The new year. We have all that and more tonight on nightly Business Report for friday, december 13th, friday the 13th. Wow, it will be a lucky one, im promising you. Good evening, everybody. Im tyler mathisen. Christmas 12 days away and for the second weekend in a row where millions plan to hit the malls, there will be up to a foot of snow from the Missouri Valley up to new england. Cold weather is one thing, but messy, snowy weather is another, keeping would be shoppers at home instead of heading into stores and spending money. Thats going to hurt a lot of retailers, but it may be a balloon to others at this most critical time of the year. Millions still reeling from Winter Weather in the eastern third of the nations, getting ready to get hit again today, tomorrow and sunday. We have seen over two feet of snow here. Hopefully you got some Holiday Shopping done. Reporter up to a foot of snow is expected inland and along the coast. For retailers, its anything but a winter wonderland. Foot traffic was up this year but total sales were down. A reflection of deep discounts, which may get as deep as the snow in some places, if retailers are left with more inventory on their shelves. Tomorrow ill be home, because i know the weather is going to be bad. Reporter retailers worry whether shoppers can get to brick and Mortar Stores or left hoping they will still buy. Even if it means trading bricks for clicks. Fortunately for me, ive done the majority of shopping online, and Everything Else ive done ahead of time. Reporter in fact, 35 of the respondents in the Economic Survey say they will shop online this year, but in another ominous note, the survey says shoppers will spend almost 10 less, about 57 a head less last year. Just because incomes are lower and the economy is in bad shape. There is sense washington is weighing on Consumer Spending because 5 said they reduced spending in the past month. You might be surprised to learn the drop was driven by those with incomes above 100,000. They are cutting back by 300 on average from last years layout. So what can retailers in the snow belt expect this weekend, and how is the Holiday Shopping season shaping up everywhere else . Tom, nice to have you back on the program. I know youve been going around and looking at the stores. What do you think is going to happen this weekend . Are the online retailers going to be the big winners as people stay home and do shopping that way and what are the strategies the brick and mortar guys are planning . Its going to be a tough weekend. People cant get to stores. I would expect to see a lot of online traffic this year, this weekend. The big weekend for success is the 22nd. Be glad we dont have the snowstorm on the 22nd. If you see falloff on foot traffic this weekend, would you expect to see a boost in discounting in the coming days . Absolutely. Were going to see a tremendous amount, a tremendous amount of deals as retailers close down the last 1 two days. Shoppers will get a great deal. Youre talking about three trends going on, searching, showrooming and selection. Tell us what it is and who wins and loses from that strategy . The shopper wins. The shopper really has chosen to get online, do a lot of e showrooming and e browsing. They selected their store and are going into the store for the best deal they can get. The three ss of 2013 will in fact, reshape retailing going forward. Who is winning . What kind of stores are winning, and what are bringing up the rear . Which are suffering . Its clear to me, the stores that have an omni channel or brick and mortar, click and mortar clicks capability are the winners. Retailers that dont have that capability will find themselves losing out on that growing amount of internet sales. All right. So give us some ideas, youre talking about walmart, macys, companies that have both online and also the actual stores . Yeah, i think i think walmart with its integration of walmart itself with the holiday the thanksgiving weekend, coupled with walmart. Com has been a real winner. I think macys, macys in the same kind of boat where it really has driven an integration of online and offline. Selling, is it electronics christmas, shoe christmas . What is it . Electronics christmas, much more than i expected. Clearly Home Appliances. I saw on thanksgiving Home Appliances going out the doors. Shoes. This seems to be an aspirational christmas. America has been afforded a tremendous amount of value. Tom, i know youve been spending time walking the isles in all kinds of stores. At the end of the day, at the end of the crucial Holiday Shopping season, what are the numbers going to look like . I tell you, its going to be tough. You will have a couple winners, some winners, i should say, a lot of losers. My guess is a couple percent over last year and last year was pretty poultry, couple percent over the previous year. If i want to give susie a nice Home Appliance for christmas, what should i give her . I tell you what, these crock pots, these 20 dollar crock pots that you link together seem to be hot linkable crock pots, thats what you need ms. Susie gharib. You like little blue boxes. Tom, thanks for coming on the program and dont give tyler these bad ideas. All right. On wall street, blue chip shares wrapped up the second losing week in a row. Thats the first time that happened since early october when the government was shut down. In a choppy session today, stocks were flat to slightly higher and some experts took heart of sessions of sharp losses spawned by concerns the fed may dial back the stimulus next week. Here is how stocks faired. The dow up 16 points, the nasdaq added two and the s p added a fraction lower and it was the first week for major averages, three of them since august. Speaking of crock pots, amazon is taking a new service. Investors like the idea ex shares rose 1 on the news. Courtney regan explains. It may not be drums, but it could still be a big move for amazon. The online giant is working on online pantry found in the grocery and Warehouse Club stores like paper towels, cleaning supplies and pet foods. The consumer packaged goods market is a big one estimated to rack up 2 850 billion in sales. While they took shares in electrics and media, the pantry business is still purchased by consumers in physical stores, but that doesnt mean shoppers wouldnt change those habits with an amazon offer. Amazon is taking over the world, so why not . I shop a lot at amazon. I find anything i need over there than drive to costco. My basic cleaning supplies, if it doesnt cost me more i can buy from amazon but it wont take away the need to go to costco for other things. Reporter they say it would target the prime members and they may have to pay a small fee to ship a box full of those items up to a certain weight. The more amazon can sell and ship in one box, the more revenue each order generates which helps offset the shipping cost, which can be hefty for these goods. If this works, though, and they branch out and do basically what fresh direct does, where you can get anything any time you want without paying a Service Charge and it comes to your house, basically the same day or next day basis, they can be a disrupter because they are so big and have such a huge footprint, people will order. Reporter amazon may be the 800pound gorilla but the Consumers Want a huge selection of goods shipped quickly for little to no additional charge. For nightly Business Report, im courtney regan. Dow jones is reporting that sprint may be gearing up to make an offer to acquire rival tmobile. The deal could be worth 20 billion. Sprint, the nations number three wireless carrier is controlled by japans soft bank. Shares rose after that report and so did shares of tmobile. The number four carrier. More on that federal Budget Proposal weve been talking about all week. Last night, the house overwhelmingly passed a compromised twoyear budget deal that holds the line on new taxes but restores some spending trimmed by the automatic cuts that were part of a prior budget deal. This tuesday, the senate will begin debating and votes on the budget deal. They are not a happy place these days after the majority pushed through some rules changes limiting filibusters. The debate may get hot as a lot of tempers below the surface, there may be resistance but its expected to pass. The senate will vote next week on the nomination of janet yellen slated to be the next head of the Federal Reserve bank. Also in washington, the men and women will kick off a policy meeting. They are predicting those policy makers could announce wednesday the central bank will begin a program to trim back the stimulus measures. A milestone in europe, ireland will be the first eros zone country to exit the bailout and it could mean more opportunities for u. S. Companies and the celtic tiger. A historic day for the emerald isle after acre cemecep bailout. Ireland officially ended the bailout but as julia explains, the nation and economy still has a tough road ahead. Reporter its a big day for island as the country becomes the first eros zone country to exit a bailout program, the result of a Property Market crash, a Banking Sector crisis that many in the country had to borrow over 100 billion. The funds, it was a huge achievement for the country but skied if there was too much pressure on ireland to be a symbol of hope for the recovery on europe. Never a feeling that we were being used for symbolic reasons. We had a Major Economic and Financial Crime sis, which needed to be addressed, and we addressed it by a series of measures, which we have prevented on a time frame, and were at the end of that process now. Reporter so it seems the hugery positive time for the irish economy, but there is also crucial questions about how this country boosts growth from here. It seen Huge Investment from the u. S. In particular will facebook, apple, amazon with operations here and the sector head to the u. S. Early next year to promote the message that the recovery is on track and there is plenty of opportunities here for u. S. Funds, and i think thats the key take away from what ive had from being in dublin over the last 24 hours. After three case of meetings, talks broke off between boeing and the machinest union after the Union Representing 32,000 workers rejected a counter offer from the aircraft maker over the plan with the 777 jet in washington state. Since then, the same Union Rejected the initial contract aump last month. The Company Received offers from 22 other states looking to make the plane. Direct tv is exploring an Online Video Service to target young people not paying for cable and thats where we begin the market focus. The satellite tv provider is not planning to go up against netflix, not exactly but wants to develop an Online Video Service with programming that appeals to specific groups. There were also reports today direct tv and the nfl reached a deal to keep the sunday ticket package on satellite tv but the nfl is denying an agreement has been reached just yet. Shares were down slightly today to 66. 50. The federal judge approved a 5. 7 billiondollar swipe fee settlement between merchants and visa and mastercard. Merchants sued the credit did card company accusing them of fixing the fees, they charge businesses each time the customer uses the card. The value was cut down from 7 billion as some merchants opted out. Thousands complained the settlement was inadequate. Both stocks ended the day higher, mastercard up to 787. 97 and visa to 207. 36. The top job, steve will assume the title of ceo in march. It was a bit of surprise because it was speculation that he was in the running to succeed steve balmer up at microsoft as the ceo. Balmer plans to leave microsoft next year. Lets look at shares of qualcomm off slightly 72. 58. Well, adobe impressed investors with subscriber growth sending the stock to an alltime high today. The photo shop maker saw a 22 jump in the Creative Cloud sweet subscribers from last year. At the beginning of the year, we thought we might have 1. 25 million subscribers adopting the cloud. We passed that number with over 1. 4 million subscribers, and i think the message really is that for consumers, its a better proposition. The ceo says he expects the subscriber growth to continue and that sent shares soaring up almost 13 to 60. 89. A different story for United Technology today. Shares fell after the Company Revised the earnings outlook. The maker of elevators and air conditioners gave guidance for this year and next that just missed wall street easiest mitts. Possible Government Spending cuts are weighing down the defense unit, which makes engines for black hawk helicopters. Shares slipped to 107. 35. Honey well unveiled a 5 billiondollar buy back plan today. The announcement comes as the old plan expires. Honey well ceo said the new Program Shows the company is confident about longterm growth prospects. Shares rose to 86. 61. At t is hiking by 2. 2 or 46 cents a share, its increase dividends for 30 years in a row, but the stock was down slightly to 33. 85. And good dividend news from General Electric, as well. Its increasing by 16 , the dow component will be paying the 22 cent increase to shareholders at the end of january. Shares rose 1 to 26. 84. Well, our market monitor on this friday says the stock market in the new year will continue to quote surprise investors in a good way. Shes senior Portfolio Manager at pcw, with 130 billion under manage mtd. Diane, welcome, good to have you with us. Why are you confident the market can continue to move higher here, and are you concerned history suggests when there is a switch in the chairman of the fed, bernanke, green span, allen, there is often a crisis that comes quite soon on the heels of that . I think you make excellent points but dont forget janet yellen is the vice chair and they are the team putting this whole quantitative easing process in effect, and i think that well have a very smooth transition. In terms of the market, i think people are still generally nervous about, you know, having risen so much, you know, is there more to come, and we think that with earnings, growth, and remember they are koins dent economic factors, that will boost in 2014. Youll talk about a couple stocks and you like the financials, a couple to suggest. Lets start with state street. Tell us why you like this Regional Firm and also it had such a nice move on the stock as you can see on this chart here, is there still room to grow as an investor puts new money in now . We think so. The cost cutting has really done a good job. There are over 400 million to date. Their technology is data mining. Giving Good Services to customers, and so we do believe its got 10 to 15 more over the next year. Now lets move on to citi group, which is another of your choices. Im curious why citi group above some of the other choices in the big bank world. Well, they you know, they are trading below book value, so when people say is there still value in the market, i point to names like city because you can buy below book value. They pay a subpar dividend because they are waiting for the 2014 process to go through. In the meantime, they have been accumulating all their Capital Requirements for the regular ray to regulators so they should be sit waited and return cash to shareholders in the form of increased dividends. You have General Electric as a pick and we we ported a moment ago they are increasing by 16 . Im sure that will make a lot of investors happy. When you look at this stock over the past year and decade, its always been somewhat in this mid 20 range. Why should invest tors buy this stock . Because they are finally figuring out how to separate the Industrial Health care business from the ge capitol and the target is to be 70 industrials and only 30 ge capital and making good there. Ge capital has been up to the Parent Company billions of dollars, and now were seeing it return to the shareholders in the form of a dividend. They have the highest dividend yield in the Industrial Group right now. Your final choice is pfizer. They have gone through very tough years. You see them coming out of the woods. How much higher do you think they could be a year from now than today . We conservatively see 20 upside. After the lipator sell off and they did a good job selling off the nutritional business, rolling out Animal Health business and, you know, now they are starting to plan the financials for the innovative Branded Companies versus the generic, there could be more restructuring to come. Diane, do you have disclosures with respect to stocks, state, city, ge or pfizer . Im a shareholder in the fund and in all my funds and we own those stocks. We like that you put your money where your picks are. Diane gaffy, thanks for joining us. Have a happy holiday. You, too, thank you. And coming up next, a longer odds but bigger jackpots, why the chances of winning tonights Mega Millions drawing are worse than ever. It may be friday the 13th, but tons of people are feeling lucky buying tickets for tonights multimillions lottery. More than 20 draws, without a winner the jackpot ballooned to 425 million, the largest in u. S. History. Morgan brennan has more wi