Volatility (^VIX) is creeping higher and stocks are lagging today as fiscal cliff dramatics weigh on confidence. President Obama is returning from Hawaii and the Senate is back in Washington to resume negotiations to avoid the brunt of the tax hikes and spending cuts set to go in effect on January 1. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is calling on the Republican leaders to come forward with a new fiscal plan, albeit one emulating the Democrats’ push to raise taxes on those earning above $250,000, saying it “looks like” we’ll go over the cliff, while speaking out this morning on the Senate floor.

Related: Boehner's No-Brainer -Let the White House Own It

Even Starbucks (SBUX) is getting into the mix. The company’s 120 DC-area coffee shops are encouraging employees to write “Come Together” on coffee cups, in reference to the need for politicians to compromise, according to AP. The small effort is strongly backed by CEO Howard Schultz who says if talks don’t progress, he’ll make the initiative bigger to call attention to the harm being done to “consumer psyche and behavior.”

Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dropped to 65.1 in December from 71.5 in November –which was revised down from its initial 73.7 reading. Further within the data, a barometer of short-term expectations fell to 66.5 this month from 80.9 in the prior month; the lowest level since November 2011.

Economists have been quick to point to the fiscal cliff as the main drag on short-term consumer confidence, but the longer-term outlook still appears to be relatively strong.

2012 was a pretty successful year for the tech sector as a whole. The SPRD Technology ETF (XLK) is up nearly 13% year to date. But what does next year hold? Breakout welcomed Ironfire’s founder and CEO, Eric Jackson, to weigh in.

For starters, Jackson thinks 2013 will be a banner one for stocks in general, saying, "It wouldn’t surprise me if the S&P went up 20 percent.” More specifically, Jackson offered some thoughts on a few current and former tech heavyweights:

Facebook (FB)

“I think Facebook’s facing an ‘either/or’ 2013,” says Jackson. “It could be a massively successful one for the stock, or it could end up kind of limping in the second half of the year.”

The technology guru cites questions surrounding sales, the management team and the continued transition to mobile as potential pitfalls for Zuckerberg and company. Still, he expects “a monster Q4 when they announce it in January” and says they’ve done a great job at “throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks,” which includes the fact that they’re up for buying any company that looks interesting.