way. Any time the company says were going to make it up on volume. The saudis are saying were going to make it up on volume. Im not basing my Investment Advice or what i do on what the saudis are going to do. Theyrish rationale now. Im not going to be irrationale. So many things about this. I defy you to tell me how you are valuing an equity in the oil space, in the energy space, if you cant peg the price of crude. The leverage of the Business Models so huge that theres no basis for it. Tell what is you think. Go to our twitter and that Halftime Report to weigh in. As we head to the break, take a look at the s p sector wrshz all ten are in the green. Technology is leading. Energy is positive, but it is the laggard out of the ten positive s