Most of the country. But inside trading rooms and portfolio offices from boston to berkeley, from minneapolis to miami, it sure felt frigid this week. Stocks logged their biggest weekweek ly decline since the summer months, august. Send the children out of the room, folks. Here are the numbers and theyre ugly. The dow industrial averages tumbled 309 points to 17,265. Nasdaq off more than 2 down triple digits. 111 points. And the s p 500 gave back 39. For the week all three indexes were more than 3 lower. One of the main reasons for the decline, of course, oil. Domestic crude off another 3 today to 35. 62. A sevenyear low. After the International Energy agency warned of a continuing supply glut. For the week prices were down 11 . Thats oils worst week of the year. And as if that wasnt enough, investors learned today that a junk Bond Mutual Fund is barring investor withdrawals while it liquidates, sending a chill through the credit markets. Dominic chu reports. Reporter theres a new kid on the street to worry about. Less than a week out from the feds expected rate hike as markets eye continuing Global Political tensions and a downward spiral in commodity prices, third avenue management announced a block on withdrawals from its sagging focused credit fund, which is down about 13 in the last month and about 27 for the year. The fund has already seen redemptions of nearly a billion dollars this year, but now the remaining assets could be frozen for months or even longer. For now some assets have been frozen, placed in a trust to prevent mass redemptions while the fund figures out how to sell them off. Third avenue ceo david barse wrote in a statement, investor requests for redemption in addition to the general reduction of liquidity in the fixed income markets have made it impracticable to create sufficient cash to pay anticipated redemptions without resorting to sales at prices that would unfairly disadvantage the remaining shareholders. Hedge funds sometimes freeze assets like this, but this is a mutual fund and the Mutual Fund Industry thrives because it gives investors the right to cash out at any time. It also comes after regulators have raised concerns that some mutual funds have been investing in assets that could be difficult to sell if markets turned sour. In fact, carl icahn is one investor who warned about it months ago and did so again today. The highyield market is just a keg of dynamite that sooner or later will blow up. Theres no liquidity behind these etfs. The average person that goes into this should basically be warned. Reporter now the big question is whos next . We all knew with these prolonged low Interest Rates there were going to be pockets of excessive risk. And the question was where were they . Now were going to start to see. And if there are other pockets of trouble out there, just how widespread is the problem . Could junk bonds possibly be the equivalent of mortgagebacked securities like back in 2007 before the financial crisis . Its a good question. Its a huge market. I mean, again, my gut feeling is no because its much more visible. You know, its a known commodity here. You know, its much more publicly traded than all that stuff. But you know, nobody knows for sure. I think people are jittery. Reporter those jitters now include fears of a credit crisis, a new plank in the markets wall of worry. For nightly Business Report im dominic chu. And late today the hedge fund stone lion capital, which focuses on distressed debt, said it has suspended redemptions in its oldest fund after many investors asked for their money back. So how will all of these factors influence the u. S. Stock market and your investments . Mark luchini is chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery scott. He joins us now. Mark, let me start by asking you about a market i covered for eight years and that is the oil market. The International Energy agency saying that the oil glut that were seeing right now could last well into next year. Could we see oil prices here in the u. S. Below 35, 30 a barrel, and what impact is that going to have on the stock market . Well, i think legitimately we could. It wasnt that many years ago, you only have to go back to 2000, 2001 to see 20 a barrel. In fact, that looks from a technical standpoint that perhaps a reasonable level of support for oil prices. And the reason is going to be what weve seen now for some time and keeps getting compounded by these reports that continue to come out which say the market is oversupplied, theres an abundance of Oil Inventory sloshing around the world, filling up containers and insufficient demand to absorb any of it. And the consequence is going to put further pressure on oil prices as well as obviously the impact of the strength of the u. S. Dollar. So ihink the market is taking its cue from oil prices. I do challenge the signal oil is providing because i think its much more of a supply issue than a demand issue. But that said, it seems as though when you get any kind of relief in this downdraft in oil prices, read a rally in prices, the stock market tends to respond positively to it. Do you think on balance that these Lower Oil Prices and the prospect of even Lower Oil Prices is good for the u. S. Economy . We hear the conventional wisdom that it means people have more money in their pockets to spend. But we sure dont see that showing up in retail sales numbers. Tyler, i do. I think this is good for main street. Not necessarily quite as good for wall street. But the fact of the matter is its estimate every one penny decline at the pump translates into a billiondollar benefit to the consumer and were down about a dollar and a half according to aaa on a National Average in the last 12 months alone. Thats 150 billion off of an 18 trillion economy. Thats an enormous windfall. Granted, a good portion of thats been saved so far but some of that is starting to percolate its way into the economy. What do you think all this means for the fed when theyre looking at oil prices, theyre looking at the risk in the highyield bond market. Are they paying attention to this and will this change what many expect them to do next wednesday . I think this is not being lost on them at all but at the same time i think the green light came a friday ago that showed the kind of gains that obviously led to unemployment to be at a level the fed defines as maximum employment. So i think theyre eager to get off the zero bound but i cant help but think its going to influence the character of the commentary thats going to accompany the announcement by janet yellen which is i think going to be very dovish with regard to the subsequent trace of Interest Rate increases in this cycle. Thats what were all waiting to see on wednesday. Thank you so much. Mark lucchini with Janney Montgomery. Du pont and dow chemical will merge. The combined company will be worth about 130 billion in total market value and could potentially alter the chemical and agriculture industries. David faber spoke with both ceos today and discovered the tieup was one of the first things edward breen considered when he took the top job at du pont just two months ago. It was my first day at du pont. Andrew called me up and we literally met that sunday and spent the afternoon day one. You didnt wait. I know theres an anecdote. You didnt even have time to know where the bathroom was and that was my joke to him. And exactly the way i remembered it. And ed responded very quickly. To his point, the du pont board had obviously been considering the moment in time was arriving. The ag business needed a partnersh partnership. And remember, this is a game changer for ag and what were creating in ag. The du pont board was heavily g agoriented. 60 was ag. The multiple approaches, we needed the moment in time and the person and the person to arrive and say you know what, theres a lot of value to be down here and the board agreed. Shares of the dow component du pont were off 5 today. Dow chemical well, dow chemical dropped nearly 3 . In Economic NewsProducer Prices unexpectedly rose in november driven by a gain in services. The Producer Price index which measures the Price Companies receive for goods and services increased. 3 last month. This was their fastest pace on wholesale inflation since june but over the past 12 months prices are still about 1 lower. Consumers did increase their spending last month. Maybe those Oil Dividends are beginning to pay off. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose but just by. 2 in november. That is, however, the largest increase since july, which shows you how slow retail sales have been rising. Slightly below expectations, though. Separate reports showed a rise in Consumer Confidence to the highest level in four months. The increase is due in part to that cheap gas and better employment prospects. In the wake of the San Bernardino attacks, have American Attitudes changed when it comes to terror concerns and the way the government monitors communications . Steve liesman has the results of his latest allamerica survey and what the results may mean for the economy. Reporter the Mass Shootings in San Bernardino have awakened American Fears of a major terror attack on u. S. Soil and theyre bolstering public support for increased government monitoring of terrorists right here in the states. The cnbc all America Economic survey found 34 of respondents very worried about a major terror ttack at home. Up from 26 before the massacre. 800 americans were surveyed for the data before the attacks and 347 were called back to gauge sentiment after the tragedy. The survey found that americans new fears could have some real economic impact. 42 say theyre concerned about flying internationally. 29 offer theyre concerned about even getting on an airplane. And 16 report being worried about visiting shopping malls. More than half of americans, the highest level since 9 11, now fear the government will not go far enough in monitoring the activities and communications of potential terrorists living in the country. In a separate nbc wall street journal poll in january americansryere split 46 to 47 . Nearly half of democrats are are now afraid the government will not go far enough. Thats a significant shift from just before the december 2nd attacks in San Bernardino. In a survey question asked only before the San Bernardino attack, 53 said Technology Companies should continue to Sell Software and devices with encrypti coding because it protects consumers from criminals and the government. Only 36 thought the company should not sell the software because it allows criminals and terrorists to communicate secretly. But president ial candidate and senator Lindsey Graham said this has to change. Heres my advice to our friends at silicon valley. If you cant find an agreement with the fbi director soon as to how we, the government, with a court order can find out whats going on with terrorist communications, congress will do this for you. Reporter the data show that so far the issue hasnt become political. Democrats and republicans have nearly identical views. But that could change if washington begins to focus on encryption. For nightly Business Report im steve liesman. Still ahead, would you buy shares of a Major Energy Company with oil prices at 35 . Our market monitor guest says yes and has a list of names. High drama in Fantasy Sports. A court ruled that draft kings and fan duel must cease operations in new york. Its been a decision that weve been telling you may be coming. The companies then filed an emergency appeal and late this afternoon were granted an interim stay, allowing them to continue doing business in the state. Last month new yorks attorney general sued the company saying daily Fantasy Sports games are illegal games of chance, not lawful games of skill. Comcast ventures and nbc Sports Ventures have stakes in fanduel. Comcast is a Parent Company of cnbc, which produces this program. And now to our market monitor, who likes large cap stocks he says will rise 15 to 20 over the next year and a half, including energy names he says you should own for years to come, core holdings. Hes steven dudosh, president and investment strategist at iht wealth management. He was on a year ago and last time he was here he recommended wells fargo. It is down 4 . Jpmorgan is up 1 . And cdw is up 21 . Nice return there, steve. Welcome. Lets just clean up the path there. Do you still like those three or what is your position on them . Yeah, i still like those three. And you know what . If you average 7 between those three in the last year and outperform the market by about 9 i think most people would be pretty happy with those kind of returns. The financials that we have there, a lot of people thought rates would be a little higher by now. They havent panned out. They will hopefully next week. And youll start seeing financials go up. Lets talk about energy for a moment because with oil around 35 a barrel many people may be thinking the last thing i want to own is an energy company. But you say think twice about that, buy one, a big one. I think theyre completely oversold right now. Listen, oils at 30 whatever dollars a barrel. It is not staying there. Theres no chance the producers can keep pumping out oil at that price. Youre going to start seeing supply dry up a little bit. This is completely a supply issue right now. Thats drying up. Oil prices will start going back up a little bit. Maybe not to 100 a barrel but get you back into the 50s or 60s and make some of these Bigger Companies profitable. And bp and exxonmobil are the ones you say to buy now . Yeah, i want to work with the big boys right now. Some of the smaller players out there are going to have some problems. Theyre going to have dividend cuts likely. Theyre going to have problems getting credit like you guys were just talking about in the highyield space. Give me the big companies, the ones i know are going to be here for the next five or ten years. Im going to buy them real cheap right now and really be happy down the road. Lets switch to your third pick, which is a company that sells basically everything except oil and gasoline. And thats amazon. And they may sell that for all i know. Yeah. So thats kind of the exact opposite of exxon and bp. It is pricey right now. But they have cornered the market. Its a huge barrier to come in there and try to compete against them. It has gotten so easy for someone on their phone or on their computer, a tablet, to buy. Its gotten safer. Its gotten more convenient. Its only growing. But one warning with this one. Buy it now but keep your eye on it. If you make 20 , pat yourself on the back whenever that day is and sell it because it is expensive, very expensive right now. You know, a lot of our viewers may already own all three of these because theyre in so much of the large cap mutual funds in your 401 k . But its always good know whats inside and the ones you think are good ones. Yeah. Those youre right. A lot of people with mutual funds have this exposure right now. But if youre looking for individual stock plays youre looking to outperform the market in the next year or two, this is some strong sectors. Steve, thanks very much. Have a Great Holiday season. Steve dudash with iht wealth management. Disappointing data weighs on biotech. And thats where we begin tonights market focus. The company presented disappointing data from a trial of its Breast Cancer treatment back in june similar results also disappointed. Shares tumbled nearly 6 today to 67. 94. Genesee and wyoming lowered its earnings outlook after Railroad Traffic fell more than expected. A sideline in commodity shipments has weighed on the company. Shares were almost 6 lower to 51. 21. Alibaba which trades with my favorite ticker symbol, baba, is buying the south China Morning post, the largest english language newspaper over in hong kong. Financial terms of the deal not disclosed. Ecommerce giant says the purchase was fueled by a desire to improve chinas image in the western media. Shares were almost 5 1 2 lower today at 79. 74. Astrazeneca in advanced talks to buy a Company Named asserta pharma. According to the wall street journal. It doesnt have any drugs on the market but its cancer drug has shown promise in trial. Shares were off a fraction to 33. 25. Its been a particularly difficult stretch for the Trucking Industry, in part because theyre not shipping as much fracking equipment to shale regions. The sector is also suffering from a shortage of truck drivers. And as Morgan Brennan reports some companies are finding new recruits to fill those jobs. Reporter Tiffany Dearing doesnt fit the stereotype of a truck driver and she knows it. For the past year as a team driver with her husband shes traveled across the country delivering freight for Warner Enterprises spending three weeks at a time on the road. When she parks her big rig at a truck stop, people do a double take. Oh, you drive too . And they kind of step back for a second. Theyre like oh. Oh, really . And im like, yeah, i drive. Reporter dearing is part of a growing population of wome