U.S. consumer confidence rose in December to a near eight-year high, a sign that falling gasoline prices and expectations of a better job market could give a boost to the economy. Clear Alternatives Chief Executive Officer Diane Garnick says the impact of falling energy prices is going to be very strong on corporate earnings.

SHOWS: NEW YORK, USA (DECEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

1. CLEAR ALTERNATIVES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DIANE GARNICK, SAYING:

JOURNALIST ASKING DIANE GARNICK: 'So let's talk about first about earnings and about companies and how it relates to them because a lot of companies obviously have big energy costs, so let's talk about that. How is that going to affect earnings? And what should we see or look to see going forward?'

GARNICK: 'One of the very common mistakes that investors continue to make as they head to the pump and then they see the gas prices are headed down and they say this has to be a great thing for households. Lots of extra money to spend so the stocks that they tend to like consumer discretionary all these names they say look people are going to buy more and then they stop their analysis and that is only half the story. The other very important part of the story is that the biggest consumer of electricity of energy is companies. In fact if you think about it if you look at all of this sectors within the S&P 500 every impossible sector and you say which 2 are the most important to business growth well its 2 that come up all the time. The first is technology because any company in the world needs technology but similarly all companies need energy so energy is a not as important input to things like healthcare and technology but its a hugely important input to industries like industrials, machinery. Think about all of the costs that are getting taken out of the system because energy prices are so low. Hence, the impact is going to be very strong on corporate earnings because the major input is no longer people, its energy. And with energy coming down these companies earnings are about to go up through the roof. '

JOURNALIST: 'Alright, here is the other side of that though and here is when we get into the bad part, the thing that we are worried about. The dollar is also strengthening and a lot of these companies they have the benefit from energy that you are talking about but then they sell their goods overseas. Overseas these companies are seeing the currencies that are there those are weakening the dollar is strengthening. How did this affect them now?'

GARNICK:'One of the very important things that we need to focus in on is there are within the S&P 500, let's call it 20 percent of the companies with significant non-dollar exposure. Big companies like McDonalds and Wal Mart, they are all over the world so for them the strong dollar is very detrimental. In other words the strong dollar is really going to hurt them because their selling burgers in yen and euro and then converting it back to dollar for their earnings, not so hot. Conversely, if we look at the manufacturing sector that's a space that tends to be dominated in the U.S. It's a much bigger impact. So energy takes up a big component of the S&P 500than the U.S dollar. So you know what's happening? The U.S. earnings picture for the S&P 500 is being brought down because of the dollar and its yet to improve because of the lower energy sector.'