And a special guest, cnbc senior contributor larry kudlow your money update very quickly right now. The big cap indexes of your fractionally, not a whole lot. Smaller cap names, visavis the russell 2000 are down very slightly just quickly before we get to larry, John Najarian and the overall markets, starting to see a couple of trader notes suggesting maybe this rally might pause a little bit heading into the new year for a few different reasons. Your thought on the macro markets. Sure. You could see that pause that refreshes, brian, and indeed it might be just that but i think a lot of people are very happy with the year they have got so the likelihood they will more or less keep the hands in the boat rather than reaching for something out there, that could be happening here. And obviously what were going to be talking about with mr. Kudlow regarding the tax bill implications, weve already heard a little bit from some corporations saying how much its going to impact them. Obviously people have already sort of placed bets on that, brian. Jim, what do you think . This market has been so strong all year, not just here, but globally would you welcome a mild pullback or even a flattening . I often think not often, but i sometimes think a correction can be healthy. Its been two years since we last had one roughly that can reset Investor Expectations and allow the next leg of growth to go higher to new highs. John, what i think you were saying is i think this rally will continue the next two weeks. Whos going to want to sell if youre a taxable investor. I realize there are plenty of Institutional Investors watching the show, but we have taxable investors and theyre going to kill me if i take a gain right now by selling a stock. Thats a great point. Well get more into taxes, larry, in just a second. Just straight up taxes as they are you spent the whole year doing tax planning i dont want to get a big bill by the way, there almost are no losers this year. There are some. There are some retail is one, some Energy Sector and i know, rob, well talk about that later. You spent the last one or two months as a taxable investor planning out your Capital Gains, getting losses where you can again, if i take a gain right now, im going to get shot. As an advisor youre almost irresponsible to take a gain at this time of the year so you could see some repositioning and headline volatility going into next year. The underlying fundamentals of this market still remain strong. As you pointed out at the beginning of the show, brian, theyre getting stronger. So youve got a 50yearold client, right, he calls you up and says, rob, i made a lot of money in the last year, last couple of years. Got a kid in college, another kid ready to go to college should i sell something, should i take some profits . What are you advising them to do listen, youre talking about tactical versus strategic. And i think it gets to this notion of goalsbased investing. The answer is it depends on what the client looks like, it depends on their profile for some, the answer might be yes, for others the answer might be no. From a markets perspective, fundamentals remain pretty good and you have this tax package which larry is going to talk about with us and it has the potential to do enormous things for corporate profits. You have an economic trajectory thats obviously accelerated and yet when you look at what the fed said yesterday, you have this backdrop of what still looks to be like low inflation to me that looks a lot like goldilocks given where we are from an evaluation perspective, which is slightly extended, lets say, but not in this growth and inflation paradigm, i think you could see more muted or a downshift in returns, but those returns are still positive so were telling people if you need something, go ahead, we can take it and push it out. From what i remember, the goldilocks fable didnt end well, by the way just throwing that out there. Well, she didnt get eaten. Well, weve got another guest. Lets bring in from boston Kerry Firestone who is joining us there from boston. A pleasure to have you on Halftime Report, thank you very much. What do you make of this market rally so far is there any reason weve heard so much bullish talk, that youll forgive me, but when it seems like everybody is on one side of the boat, it at least would be smart i would think to look at the other side, no i understand what youre saying, brian, and of course the adage is you buy low and sell high so for investors who have had a phenomenal year, and were talking about an s p up over 21 , i dont think its unreasonable to take some profits. In addition, we know laws are changing about tax loss selling so right now people are taking advantage of what they can in 2015 rather than pushing that sale out to 2018 when the fifo rules go into play so i dont think its unusual to expect that there could be some Movement Toward the end of the year that would not be straight upward as weve seen people start to go on vacation and theres nothing the matter with taking some gains ive always thought that the extension of rallies can go on a little bit long in some sectors. Larry kudlow, there is no doubt among many of our viewers a lot of confusion what are their tax rates going to look like next year, especially if they live in the higher tax blue states, what about the first in, first out, fifo, you were shaking your head when she made those comments about fifo. Its dead, its out youre hearing first in, first out is out. I reported this last night to the producers group. I saw a lot of people yesterday. Steve moore and i were lobbying a lot of people yesterday. Two very one very senior house member, i cannot use names here, but very senior house member said its out an important house member from the Freedom Caucus said its out. An important senator actually two important senators told me it is out. Thats four for four i believe its out it never had legs. This thing is a funny i think i broached it first on this show actually a while back when i said, wait a minute, take a look at this. A lot of people didnt even know about it once we went on the war path, steve moore and i wrote an oped piece about it and then started circulating to the west wing and it got through congress. People werent even aware of it. It was a very dumb deal. It was put in by some Senate Staffer and they tried to carve ot mutual funds. The long and the short is, i would say 99. 9 , it is out out of the bill. This is important for our audience to here. Its a very important thing because you know what, cap gains is a double tax, number one. This in effect would have been a double tax of a double tax i call it a back door Capital Gains. Thats exactly what it is. But the Republican Party needs to raise money somewhere well get more into the s. A. L. T. Deduction, this according to your reporting is out. This is a revenue winner. I just want to make that very clear. The stupid joint Tax Committee scored it as a 2. 7 billion revenue gain nonsense, what youd be doing is freezing assets. Youre not going to sell if you have to go all the way back to the original basis youre not going to do that. Youre freezing asset. This will churn the assets and unfrozen and this helps reoxy n reoxygenate the economy. The work that was done way back in the reagan years. Capital gains tax rates, when they fall, revenues go up. Capital gains tax rates when they rise, revenues go down. It happened during reagan, it happened during bill clinton who cut the Capital Gains tax to his credit, it happened to george w. Bush. Because its paralyzing from an activity standpoint. So Kerry Firestone, this is larry kudlow reporting as a ceo of aureus asset management, if fifo is gone from this bill, how would that change you and your clients strategies well, i think that if fifo is gone, and i hadnt heard that until just now, then we dont have the incentive to make those trades this year that would have an effect of reducing selling, increasing buying it would be more positive for the market obviously, but thats news you know, thats news that would be great if its true, i would applaud it, but i hadnt heard it. Larry is basically breaking it right now on the air and we trust your sources, larry. Youre halfway living in d. C. , halfway living up here. I have been, ive been commuting. Look, as i said, i hope we get to some of the other things going on because its all this bill is it a better bill this is a better bill than the one i was looking at seven to ten days ago. And i have been down there ten days ago and all of a sudden stuff was happening, including this Capital Gains baloney i said what . You guys are going in the wrong direction. That included the Corporate Tax, they were going to postpone it a year, blah, blah, blah yesterday i cant name names, im sorry about that, but theyre great sources. A very senior house member, very senior house member, he started us off by talking about this so steve moore and i raised this fifo thing and his phraseology was, well, we agree with you. Scott has been talking about this for weeks on this show. Thats good for technology. And, larry, from a deficit perspective, though, if we keep hearing that fifo as youre reporting is out, were going to maybe, you know, water down this s. A. L. T. Deduction elimination, in other words, make it less painful to the blue states. No, no. Where do we make up that revenue . The s. A. L. T. Deduction was expanded to include not only property taxes but now state income taxes but the 10,000 ceiling is still in place but you see they lowered the top rate now just a few percentage points, from 39. 6 to 37 now, that does help offset your deduction problem s. A. L. T. That also really helps the Small Business owners, right they have their own 20 deduction from income. That was senator ron johnsons thing, that helped he got it to 23 at one point, they settled at 20 but with the top rate coming down, a lot of those guys pay the top rate, thats a big plus. So that look, i just want to step back. This is so important, all right. Theory, just theory. One second there are no losers in a bill like this that is going to take the economy from 2 to 3 to 4 . No losers. Every working american will benefit. 155 Million People are employed in this country. They will all benefit because of Better Business. Do you follow me Better Business. More investment, more Investment Expense do they have the votes . They have the votes im going to predict theyll have 52 votes. Corker may bring it to 51. I ran into him in the elevator, we didnt have time to talk. I think theyll get 52 Vice President pence is not going to jerusalem because he may have to break a tie larry. Just a minute whats better, 2 growth or 4 growth the answer is 4. No question. You can doubt i understand you may not agree with my 4 assumption but if we get that kind of booster, everybody benefits. Its not about who, how much unless the value of your home falls 10 . How can the value of your home fall . Ive talked to four or five different real estate not realtors, people who run real estate agencies, big companies, theyre worried. A question for you, larry not everybody owns stocks but most people the people youre talking about sure do. Dont listen to these lobbyists. They all conjure up these silly arguments. Better business is Better Business. I agree with you on that. Canathey took it from 500,00. It is presently a million. Theyre keeping that at a million. Theyre pushing it up to 750. Split in the middle. Positive. And when canada cut it out completely, the market didnt go upside down. I know its for most of our audience, theyre hearing the 10,000 cap. Maybe they dont itemize, i think you guys are nuts. Come to new jersey, come to new york, come to connecticut, where a lot of our audience lives. Youre missing the big picture here do not focus on these little items. Were with you on the big picture. Look, here, ill go back to it 4 is better than 2 when you get the unintended consequences, larry, for the coastal states, housing in the coastal states which are predominant lehigh earnings states, it forces people that are high earning Service People to move our audience. To move to florida. I am telling you it hurts. And theres a negative hold on were having a lot of speculation. Karen firestone, youre right there, taxachusetts. Youre right there in the thick of this. Are your clients concerned about this i would say not there are parts of this tax bill that will be very good for people in high income brackets and there are parts that wont. If they own stocks. You know, on balance its good for wealthy people. So our clients are mostly happy with the tax bill. They may not be happy with the whole process. Larry, let me ask you again, an investment boom and Better Business and faster growth is better for everyone. Now, im not saying everyone benefits by the same amount, i get that, okay im not saying you shouldnt move from california to texas, i get that by the way, this s. A. L. T. Thing does put pressure on governors so people are not going to get the writeoff. Exactly and it is hope taxing and spending in connecticut and new jersey and new york and so forth. That could be an unintended consequence of this and a necessity benevolent i live in new york state i dont feel like im getting my moneys worth for the taxes i pay. I like this bill and i do hope it puts pressure on the state assemblies and congresses to stop spending. Everybody stays here. Lets talk more about the economy. Yet another sign the death of retail may have been greatly exaggerated because november sales coming in ahead of many expectations senior economics reporter Steve Liesman just got a rapid update on gdp. They shopped with gusto in november and its a really good start to the holiday season. The result is a pretty nice upgrade to our tracking forecast for Fourth Quarter growth. Were now at 2. 6, up 0. 3 on average for our ten economists who weighed in we tracked ten of the best tracking forecasts on the street if you want one number to know for how the consumer is doing in a quarter, the Middle Quarter is the best one says john from rdq. Q3 is 3. 4. If you told me we were going to do 2 in q4 i would have said thats a victory so here we are coming back with another number bank of america, 2. 4 goldman sachs, 2. 5, Morgan Stanley at 3. 2 atlanta fed at 3. 3 and amherst pierpont 3. 7 let me suggest real quick that were looking at 2. 5 next year the Federal Reserve just upped its forecast mario draghi, took to the podium this morning at his press conference and said you know what, were doing better now they went up from 1. 8 to 2. 3 so its global. Now everybody is talking about joining the bandwagon from a tax perspective. Youve got the uk, japan all talking about lowering taxes. This has always been a concern. Go ahead. Joe terranova this is the biggest question right now. You hear these numbers, you see the trajectory of the economy, the lifting of regulations has had a positive benefit on the economy. Im not saying this, but there are many people out there right now saying, larry, why do we need this tax bill right now thats a good question. Theres a difference between supply side and demand side. This whole bill basically, the heart of this bill is about the business side. Corporate tax rate is single most powerful growth propeller in any policy. Second is business expensing, immediate. It all starts in 2018. And third, this is unusual for america, is the repatriation, bringing the money home. Weve never had that by the way, the joint Tax Committee doesnt know how to score it because weve never had that again my point is related to steve, but i think you can see the beginnings of a business equipment rebound. Cap ex has been improving in recent months. My argument to joe is were going to push the supply side of the economy out. Thats the business side thats what we havent seen a boom in business spending, investment, capital stock, in almost 20 years. Once you chart that down, if you accept my view of the business side, youre talking about not just Capital Formation with the lower rate incentives, okay, youre talking about more investment, longer lived asset investment, which we havent seen that gives the workforce more capital or more investment, which allows them to improve training tools, technology theres your productivity factor and then the Business Investment itself, that boosts the demand for labor and at this stage of the game with roughly 4 unemployment rate, whether its real or not real, wages were going to see a big wage increase so everyone is going to make out on this. Thats my point. We all hope you are right. You can find sectors that dont do as well as others, but the big picture here is going to be huge. Its going to be huge. Its hannukah now, christmas in two weeks youre giving us a message of hope wheres tiny tim larry kudlow, hope youre right. Larry, sir, thank you. Appreciate the insight as well. You know, were going to trade it but first Credit Suisse notes theres no industry with a higher effective tax rate than retailers. They have almost no deductions higher retail sales, lower taxes. Could you see the retail boom . Yes, but i dont know how to trade it you tell me where that retail sales are actually going to happen we had a 2. 5 monthonmonth nonstore retailers. Online. We call them nonstore just in economic jargon. But i think the consumers have been spending. I think saying the consumers is not going to spend has been a bad trade. Figuring out where the consumer is going to spend is a more difficult proposition. If you figure that out, you let us know. I tell them consumers are going to trade. By the way, on a separate note, can we stop calling amazon an online retailer they must have more Square Footage than any other retailer. Jon najarian, a note saying the stock market tracks retail sales in december. If retail sales are coming in strong, should that give a lift to all boats it will, brian, and id say also the ceo of delta today, i was listening to that when the ceo of delta, steve, was citing the tax changes and how much that he is ramping up his outlook for the airline. And hes one of many, by the way, in the United States talking about that weve got call of the day and so forth coming up, but thats going to continue to happen. As youve already cited, retailers. But these airlines, especially the Domestic Airlines and retailers, the two groups that wall street agrees will benefit the most from tax reform and Corporate Tax cut Side Airlines have the third highest. So they just get free money effectively to their earnings, to their bottom line but lets stick with the retail side tonight. Walmart. Walmart, walmart, walmart heard of them. Not walmart stores. Do you like them . There is no hyphen, by the way. Just straight out walmart. Yes, im long walmart inc what makes it so attractive they made a fantastic investment in jet. Com. 3 billion, which appears to be really something that is benefitting the bottom line for them. How is 3 billion for a money losing company a good deal because that has given them the Logistical Network to build out and advance the Online Platform youre seeing the growth there with 50 online sales increasing brian, just think about ecommerce, the transaction is still only about 15 of overall retail sales thats a tremendous ability to expand that further. So i think walmart inc. Is well positioned karen firestone, they just raised their dividend, the accelerating economy steve told you about and better sales in china. Do you like nike do you own the stock we dont own it i think the ship has sailed. If youre not selling it online and doing it very well online, and perhaps they will, then i think its just a tough road it doesnt matter if your taxes are going to go down, its about what your revenues are and i think its very hard in this environment to really push through cls and bricks and mortar places unless youre giving people an experience that theyre not having when theyre at home or on their phone clicking through and ordering. 50 of the shopping that was done online after thanksgiving was done on amazon that company is just so dominant in the space i just worry that we get excited about stocks that have underperformed thats great, theres a rally in retail i just dont see how its very sustainable even if the economy grows 3 . Hope you have a great holiday, well see you soon. Thank you very much. You too. Jim, you were nodding furiously. You disagree with her and argeus. I mostly agree with karrie. They have backed out of amazon so they can take control of their online experience. But where she is absolutely right is that this stock has rallied a lot. Up 30 in two months you know, this is not the nike of three, four, five years ago there is a fierce competitor in adidas and that wasnt the case four years ago, it just wasnt it was nike and nobody else. So if youre going to have the multiple the analyst wants to put on nike, getting up to 75, youre going to be close to 28 times multiple i think that flies in the face of what the competitive environment looks for nike i own it but if it goes much higher, i have out of it. Heres the most interesting thing from the note, we think retailers are turning to nike to increase customer traffic, increasing its Bargaining Power as a supplier. What argeus is saying the power has shifted from nike going to retailers to retailers going to nike thats a pretty good spot to be in if argeus is right. True, but ill tell you whats very different and is missed here. These online numbers are so powerful nonstore. Nonstore. Have you tried to drive through new york city with the uberification, the amazonification and the earning people have different consumer preferences. Thats what i was going to say. Go ahead so whats happening is you have a change, an ideologically change in terms of how we engage markets. Ive talked about demographics with the millenials, they still need shoes, tires but they try them on and send them back. Theyre going to need to buy shoes. But theyre paying a premium for time and convenience thats what the economy its something that is boring for the stock but really important for the economy. Dont go out and buy retailers because you think the consumer is strong. What we found is that the consumer these days likes to spend his or her money in a lot of different ways. If you can find ways to put your money to work to take advantage of this growing preference for services on the part of the consumer, are there retailers out there agreed. I get to sit next to Courtney Reagan and she talks about this a lot and we see it when we have we can have lackluster retail Sales Numbers but a booming economy and booming service numbers. I havent heard a lot of discussion about how do you put your money to work when consumers are doing well and they want to spend their money on trips abroad and they want to spend their money on going to the spa. Those are places that are out there. Fair enough, but i hope i hope they still need clothes theyll still need tires, whether its an Autonomous Car or not and still need diapers. 88 Million People your backup plan, brian, which we all know is if the tv thing doesnt work out is go to work as a mechanic there may be fewer mechanics. Heres whats ahead on halftime. Straight ahead, some love for luv. One analyst says southwest stock is set to take off the call of the day is next. Plus, a big loss for this years highest flying stock. And monday on the Halftime Report we want to hear from you. Were taking your questions. Ask us about any stock on your radar. Use askhalftime the Halftime Report is back in two minutes. E trends, driving specific sectors of out performance. Where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. A leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and ecommerce. Trade and travel surge between emerging markets. Everyday our 1,100 investment professionals around the world search out opportunities for alpha. Partner with pgim, the Global Investment management businesses of prudential. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Im contessa brewer. Pbs has suspended the tavis smiley program. Smiley says he will fight the accusations. Im tavis i was as shocked as you were to hear of pbs sudden announcement regarding my television program. Let me say at the outset that i have the utmost respect for all women, but let me also assure you that i have never groped, inappropriately exposed myself or coerced any colleague in the workplace ever in my 30year career hamas marked the 30th anniversary of its founding with a massive rally in gaza. The u. S. And israel have isolated themselves following president trumps recognition of jerusalem as israels capital. Members of the royal family attended a Memorial Service for the fire that killed 71 people in june. About 1500 people were expected to attend, including the british Prime Minister theresa may thats the cnbc update at this hour back to you. Contessa brewer, thank you very much. Shares of Southwest Airlines at a record high today after Atlantic Equities called the stock best in class. The analyst loved luv, upgrading southwest to overweight from neutral. They got a price target of 88 thats 35 upside to the current price. Obviously this will be your call of the day anybody around the table have a view on this the analysts say a number of things, but noting southwest has a dominant position at 25 of 50 of americas biggest airports. Anybody agree, disagree with this call . Joe . I dont disagree. Delta, jetblue, southwest, those are the airlines that if youre going to be investing in the airlines that you want to look at southwest has been the strongest performer i believe out of the airlines year to date so thats really this is an example of buying whats working so far and what their call is but i see nothing wrong with the note i would agree with it. Overweight, not necessarily sure but like i said, theres three of them that i would own. 29 gain for southwest this year the analyst sees another 35 could you see a 50 to 60 gain in southwest over the course of a 24month period . The short answer is no, but let me give you a little more than that. I think well all agree this is a fabulous company, no question about it its just a question about the price of the stock let me also be clear about this. Im not saying go out and short this stock i think this is a good stock but 35 in the next 12 months, no. Heres why it already enjoys, and the analyst notes, this it enjoys a significant premium over its competitors, a deserved premium, but the question is does it deserve more of a premium than that for somebody whos an historical investor in airlines, youll look at an Airline Trading 14. 5 times earnings, wait a second, thats as good as it usually gets, so lets be careful here dont short the stock, but 35 is too rich for me. Weve got an airline guy sticking with the airline space. Delta rallying after ordering 100 airbus jets, but that deal is a big loss for boeing the dows top performer, by the way, phil lebeau, who took an airplane here from what i understand, joins us on set. How did airbus win this deal over boeing . Well, look, this is not a new relationship between delta and airbus they are building off a relationship that has been gaining momentum for some time heres the order that was announced. We first reported it yesterday its for 100 a321 neos. Its 100 for 12. 7 billion the option to buy 100 more in the future as you take a look at shares of delta, the important thing to keep in mind is that they had their analyst day today, their investor day, and the projection in terms of profits for 2018, an increase of anywhere between 10 and 15 . They have some nice tailwinds that are helping them out right now. In terms of boeing, well, yeah, this is a big loss for boeing. They would have liked to have sold 100 of the 737 max 10s but that is not going to be happening. The company issuing a statement essentially saying, look, were pretty happy with where we are globally we have 367 orders and commitments from 16 customers for the 737 max 10, an airplane that delivers unmatched operating economics and fuel efficiency take a look at shares of boeing, which are up. Theyre up today. Boeing versus airbus. I love showing this chart. Only because people always say to me whos a better investment, whats a better investment boeing is at an alltime high but airbus has had a nice move within the last year as well. But they might have some executive changes there, right, phil yes. Depending on how the board views what has been called bribes and all the rest. Correct, because they have that investigation going on right now. The market doesnt care today. Jim, you recently sold your boeing. It was a great investment and i wish it would get cheaper again because this is a great company. Boeing is a great company. Having followed it, now im out of it so am not following it as closely as you are, phil, but one of the things i know when youve had 18 months the way boeing has had where they just cleaned airbus clocks with orders, you run into a situation as a customer like delta, you cant get the planes fast enough i know delta has spoeexposure t delta and they use it. But is any of this that they can get the planes sooner . I think that helped but i dont think that was the final detail that made them say were going with this. I dont want to put you on the spot, phil, but roughly how long is boeings backlog like seven years. Its well up there. Six, seven years youre waiting a while. They call that one of those good problems. Correct. And theyre increasing production theyre increasing production, as is airbus. And hopefully adding workers down there in mt. Pleasant, south carolina, where youve been a few times, phil phil lebeau, didnt to see you thank you very much. Up next, jon tracking unusual activity the bullish option moves he is seeing in two stocks and how hes trading them. Ghafr iss ime report return rit teth [vo] progress is an unstoppable force. The season of audi sales event is here. Audi will cover your first months lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. Your bbut as you get older,ing. It naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. What we do every night is like something out of a strange dream. Except that the next morning. It all makes sense. Fedex powers Global Commerce with vast, farreaching networks. Deep knowledge of industries. And, yes. Maybe a little magic. Right in the heart of the was in his financial crisis, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. It really scared him out of the markets. His advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldnt be able to retire until he was 68. The client realized, i need to get back into the markets i need to get back on track with my plan. The Financial Advisor was able to work with this client. Hes now on track to retire when hes 65. Having someone coach you through it is really the value of a Financial Advisor. Jon najarian is over at the telestrator with what is moving in the options market. A thursday twofer, brian real quick altria. The stock is trading a little over 72 a share, virtually unchanged on the day somebody came scrambling in and bought sixmonth out calls june calls, 75 strike. Look at that, 9,400 of them trade like that. Bang, bang im going to be in these calls probably a month to two months, brian. Love the upside. Its only 2. 50 than where the stock is right now the second one is walmart. I have Constellation Brands too, but walmart i like it for the upside calls Constellation Brands, sorry about that, guys, got ahead of myself Constellation Brands, big call buying in there. Im also in walmart. But constellation, theyre buying january calls there you see it, about 5,000 of those. So Constellation Brands as well as altria and ill throw walmart in for good measure. Jon, no need to apologize, you just ruined the show, but everybody else is fine dont worry about it. Its time for, well, a break but heres whats coming up. Teva, disney, 21st century fox and the drink stocks all in our trader blitz the Halftime Report is back after two minutes. Maybe najarian was already in the drink stocks. Plus coming up at the top of the hour on power lunch the mouse eats the fox what the disney deal means for stocks, the industry and maybe the regulatory hurdles it could Face Companies are going on a buyback binge even before the new tax bill is unveiled is this just the beginning of what companies will announce a big buyback. And is fedex prepared for the hundreds of millions of packages that they are expected to deliver in the next couple of weeks . ll dive in at power lunch at the top of the hour more halftime is back right after this why did you take Credit Card Debt on . Second kid. Private school. Medical bills. Moving costs. Solid ground. A personal loan from sofi is a smart way to consolidate Credit Card Debt. Certain borrowers cut their credit card Interest Rates 42 and increased Credit Scores 17 points on average. Borrow up to 100,000 with low rates and no hidden fees. Find your rate in just two minutes, and take on your debt at sofi. Com. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. We have breaking news from politico which is reporting that House Speaker paul ryan plans to retire after 2018. He has been meeting with two likely successors to describe the strategy after the midterm elections. However, speaker ryan has asked about this at his Weekly Press Conference this morning. A reporter shouted out to him do you see yourself quitting any time soon . He said no no, im not. And the room sort of laughed so speaker ryan appearing to deny any plans to leave office soon but again, politico reporting that he does plan to retire after 2018 guys, back over to you. All right shooting down paul ryan himself may be shooting down that report. Im sure well get more on this throughout the day thank you very much. Time for your trader blitz Teva Pharmaceuticals soaring after announcing more costcutting initiatives joe. Yes do you buy it . I think not yet. The new ceo is trying to make some changes theres a sad component to this story, 14,000 people losing their job before the holidays is not a good thing. No. 1,700 specifically in israel. This is a sad story. But besides that, to lose half your revenue for the ms drug and to make a 40 billion acquisition for generics which didnt work out well, you dont buy it yet the stories i hate are when people lose their jobs. Stock number two, disney buying much of 21st century foxs assets they want to grow their movie and sports presence. Both stocks higher today, jim. Also. The deal has been kind of known, talked about for quite some time. David reported on this weeks ago. Broke the story. Exactly i think what this really says to be blatantly obvious, if youre in the content industry, youve got to look at whats going on with your consumers. Theyre getting new channels from everywhere, theyre getting new distribution from everywhere and youve got to think what does the future for you look like i think the answer is theres going to be a heck of a lot more consolidation in this industry so im not so much interested in disney and fox right now i am interested as a Value Investor looking at viacom, looking at cbs, amc, discovery i think you have to look at the value that comes out of consolidation. Can i just note that the deal values foxs assets at dis 30 a share. Thats a great point. The stock is up 4 . Something to watch Deutsche Bank initiating on a bunch of consumer staples. Cocacola, pepsi, dr. Pepper, snapple, theyre all getting buy ratings. Yeah, they think the consumer will be out there buying, brian. I already am long, full disclosure, cocacola for unusual activity im long in Constellation Brands for the activity we just cited and i love the call by Deutsche Bank i think this is spot on. Dr. Pepper an snapple buying bui water. Rob, the Master Limited partnerships, the pipelines, why . Weve owned and traded mlps for a very long time i think this is a trade. The reason theres been a lot of volatility is theres not a lot of Institutional Ownership in the asset class. Thats beginning to change youre starting to see some of the private equity firms come in and buy assets youre starting to see Value Investors identify value, but i dont think its going to happen until next year. One of the reasons is, is that mlps are one of those assets that are down this year. If youre thinking about tax law selling, youre going to continue to do that into year end. There was also some overhang related to this tax bill as we march into next year and you get some of this fundamental value and you understand the need for Energy Infrastructure isnt the u. S. And how you move those assets is through midstream pipelines, there is value there and i think you could see a big rotation into that space, especially if Oil Prices Head up a little bit and Interest Rates dont move too much higher. Im with rob on this trade, by the way i want to point out that the traditional relationship between the commodity, oil, or any Energy Commodity and the pipelines has broken down the last three years im really looking for that in the first half of 18 to its not a correlation, its the absence of a correlation that im looking for in these pipelines. Okay, guys, thank you up next, the futures now crew will take on, what else, bitcoin. You cant mi ts. Sshi Halftime Report is back in two minutes. Excuse me, are you aware of whats happening right now . Were facing 20 billion security events every day. Ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks. Actually, we just handled all the priority threats. You did that . We did that. Really. We analyzed millions of articles and reports. We can identify threats 50 faster. You can do that . We can do that. Then do that. Can we do that . We can do that. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Im Courtney Reagan. Bitcoin lower on its first day of trading just below 17,000 keep that in mind. The cme watching their futures over the weekend jeff kilburg what are the biggest risks . A lot of mania what do we watch out for the risk in bitcoin, the overseas exchanges is where we get excited in chicago about the Bitcoin Futures launch this sunday if you think about it, that future exposure, certainly it has volatility components. You have to understand the size of the contract. This is a fivepoint contract. The big boys i call it here and understand volatility and trade yorn platform understanding longer, short, limit orders, stops newspaper aun nuances. Bitcoin future is vastly different versus the bitcoin that has been hacked and stolen out of overseas accounts. Makes sense sure a future. Not actually owning the bitcoin itself jim iuorio, are you eyeing key levels in Bitcoin Futures . I am. I think products like this that are relatively new being traded, sometimes chart better than ones trading a long time due to being less algorithm looks like trading from san diego to has to worry you the last five days looked like a relative consolidation period. Im looking at spot bitcoin price. If that traded 17. 580, a new high, a technical psychological level, looking like another push higher will come. Thank you well watch the level. Courtney, thank you. Breaking news from d. C just ahead of the Net Neutrality vote at ff k. C. Cfcc. Unknown Security Threat. Bombsniffing dogs on the premises, happening right now. Well bring you more as we get these headlines in short break. More haft time right after this well, its earnings season once again. Yeah. Lot of Tech Companies are reporting today. And, hows it looking . I dont know. Theres so many opinions out there, its hard to make sense of it all. Well, victor, do you have something for him . Check this out. Td ameritrade aggregates thousands of earnings estimates into a single data point. That way you can keep your eyes on the big picture. Huh. Feel better . Much better. Yeah, me too. Wow, you really did a number on this thing. Sorry about that. Thats alright. I got a box of em. Thousands of opinions. One estimate. The earnings tool from td ameritrade. We need to be ready for my names Scott Strenfel and r im a meteorologist at pg e. We make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. So every single day were monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. During storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. Learn how you can be prepared at pge. Com beprepared. Together, were building a better california. When trying to save for the big things in life. We tend to start small. Less of this. Cut back on that. But if it feels like a lot of effort for a little gain. Change that. Start with something that makes a big difference. Your student loans. Refinancing with sofi saves over 22,000 on average. Its an easier way to reach your life goals sooner. Weve helped over 195,000 people. We want to help you too. Find out how much you can save in just two minutes at sofi. Com save all right. Get you more from d. C. In a minute when we get nor details in right now, final trades from around the desk. Joe kick it off. Visa. Gets to 115, 120 type range. Clearly the momentum is back in that name. Its been a winner all year. Would this be a retail sales play Steve Leishman said, could be strong, boost the visa yes bring in mastercard, all of those. And discover, upgrade recently and ticker eeq. An mlp without the k1. Frankly, a terrible year but caught a nice bid protecting a nice year and this is a good name to own both in short and long term. Jon skyworks. Swks stocks 94 and change. Buying the 98 calls, brian when somebody has that kind of commitment to a position, just for two weeks, because these are options that expire the 5th of january. So literally two weeks, maybe three from now with all the holidays in between. I like this one. I bought it today during the show. Bought it today rob . Xlf, Financial Sector spider, up two days in a row right now yesterday, a little more substantially. Beneficiary of tax and Regulatory Reform and the fact Interest Rates will grind higher with the accelerating Economic Activity i think it works. Guys, thank you. Back down to that developing story and situation at the fcc in d. C Julia Boorstin has the latest. Brian, just watches the chairman speaking and expecting a vote on this controversial issue imminently he was handed a note and said on the advice of security, we need to take a brief recess the roomy evacuated and now people are coming back in. We saw dogs sweep the room and the room was empty for several minutes. Now people are walking back in youre seeing them go back in there and were expecting that vote on the controversial repeal of the obama administrational Net Neutrality rule, coming soon the consent of two commissioners and expects that vote to be approved back when the results of the vote are in. Back to you. Hopefully the fact there are people milling back into that room meaning that Security Threat is over we dont know but i doubt theyd let people back in if it wasnt. That would be good news. Either way, more on that story as well. Both stocks higher guys, thank you for making these. That does it for Halftime Report on this thursday power lunch begins right now. See you in a few minutes, brian. Im michelle carusocabrera. Whats on the menu mickey la caught a fox disney buys 21st centurys assets for more than 50 billion. Whats it mean for disney and the battle over content and distribution will the deal get past regulators were all over this game changer. House and Senate Republicans agreeing on a tax bill but we dont know whats in it. Whats staying whats being dumped overboard . Well speak to a member of the committee hammering out the bill. And even before the bill is unveiled, a massive buy back binge. Could be just the start. Stocks on the sectors to put o