Pim. Bond trading wrapping up at 2 15 eastern time. The saudi arabia stock markets, he has been admitted to a hospital for tests. There are reports now that sonar may have detected wreckage from the air asia flight which crashed after the weekend. It is the final day the 31st right, of 2014 . It is. Were done. This is it. Its actually the last day of 2014. Were on now for the sixth Straight Year of gains. That is the longest streak from 1991 to 1999. Lets just hope 2000 and 20011 arent on the horizon. Lets check the futures now. Yesterday with thin trading, well get back some of what we lost yet, up 42 almost 43 points on the dow. The s p is indicated to open higher by six points. And the nasdaq indicated to open higher as it gets closer and closer to that 5,000 level that we havent seen in such a long time. There is crude down 94 cents. 53. So below 355 even though thats supposed to be the bottom along with 60 65 70 75 and 85. Receipts take a quick look at the dollar. Well look at the tenyear note first. 2. 17. Now the dollar 1. 21 119 on the yen. And finally gold, now just under 1200. At 1198. And you cant end the year without a story about apple. Sales are expected to decline, apple expected to sell 68 million ipads in 2014. Sounds like a lot, but that compares to 74 million sold back in 2013. Amazon barnes noble and koogel are expected to post year over year declines and samsung should note expected to sell 43 million tablets and that would be up for them up from 38 million a year ago. Were going to talk much more about the year ahead for apple as it looks to recapture its ipad mojo. A south korean activist says he plans on launching balloons with dvds and usb copies of the interview into north korean. That was the idea when was here. One potential flaw in his plan only a small number of North Koreans would have the capability to play the month very. That might be a problem. As far as getting right . Not dvd players. You see satellite images, you know, at night unfortunately for the people in north korea. But its kind of a dark place. Maybe he could drop some dvd players these days. Lets tell you also whats going on with sony. New details just emerging about the fallout from that attack at sony pictures. The sexual street journal reporting the studio has had to resort to old style communications. They crammed a phone tree to update employees about the cyber attack of person to person when it first happened. The 6,000 employees were forced to improvise using cell phones gmail accounts and the Payroll Department had to cut paychecks manually. Data has been erased. At one point, they found an old cache of blackberrys. Its a very interesting story. Its sort of the goes into what happened over the past couple of weeks inside sony. A pretty good read joe. U. S. Markets were retreating yesterday from levels say the day before. Lets look ahead to the final day of the trading year and then weve move on to 2015. Joining us now, tom manning. Here on the set, steve blitz. From i. T. V. Investment research. I want to start with you, steve. What do you think about the economy and the 5 print that we had and what is the dshg what would you call it . What is the underlying rate . Its not five. No its not five. Its unlikely to be repeated. Probably the real growth rate is Something Like 275 3 . Its much more likely to be the what well see in the coming year. Something like 3 in the fourth quarter. Is it a on a scale of 1 to 10 what kind of an economy is it . Is it above five . You know, ill tell you what still a sluggish economy, he said. Its really not a sluggish of an economy. What we have to recognize currently in Going Forward is the trajectory of growth population of 25 to 33yearolds snor anywhere at steep as it was from 1965 to 1990. So this is a huge longterm dem grabbingic probably youre talking about right now. But youre saying what are we turning into japan . We have young people. Our dm demographics are the he sri of the development world. They have they get back to work. The old people do . Maybe, if the young people dont. So when i asked you if it was above five you didnt immediately say were above five. I think its actually pretty good. Its more like a seven o eight economy. Theres two basic factors, its not going to deliver the kinds of numbers that were using to seeing for this type of level. The employment picture right now. Strong enough to sustain wage gains . Yes, some wage gains, yeah. Also the global economy. Youre going to be pulling people from labor and capital everywhere in the world. Those wages will go up. That sounds like a positive back drop. Are we looking for 5 to 10 on the equity markets . We think we can get that. But its not going to be its not going to be without some choppiness. I think were looking for weakness in the First Quarter in the markets. I think its a little bit ahead of itself. We obviously have a few things in front of us that we need to Pay Attention to. The fed is going to start to raise rates later in the year. I think the market is going to get nervous about that. I do think were going to see some weakness, but i expect a fairley strong year in 2015 given the Interest Rates, even if theorizing decent Economic Growth and the fact that europe is like lie to start a qe Program Later in the year. I think were going to have a pretty good year in 15, but i dont think its going to start off auto a great 12340e9. So maybe give back some of these we have paid it a little bit forward with the moves at the end of this year . Yeah thats exactly what i think. Youre probably going to give some of this back in the beginning of the year. A little bit ahead of otherwise. I think the market is poised to sxernlgs a correction. I think were going to see a 10 correction at some point here in the first half of the year. We havent seen that in a long time. Once thats behind us i think investors will start to move forward. You dont count 99 as a 10 correction, either . Id like to see that 10 number. I mean this by itself well you know intra day thats what i said yesterday. More than 10 , yeah. Thats what the guy said yesterday, because it was intra day. I thought it rung out enough at the time actually there were people that said the earnings come mranls endsy would do. What did the multiple expansion numbers to do . I dont expect multiple expansion next year. I think the market is going to have to have at least modest expansion. The market is going to have to see Earnings Growth to get to that 10 number. I think we probably are going to see in that range again next year. But its going to be really interesting to see what happens when the fed starts to take their foot off the accelerator later in the year. You mean raise rates, right . Hrt. Raising rates. Steve, do you have like an earnings number for the s p or just macro . Im with macro. But i think the equity market looks to me like it can go 8 next year. Economists. I dont trust economists. But you think earnings per share growth can be what . Earnings per share. But i think it will be interesting thing about the equity market is that a lot of people, many people seem to think the equity market is overpriced. Where do you think its priced at . I think its priced just fine. Why do you think the number is is . What is the multiple right now, 15, 18 20 . No, its not like 16. What is yours, tom . Same number. It was zero Interest Rates. Why isnt it 20 . It can be. And even if ratsz were coming down from 10 the multiple could be r. But when theyre going from zero to four its an incredibly favorable theres nothing written in stone that says Interest Rates have especially the ten year which is where everybody finances, it has to go back up to 4 or 5 . Then you can make the argument clearly that like 2. 5 nominal tenyear rate is here for quite a bit of time to come. Then just in terms of where your money is treated best stocks it could trade with a richer multiple then because thats what its based on in other asset classes, right . To stay low, i dont know in were at 16. Weve got to run. Steve, thank you. Tom, thank you. We digit know British Petroleum needed. Is it investing all your money . Is that what you do . No no. Wouldnt you change that name at some point . I was going to ask you, you know, are you sure youre not going to spill a bunch of oil again in the gulf. You come on and people have a negative image of bp asset management. It is. Youre thank you for doing that here. Thats a good idea. Like isis pharmaceuticals, thinking, you know not as good a name as it used to be right . All right. Thank you. Whats wrong, andrew . Would you have bps it sounds like any minute there could be another oil spill. I would sympathize with him. You have that too. Coming up when we return though less ner is laughing. Play book 2015 the activist inskrefters worth watching in the coming months. Then here to take a bite out of this big tech story. And later, uber coming under ride in certain cities. As we head to this break, take a look in history. Welcome back to squawk box. Several cars were assaulted in chicago pap motoren anticipate salt plant wall partially collapsed yesterday. As i said in chicago, sending a mountain of sodium chloride on to a neighboring acura dealership, burying nearly a dozen cars in the process. It looks like snow. Fortunately there were no reports of injuries and officials said the salt inside the building structure was piled too high and its heavy. It caused the interior wall of the morten salt plant to collapse. When you see Something Like that you immediately thought snow as a weatherman, right, alex . At first glance yes. I guess we found out otherwise, right . Right. Meanwhile, this is incredible. Yesterday we were talking about this arctic air that was going to take over the middle of the country. The windchill values you factor in the temperature and a little bit of wind. Here in laramie, welcome, it feels like its 55 degrees below zero. Unimagine blg unimaginable. And through friday sliding across the plain states down into texas. High temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees below our average. In places like amarillo with highs today in the low 20s. 23 degrees. 28 showing up for you in and around oklahoma city. At the same time youve got this storm system here in the western part of the country. Moisture coming into that cold air mass. That sets the stage today for snow in the panhandle of texas and tonight as we try to ring in that new year for freezing rain. And that could be problematic. Dallas to abilene. We were traveling aalthough long that interstate 20. Not the case in the northeast. Its going to be chilly in new york city for the big ball drop. 28 degrees to the midnight hour with clear skies. Farther south, also dry. A little bit on the cool side with these 30s. Teens and 20s across the midwest. Were looking at Clear Conditions here and a quick check on the west coast. We are dry in san fran as we ring in the new year. 48 degrees. Guys, back to you. Thank you for that. I would never want to be standing outside in times square. Have you ever done it . I have never done it. And you live there. As i kid i wanted to. I used to watch it on tv. Where do they have the relief facilities, do you know . I do not know. Theres a Million People. Im sure they must have relief facilities. Were looking at a live shot right now at sometimes square. Its better now, but it used to be one big relief area did it not, at one point . Its better now, right . Yeah. For adults or for everybody . For everybody. Yeah but at disney world, usually mickey doesnt cold cock people walking by. That happens there, right, with elmo and company . We had better get to our next story. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sense. As 2014 draws to a close, cnbc is looking at what you can expect in the coming year. This hour though hedge fund activist kate kelly. January is Vacation Time for hedge funds. For better or worse are starting with a clean slate after marking their 2014 performance. But after two long years in activism, things arent going to be quiet for long. Bill ackman at it again. Though he didnt prevail in his takeover of the Drugmaker Allergan he made billions when it went private on him. Expect ackman to prepare for a new takeover. And Animal Health nut coetis could be one to watch. The sunsets on a crucial element of the countrys contract with other lenders on december 31st that made masters hard to settle. After that it will want to get rid of its pesky vulture investors who whom it owns 1. 5 3w8 in cash. With crude at less than 60, expect someone like dan loeb or David Einhorn to go after drillers about inefficiency. With the pain theyre facing the Companies Might even appreciate it. Joining us now with more on this year had a great story about the highs and lows mentioned a couple other names in there. One of whom i had not focused on at all who had a huge year this year. Adage capital in boston. Its bigger than citadel. And youve never heard of them. How much money do they have under management . Sgldz 28 billion, not 28 billion, not that much. And what were their returns last year . 28 this year. And that put them where . Were talking about 7 times average stock. With huj fends, everyone is froze to come out with a lot of money. Its a closed fund that they dont charge fees except on what theyve done with the s p. Theyre actually going to make a little less. Most of the Hedge Fund Managers did quite poorly. The index you threw into december, they only gained 2. 5 on average. That is correct. So when you think about the big winners bill ackman hes always going to have a big year hes always going to be one of the extremes. Citadel, ken griffin, came back this year. He came back. Its a poor time for his personal life a public messy develops divorce. Hes raised 5 billion in extra money. But the returns were good. The returns were great. Up 23 in the equity fund. I think theres i think a mutual fund will take that. Who was the big surprise loser . I think your big surprise look john paulson, it was a big surprise for him because after the first of the year he was okay. Shire deal fell apart and he fell apart at the same time. Anybody else . Sure. Theres a fund called Mason Capital management. These guys call themselves risk albatross specialists. Down double digits for the year. Thats a pretty bad performance. Whats happening to those guys . Look you see rhode island right now is in a closed session. They wont say theyre pulling money from mason, but this hedge fund, it seems to be when they beat the market they say were geniuses. When they dont beat the market theyre saying were giving you uncorrelated returns. Its not necessarily one year of bad performance. Where does your point land do you know . No. This one is in the continually digits digits. Tepper has been changing his tune over the past year. In may, he was saying you should hold on to some cash. You should be no no what his performance was. Mostly just this year. But it was up. It was up. Earlier this year there was a big issue about talpers. In a year where the average is 3. 5 and the s p is what it is do people say, you know what . Maybe were making a mistake. Do you think thats an aberration. I think it takes more than a few months even more than a year for these changes to happen. I think if you talk to the pooi people in the industry its hard to find someone making a big move. But what theyve done is put this topic on the table. Weve seen years of money coming into hedge funds nonstop. This is really you know at least opening the conversation. Has paulson make any money since he has. He had a great year last year, up more than 50 . So the bad bet on gold year . I think last year he had done tremendously well. Up like 31 or something from what he icahn is hard because he doesnt v to charge fees. Anything he quotes is going to automatically work better than hedge funds. Thank you for coming in this morning. Coming up, if there was any doubt this was a big year for apple, well the Holiday Season seals the deal. More than half of all new devices activated worldwide in the last week came from the tech giant. And a stock chart tells the same story. Shares grew more than 40 in 2014. Were going to ask what tim cook is planning for the new year next. First, as we head to break, here is a look at yesterdays s p 500 winners and losers. Good morning and welcome back to squawk box. Im joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin. You should just come clean. I have a cold. Were in a business why sleep is you dont get a lot of it. Precious. And when were able to do it im pretty good at it. Sleep . Yeah. Anywhere. I think that might be an age thing, which is pointed out by people in my family where you know, you ever see a person just sitting there and suddenly theyre sleeping . Like an old person . Yes. That would be me. Becky, thankfully is going to be back on friday. She should be well rested. Although they has a young child. We have jobless claims weekly initial jobless claims out a day earlier coming at 8 30 eastern. Well get that later this morning. And well get the latest look at pending home sales. A measure of contracts signed but not yet closed. And flu season. I dont think i have the flu, though. Flu season has reached epidemic levels. The most prevalent flu virus has mutated since this years flu vaccine. Once again, im glad i i got the flu shot. I just want you to know i got the flu shot then i have no fever. So i dont think that im the stupid thing, the vaccine was formulated, it mutated since then, so the vaccine might not even work. And how about that . Do you want to read that . Minneapolis fed president mariana katchalakotya says the risk of deflation there it is. You see, if you werent into that you will crash head long into na. Practice that. Id talk about him, kocherlakota. That was good. Not as good as his first name, naryana. Is he the one that says hes leaving . Somebody is leaving. Has he come on to the show . I dont know. Liesman has been with him. I dont know whether i dont think that we have, right . I dont know. Says the risk of deflation is glowing, that the fed should take that into account when it makes policy decisions. This guy has been a little bit more hawkish. He was at the center to the feds most rehabilitate policy statement which down played that risk and laid the groundwork for a possible rate hike later this year or as of tomorrow it will be later this year in 2015. Theyre