Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20240713

Date trade tensions resurface as china rebukes the decision to sign a bill backing protests in hong kong. And retail front and center as we get forecasts from adobe and the National Retail federation, forecasting strong Holiday Spending joining us for the hour is allied chief Investment Strategy lindsey bell here we go, a shortened day today but a lot of excitement. Whats driving the action . Well, you know, there is lower volumes today. Coming into the end of november, going into december, this is the seasonally strong period of the year earnings season was a good one retail sales pretty good retail earnings were good even though a mixed bag and so i think were in the period of pause until the new year. What are you paying close attention to today. Well, today, i think its really all about this is black friday about the retail environment and the consumer theyve been very confident, wages going up Unemployment Rate very low, near 50year lows can the strength of the consumer driving the economy the last several years continue. Weve got an actionpacked show laid. And lindsey with the full first hour lots to unpack lets drill down on the stories on court nay reagan covering the retail movers on likely the biggest shopping day of the year np dedra bosa and Steve Liesman looking at the strength of the u. S. Kmurm consumer. But kicking off with courtney at the Woodridge Center mall in. Of course the black friday sales have change as far as the timing, the cadence. You have deals and thanksgiving, deals as early as october, still today is forecast to be the busiest and biggest day for retail of the entire year with 150 million americans forecast to shop online, in store or both 165 million between thursday and cyber monday last year, according to the nrf that was about the same. The group we expect total holiday sales to increase around 4 its going well we feel good, feel positive see other people out shopping. It seems this year to be more positive and i really to do attribute to the economy doing better we have more spending cash i feel optimistic so dont mind spending a little more now, i spoke to kohls ceo this morning saying gaming has been strong for her retailer nintendo switch. Ps 4 some items selling out but she mentioned popular for kohls shoppers. The ninja foodie air friar and levis. Black friday may have changed. Its Still Critical for retailers. Last year black friday generated enbetween 6 and 7 of Quarterly Sales for retailers. An average day about 1 of Quarterly Sales. This is equivalent potentially for an entire week of sales for retail really got to turn it in and turn it up back to you guys so kourtney, um curious i know that when you try to navigate black friday sales you got to go to the websites and see who is offering what, what times. And then on top of that, the Online Shopping. Are you seeing any etailers keeping up or having trouble keeping up with the online traffic . Yeah, thats a good question. Interestingly enough, costco actually saw increase in online shoppers, according to or at least when you impair to last year but if couldnt handle that traffic. Costcos website went down briefly yesterday morning. H and m also has been down yesterday briefly for about five minutes. And again today. So were going to keep checking on those most seem to be back up and running now. But you know that can change literally at any second on the shopping weekends. Court, you do this brilliantly how busy is it do you feel like compared to recent years . So, im looking around here as you ask me that question because ive been at this location now this is the third year in a row. I would say its as busy as i have seen it so far today right now. Now that we have those earlier black friday deals, thanksgiving day, thats when the big door busters are for the big box retailers dp stores even specialties, everybody goes out first. Then go home and rest and eat and come back out. As the day goes on we see actually the traffic pick up i would say right now is probably peak traffic since ive been here since about 4 30 this morning. A lot of shopping time there. Thank you. Consumers spent 4. 2 billion online according to adeb making the 15 increase over last years thanksgiving spend dedra bosa has a closer look at Amazon Holiday strategy. What are you finding out. So contessa amazon still getting a massive share of the ecommerce pie no surprise. But growth is slowing as it matures and direct to Consumer Brands up their game emarketer expects amazon growth to slow to 17ers this year. In black friday we looked at how amazon stacks up to others in terms of the hottest items so naturally guys, we looked at the air fryer. Apparently this years instant pot for those that dont know, this is an appliance frying food without oil. The ninja air max as amazon and target 99. 99. Amaze within the delivery advantage. Walmart giving a run for the money with next day deliver list f2 for 15 and doesnt have it in stock right now speaking to the supply chain issues guys we have been looking at hot items all morning. In many cases amazon is not the clear winner when it comes to nike, contessa if you were thinking of a few pairs for the boys nike ended the replace with amazon earlier this month. You have to sift through Third Party Sellers going through nike or foot locker this year seems the better option. Or ebay because the way the boys run down shoos shoe its better sense to buy them used than new. I like the fryer though. Youre getting into that. I might well do but i also fear its a bit of a slippery slope to unhealthy food at home. I get that its more healthy than if you had a deep fat fryer. But no one has that and just means frys at home more oft sfwlan youre cooking frozen food but im surprised the amount of cnbc people who dont know what a air fryer is wilf youre the third person today. I didnt until you pitched it this orning. I thought you use a little oil just less. Right 20 less what i read off about today. But for 100 pretty good value i feel like unlimited frys at home until we have to move on. Thats what it costs you. There we go dee, thanks so much. The strength of the consumer is of course not only the focus for retailers but also the broader markets. Lets have an update on that front. Steve liesman at hq. Wilf, good afternoon, this could be a case of drop shop or well drop growth flat or negative with the strong consumer. The economy more aligned with the consumer than its been in years. Growth in the Second Quarter would have contracted without consumption growth and eeked out a small gain as well in the third quarter. Usually other parts of the economy. Government, business, investment, inventories and trade can overcome the slowdown in consumption the reason is the same as the last time this happened back in 2015 and 16 its a slowdown in Business Investment business spending down 1 in the Second Quarter and nearly 3 at an annual rate in the third. Most economists blame that on the trade war. The consumer though benefitting from low unemployment, decent wage growth. Sentiment high along with the stock market it shapes up for a good Holiday Season and thats important now contessa to keep the economy growing. Yes but if you are looking at income are you seeing that moving at all along with the Consumer Confidence is it moving in time with it. Well so sentiment has been back up. Incomes were flat in october, kind of a surprise there and if you look back at since the summer, weve had this step down by about a percentage point or two you can see that right there and some of that was spending fueled perhaps in july by the amazon prime day you had perhaps some spending ahead of tariffs if we could stay atsz level, its okay. We wouldnt want to step down further from here. Stayingty level of Income Growth year over year and spending growth would shape you up for a good Holiday Season, contessa. One of the swing factors on overall gdp in the u. S. Has been whats been going on around the rest of the world. Are we seeing a transition where it that had been a drag for the first threequarters to where it might not be a drag even if not a help. Its possible wilf all the economists want to be early in calling the turn and the bottom. The data has not gotten much worse. Its not though gotten better. Theres been a bit of better stuff out of germany, for example. But i think after so many down months, so many down quarters, i would want to see a couple in a row on the Positive Side to really say that thats going to happen a lot of people, wilf are saying second half of 2020 maybe the Second Quarter of 2020 is when the world might help u. S. Growth a bit. Yeah, and that japanese Industrial Production down 4. 2 today. Not good. Too early to call. Thank you. Pleasure have a great holiday. You too happy holidays the last trading day of november and stocks set to end the month just off record highs. Tech Financials Health Care and industrials the best performing sectors for november if. For more lets bring in john of equity partnering. How are you doing. Great thanks for having me. As we stand can we have a blowout december as well or the fact that we have a good start for the quarter makes it less likely. I think less likely investors have gotten complacent with the way the market traded all year long and now are looking forward to whats happening in 2020. A lot on our calendar we know is coming down. We have to continue to talks talk about brexit, u. S. China. Elections if youre a Portfolio Manager and maritimes investor you should be happy where you are in the year and stay out of trouble in december. Woven been hearing a lot of the companies now starting to bring up tariffs and the impact of thebottom line, something weve been talking about a year and a half how important is getting the phase 1 trade deal signed and in the books . And any anticipation or a phase 2 or for you just look at the shortterm gel and move on. Its important to get there weve been having the same conversation for such a long period, getting some Information Transparency is important. You go back two quarters listening to some of the corporate earnings calls, not really talking too much about the impact of china. Last quarter we definitely heard it a lot more which is good. That companies are bringing this into forefront and saying we dont know how this plays out in the next few quarters. But its important to continue to focus on it, getting the deal done or some form of a deal would be helpful for the markets. I dont think its changing the market patterns we have seen its priced in but getting nothing done is going to be a problem. Lindsey, how do you think about the seasonty aspects appear set up for december. October, november, have been strong months together the s p 500 up about 5. 9 which is very strong usually december is another good month for the market but we could have seen some of that pulled forward into the octobernovember period. It makes sense for the market to take a bit of a breather given the run weve had. Is there any jitteriness now given because what with he saw last december was not good, no Christmas Gift for the markets the biggest concern would be trade, the december 15th crain delaine for a tariff hike. That uncertainty around that i think the market like you said is pricing in that thats pushed along down the road. Lets keep it in perspective here were up 25 on the year a 4 ab, 5 pullback over unknown headline we are not planning would be okay in the beginning of the year if you said sign here for 19 return on the year we would the swings we see got to keep it inspective what about the big caps, the apple and microsoft that have pushed new highs and broke be clearly out do you think theyre ripe for profit taking. Should be at this point we dont see it yet the momentum clearly has gone into it. Until we get more information on tariffs i think investors will feel comfortable getting into the larger cap stocks. Always a pleasure. Up next, Warren Buffett getting outbid in the quest to buy Tech Data Corp well look at the company and buffetts performance next. Later the ceo of mall of america, the countrys largest shopping center. Were talking a bit how bricks and Mortar Retailers plan to compete this holidayean. Sso sfls this cnbc Program Sponsored by sun trust bank, confidence starts here. It was sophies big day. By the way, shes the next mozart. As usual we were behind schedule. But sophies enthusiasm cannot be dampened. Not even by a runaway donut. We powered through it in our toyota prius. Because a stars got to shine, no matter what. Its unbelievable what you can do in the prius. Toyota lets go places. Welcome back weve 43 minutes left of trade and were down about 80 points on the dow lets get to mike for the market dash board. Early close but we got a full dash board first take a look at competitive shopping actually a bidding war that Warren Buffett lofts out on. Plenty for everyone perhaps in the video streaming wars at this time around. The market suggesting too many leftovers. This is about commodities seems a bit oversupplied in the World Markets pap. And naughty and nice one of the leading sengters of the market not equal in terms of which groups earned their good fortune, lets say this year first of all lets look at tech data this is the kind of behind the scenes middleman in Tech Products for Smaller Companies that was agreed to be acquired by Apollo Global becky quick reporting this morning that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway were a bidder got the price higher but did not bid further to the end after the neshl expression of interest i want to share a 20year chart for this because i remember in the heart of the pc boom this was a hot stock. 19. 99 going into 2000. Almost nothing for much of this time, in fact about 70 here. It was about 60 there. 18 years earlier but obviously its gotten in favor with this bidding war here look at berkshire itself it has persistently underperformed the s p 500 over the last couple years. And i have it here with apple. Because apple right now in terms of its berkshires stake in apple represents 10 of the value of Berkshire Hathaway right now. And you can see obviously its been a big tailwind for berkshire stock. About but still not enough you have the modest underperformance there because perhaps because berkshire has tremendous amount of idle carbon the Balance Sheet not gaining value. Kind of interesting dynamics it wouldnt have been a big deal if it got tech data. But interesting that they decided to throw a bid in nonetheless. I guess, mike, with the massive cash balance that Warren Buffett has at the moment thats more of a call that he wants to have the powder drien if and when there is a market pullback as opposed to bidding up for something that relatively speaking has had a deeson run and he fanned the price as it were. Although i dont know he would wait for a broad market pullback but clearly deal by deal he is not finding great opportunities where he sees a lot of value out there to be able to turn cash into a business. There is no doubt about that that the market has run away from him in that sense. The other thing as we look at the chart and you think about clearly he is typically a Value Investor thats why he has lots of positions in banks, that apples rupp up whether that ceases to be in that bucket that he sees attractive in valuation terms. It will be very interesting to see whether he has added to his position during this recent spurt higher in apple shares of course, his Percentage Holding in a. M. Keeps going up because apple keeps buying back stock and presumably berkshire is not selling into that perhaps he is happy with the amount he owns which is a greater share of earnings for apple over time but definitely interesting to see the next disclosures. See you again later thanks. 40 minutes before the bell as you can see the s p off by a third of a percentage point. The nasdaq off a third of a percentage the point and the dow down as well after the break early demand for apple gifts appear to be high. One analyst says tim cooks big differentiator this Holiday Season may not be a product at all. Well discuss that. And later closing bell friend and apparel Industry Leader rick hell offen i do know has been outspoken about the impact of tariffs on retail. The grinch has stolen christmas from us. We dont know what else there is to steal. Has it really been that bad, though, rick mo timucdiscuss with h mh reo come on closing bell. Servicenow put our workflows in the cloud. This changes everything. Youre right sir. Everything. No not everything, i mean youre still blatantly sucking up to me gary. Brilliantly observed, sir. Always three steps ahead. Six steps ahead. Sixteen. So many steps. You done . A million steps ahead. Servicenow. Works for you. Welcome back to closing bell. Less than a month to go until christmas. And apple may have a runaway hit on its hands apple air pods pro pushing delivery dates for new orders out to early january that rush also reportedly prompting apple to double production with one manufacturer air pods not the only product in high demand. Shoppers taking to twitter complaining that apple watches at walmart selling out within minutes of the black friday sales launch so is apples supply squeeze a good or bad sign for the stock this season, we have two guests joining us good afternoon to you both dan, ill start with you is this a good or bad sign in terms of the fact that its still quite a small portion of the overall sales . Do you think theyve done this on purpose. Look, i think its small. But youre talking negative, 4 , 5 revenue next 12 to 18 months. Its eye popping in terms of demand out of the gate we think right now on a trajectory to 85 to 90 Million Units next year. I think they can sell 15 Million Units between now and the end of december i think they were caught a business surprised by the demand i do not think its on purpose this could be a little more fuel in the engine for apple. When you say that, are you saying they can sell them even if they dont have them on hand to deliver. We think production is stepped up weve heard throughout asia. Right now theyre saying december 30th is the earliest release date unless there is another outline like amazon. Yeah, i think right now thats the a date that could be moved forward but in terms of demand that continuing to accelerate and we see again throughout today through the apple store about 60 toest of every customers buying iphone is buying air pods. Tom has this got a long runway for many yeerps . Will there be the upgrade psychs for the air pods or like the iphone or is it a one off. Definitely. Isnt it exciting to be talking about sellouts for apple given the challenges theyve had with the iphone this year to me the big story is in payments as they now offer a apple branded credit card, the apple card 3 back on purchases. And they indicated next year they give you zero percent financening oh on the next generation iphone. Air pod is a good product. But the sales is in payments with the apple card. Have we got clear numbers on that yet and how much its delivered to the bottom line . No, not yet but i think, again, if you look at the Company Overall push here, to become less dependent on iphones given the mature market for iphones, everything theyre doing on the Payments Financial Services side also health care and then the proprietary video content these are important initiatives for apple. Lindsey, is there is there a sign here for you that with the success of the air pods and the wearables in general that whats coming down the pike with 5g and the innovations with phones and all of this, that apple is back to selling hardware again no, i mean its definitely a good sign for the quarter that these products, the iphone. You think its shortterm. Yeah i think its shortterm. The whole mantra is really to pivot to a more Services Oriented company thats where there is actually opportunity within the numbers the consensus earnings estimates for the Services Business is much lower than i think youre actually going to get. Thats continuing to be the story. Its why you seen the multiple expansion in the stock and can continue. On the services story how do you think the launch of tv plus is gone. Better than expected. In our opinion i think 100 million in the next three years in terms of the consumer perspective. What with he get from subscriber thus far about 30 , 40 ahead of where we expected. You bitcoin that with air pod like you said, iphone is rock of gilberter. But if you look at the install base right now we are seeing a rae rating of the stock because of it. Do you think theyre maximizing their ability to take people in this apple universe and sell them every single slice of the pie i think right now were still in the second or third inning. You see as tom talked about on the Services Side you look at air pods pro i think it speaks to what you are seeing right now whats going to be a supercycle in 5g, this is all checking the box for cook and cupertino. Tom, sum up for us where you in terms of rating on the stock and price target. Sure. Buy rating 300 price target amazing year but there is more upside in the stock. And dan, youre own priets target. 325, buy rating this is a restating stock. I think 325 you could see 350 with a 5g supercycle. Quickly, tom how important with the buybacks to the story if they us that buybacks for any reason would that be a significant below. The answer is absolutely. Wilfred, good point. The cash horde apple has as they move to cash flow neutral as far as using the cash buybacks dividends very important en a certainly helped the shares this year. Okay, well leave it with that lindsey, tom thank for joining us they are getting media out of the air pods not being delivered. You know the oracle dan ives said no. Like when whether elon musk purposely cracked the window. You get more play off that. We should ask the oracle too did he do that on purpose. That was not on purpose. But it worked out it had to have been just a Silver Lining to what went wrong ended up being right. Yeah, i think the story is still not written there. I continue to think versions on preorders is less than expecte there we go fully thank you, dan and tom for joining us now 31 minutes left of the session to keep it driving, the action, stocks are reretreating from alltime highs as equity look to close out marginally lower. But the s p still up a healthy 25 year to date and we did have record alltime closes last session. Twrad tensions refirstoffer the decision to stein a bill backing protesters in hong kong. Retailers front and center adobe and the National Retail federation forecasting strong holiday spend zblag lets get a news update now with bill griffeth. Hello bill. Here is whats happening in east texas Officials Say the Chemical Plant fire there is considered contained now. The Evacuation Order for 50,000 residents in a fourmile radius has been lifted as a result. The fire burned for two days following two explosions on wednesday in port neches 80 miles east of houston. Meanwhile a new york judge requested a request request from Harvey Weinsteins lawyers to dismiss two charges. The disgraced hollywood Film Producer scheduled to go on trial january 6th. A new study found that air pollution is not just dangerous to lungs its also hurting your eyes british researchers found the risk of glau coma is 6 higher for polluted areas glau coma is the leading cause of blindness finally meet thor, the superhero at the National Dog Show in pennsylvania, beat out more than 2,000 other canine contestants for the best in show award. Clearly he won for his great beauty that would be a face that only a mother could love. Or an owner as well. Bill, no. I thought that was going. Get ready for the hate mail. I used to have a skipper key. And there was a skipper key in the competition. We were routing mightily for sushi the skipper key but didnt make the cut maybe next year. Lovely. Thank you very much. See you next hour just a warning for you. Switching focus now multiple people were injured after a stabbing incident at londed bridge and our reporter is there with the details what you can tell us wilf weve heard in the last hour from the mayor of london saying the people you mentioned were seriously injured, some at least. Weve heard from the top counterterrorism official inside the metropolitan police force in london talking about the incident itself armed officers from the city of London Police the special police force for the financial district in the heart of london they shot this person involved in an attack on innocent civilians on the London Bridge behind me here. He was neutralized with a gunfire. And was wearing a hoax suicide vest that may be the reason they took the man out, the police we are hearing details about this being called a terrorotic by the metropolitan Police People being stabbed and some serious leung zbld the man came out with a statement we saw thes worst of humanity and response from the public and the best of humanity the police helicopter. Huge amount of police boats on the river thames and a dozen are or so buses stationary been there since the attack took place. Villum thanks very much. Weve 27 minutes left ever of the session here on wall street. The dow dow at the moment down about 88 points. Were down about 0. 3 . Coming up we have the last chance trade. And later baby oweda merchandise is generating a lot of buzz on social media. But mga entertainment is hoping the new surprise toys will be the big winners for the holidays well discuss with the krae ceo ahead. A check on bonds u. S. Treasury yields getting a lift today. The 10year currently yoelding about 1. 77 . Closing bell back right after this announcer the bond report sponsored by pimco we started livongo with a vision of transforming the health and Care Experiences of People Living with chronic conditions. We believe that our unique Member Experience will soon transform the Healthcare System as we know it today. Nothing could be more meaningful than impacting the health and happiness of our members and were just getting started. Welcome back to closing bell. Tame to get back to mike for the second installment of the market dash board hi, mike. Hi, wilf. For months weve been talking about the stream wars, which provider going to be the winner and looser Netflix Disney now trading, i guess, trying to compete for buzz out there with the irishman on netflix then of course all the disney plus has to offer. Here is a chart though of the two stocks since april 11th. This is when disney detailed the plans for disney plus. The pricing what would be on it what not the market immediately rewarded disney and said you know, you are in the league among the winners in this area you see its been pretty much no contest since that date. But look at quarter to date. Right now in the Fourth Quarter which stock is leading well its pretty much neck and neck right now netflix has had a nice comeback since right before the actual launch of disney plus this month. That looks like pretty much an even game. How about for two years, though . This actually shows netflix built up a massive lead on disney in terms of Value Creation and its eroding that lead over here if you went back 5 years. No contest netflix up hundreds of more the market is thinking right now these are the incumbent. New entrants have to fight for more mind share, i think, once people assume the market is receptive to both of these and maybe not that much churn or attrition coming to netflix at least in the outset of the disney plus launch. Mike i wonder if you went back to the first time frame, the april time frame from the announcement of the launch of disney plus what happened to their multiples relative to history. I guess for netflix you do it on price to sales pe for dijz. But disney expanded in a way netflix hasnt as it starts to be considered new media versus having previously been considered old media. For sure. Netflix always trading on the far distant future when fantastic it was a Free Cash Flow model its not yet and netflix trading in the range largely speaking in terms of multiples depending how you want to define it but disney all based on cash flow and earnings, usually a bit of a premium to the market now a substantial premium to the market appear and earnings are flat this year clearly some portion of disneys business is being awarded that with growth preem yun, sem laroue growth story. Although i will stay the studio business of disney continuing to perform well and people latching on to things like Box Office Success and things like that saying its not strictly about the hopes for disney plus subscribership down the road which is not going to be that much of a financial driver for a while. Thanks very much. Lindsey, are there any of the sort of old media valuations that are just so attractive still even if not in the sweet spot of the industry that start to be attractive. Well, you know, i think the charts that mike show are really interesting when the news came out about all the Different Streaming Services ma wrg gb to be available people were thinking netflix was left for dead but the fact of the matter is theyre spending 15 billion this year on content they have some really great original content so i think that like mike said theyre probably one of the winners at the end of the day. All right well we have 20 minutes before the bell now and here is where we stand the dow off about 1007 points. The nasdaq is down a third of a still ahead, french activists Holding Block friday demonstrations, attempting to block the entrants of a Shopping Mall in paris. Whats behind the protests and later find out how the aclls in the u. S. Are faring on blk friday when we speak with the ceo of mall of america. Through the at t network, edgetoedge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. From using feedback to innovate. To introducing products faster. To managing website inventory. And network bandwidth. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. You should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not mad because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad get e trade and start Trading Commission free today. As a principal i can tell you this. When one student gets left behind, we all get left behind. This is a problem that affects each and every one of us. Together with ibm, we created a whole new kind of School Called ptech. Within six years, students can graduate with a high school diploma, a college degree, and a pathway to a competitive job. You know whats going up today . My poster. Today, there are more than a hundred thousand ptech students around the world. Its a game changer. Announcer ringing up holiday retail, the pulse of the consumer where they are spending, what shefrs should be watching squawk on the street, monday, 10 00 a. M. Eastern cnbc 17 minutes now and at session lows dow off by more than 100 points. And lindsey were seeing our selling accelerating into the end of black friday. Whats the last chance trade. Well its black friday. So i was thinking about the retailers weve been talking about all day long i want to look at amazon because the stock is down 10 from the july highs online sales this Holiday Season are supposed to grow 14. 1 better than the 4 peppers expected for the overall Retail Market we know from prime day this summer they had a strong showing. The sales were better than black friday and cyber monday last year the consumer is definitely going to amazon to shop online and we know sale guidance was pretty conservative for these guys for the Fourth Quarter. And thats part of why we have seen the stock under pressure, along with the investments in oneday shipping, aws. There is a lot of things going on here. But these guys are professionals at spending money. And turning that into profitability. I think the weakness we have seen more recently could turn into a profit longer term. The thing is youre the third person to put amazon last chance trade in the last two, two and a half weeks. Really all right. Be ready. We have got 15 minutes left of the session. As contessa mentioned we are down at session lows down 115 points a bit of a slide 0. 4 slyer approaching the close 15 minutes away up next take you into the market zone for uninterpreted coverage for the final minutes of the trading da dont get mad. Get e trade, dawg. Announcer the market zone sponsored by etrade get 100,000 on when you deposit 500,000 welcome back to 12 minutes left in the trading day now in the closing bell market zone commercial free coverage of all the action going into the close. Cnbc Senior Market commentator mike santoli breaking down crucial moments of the trading day and today we have lindsey bell and on this black friday retail analyst lizhen dun from pro form aifr yoing us as well great to have everybody here seeing a session well we were at session lows, retreating down now 94 points. Best buy et betting big on faster delivery this Holiday Season and Franke Holland has the story for us. Hey, contessa best buy trying to use convenience as a weapon 199the battle for Holiday Shoppers. The company increasing logistics spending by more than 60 . Increasing capacity to offer free next day shipping on orders above 35 to 99 of the customers. Up from 80 in jun they built three metro eskmerps centering allowing best buy for the first time this Holiday Season to offer 50 Million People in new york, l. A. And chicago free next day on orders placed as late as 8 00 p. M the latest deadline of all major retailers. Back to you. Franke, i actually ordered a new laptop on the best buy website wednesday night. They told me december 5th delivery if you could ask them to speed that up a little bit i would be grateful. I think it might be back here wilf which kind do you youre the third anchor to say they were on the website ordering a gift did you go for the free next day option i didnt because it was costing enough as it was i didnt no obviously cant get anything for free. Im kidding. Put in a good word thank you. Thank you now six fewer shopping days between thanksgiving and christmas. Kait rogers is year kate rogers is having a look at whether that could hit target sales momentum. Hey well, targets really been focusing on improving the instore experience and its launched inhouse brands for things like clothing and grocery. That strategy has worked so har this year and the retailers really hoping that continues into the Holiday Season. Digital sales up 31 in their recent Earnings Report this years deals began very early online targets also doubled the number of team members it has dedicated to fulfillment for both sameday shipping and pickup in store. Very popular option. So far today, target says the bestselling products have been apple products, of course. Beats, tv, and toys. The Company Also Announced that cybermonday deals will be available for two days this year on sunday and monday and we should mention that targets stock is up nearly 100 since black friday of 2018, guys back over to you kate, thanks so much for that lindsey, where do you stand on the kind of targets and walmarts of this world that have the click and collect option is that a big advantage that amazon doesnt have . Yeah. I do think it is an advantage for these guys and its how theyre actually able to compete with amazon for sure people that, you know, not like us living in the city. But really living in suburbs this is a a convenience factor for them. And i think thats who is winning this Holiday Season. Whoever has the convenience, the value, and the differentiated product. All right well, some big pain relief for wynn resorts the company will receive as a derivative lawsuit filed by multiple share holder plaintiffs, including the retirement fund, which alleged failures by the board to investigate serious allegations against founder and former Ceo Steve Wynn this settlement does not assign blame to the company or any current or former directors. Interestingly, steve wynn himself will pay 20 million nearly half the settlement costs. With insurance picking up the rest lawyers will try to credit the company with 49 million for the massive governance changes it undertook after steves departure. A judge still needs to approve that deal. The reason why that 49 million in credit is important is because it would significantly increase the fees that the lawyers are able to collect for the litigation and by the way, you know, im covering insurance, too. On consistent quarters, were hearing the big insurers saying that this litigation cost is a significant cost head wind these rising settlement fees and the and the litigation are a big factor there. Whats the factor, the significance of the fact that steve wynns picking up some of this bill himself . Weve never heard a mea culpa from him in this whole scandal so him Going Forward and saying, yeah, im going to pay 20 million. And what would induce him to do that it means that he could be free and clear of lawsuits the Company Might file against him for failure of fiduciary duty. Contessa, thank you for that one. Now, tech data shares surging after a Global Management outbid Warren Buffett for the company having a look at why apollo wanted this company quite so much. Hey, will apollo raising its bid for tech data the pe firm had to offer more after Berkshire Hathaway and as if apollos latest price of 145 per share is somewhat final. Although, there is the potential for someone else to come in over the next ten days. Now, tech data operates in the Technology Distribution industry, which is an area that apollo has been attracted to in the past the firm reportedly offering to buy ingram micro last year from hna for about 7. 5 billion but that deal fell through so now, tech data gives apollo another chance to capitalize on the Technology Distribution space. Guys. Leslie, thank you very much for that mike, whats your take on this i mean, we discussed it a bit in some of the pricing but it sounds like an interesting deal. Its interesting in the sense that this type of business is really set aside by investors. Its pretty kind of prosaic. Nobody really paying much attention to it. Which typically a steady business you can leverage thats not very expensive in the Public Markets is a very good candidate to be taken private and maybe perhaps even act as a further rollup of the industry in private hands. So it all fits together. The buffett angle is interesting, though. Just goosing this valuation beyond what the company itself is willing to accept just a few weeks ago. Another trend in focus this Holiday Season Digital First retailers investing in a brick and Mortar Retail presence. Julia boorstin is at one of those etaler stores in west hollywood, california. Contessa, thats right. The trend is called clicks to bricks since glossier lost on instagram five years ago, it has used this store plus one in new york and five popups this year not just to sell product but as a valuable marketing the company says the stores have a halo effect driving social conversation and glossiers nearly 2 1 2 million instagram followers tagged the brand in more than 20,000 instagram posts every month. Theres already a line outside this glossier ahead of the store opening. We are sure these folks are going to be taggingtheir experience and glossiers just one of a number of Digital First retailers that have been investing in a physical presence there is actually a casper store just across the street theres a luggage store corner to us right here there is warby parker, all investing in a physical presence what we see these brands doing is taking advantage of the fact that real estate prices have declined while the cost of acquiring customersonline through marketing has increased. Guys, back over to you. Julia, thank you very much. Mike, you love this makeup. Youve queued for it. I have on a secondhand basis experienced this waiting in line to get in. My daughters exactly this effect. Noticing the brand in social media. Theres obviously a little bit of an event premium in visiting the stores. And this really appeals to young women and its theyre turning out. Ive seen it myself in austin, texas. Liz, talk about the broader approach, though, when youre looking at warby parker. When youre looking at these other direct to Consumer Brands deciding that now is the time to invest in brick and mortar yeah. I think you had it exactly right. The cost of acquiring customers online has increased real estate costs are down its much easier to engage with customers in a physical retail presence you get much higher conversion and so there are a number of reasons that it makes sense to open retail. Now, it needs to be controlled you shouldnt open thousands of stores but select stores in select markets i think makes all the sense in the world the glossier store in in new york is fantastic. Ive been and they do well over thousands of dollars per square foot in productivity, which is which is fantastic best in class. Liz, do you think the popup stores can become more widespread i mean, only there for a short period of time pick up a cheaper lease. Does it get the same effect as having a permanent store yeah. I think it creates an event for the customer its, you know, a special occasion and andgets consumers out. I also think its a good way to test whether or not a market works for for a retailer. And i think the days of long, long leases are coming to an end. And so retailers are looking at how can i make an impact in a short period of time and really capture part of the consumer conversation and wallet obviously. Okay. We got two and a half minutes left back to the border markets mike, youve been looking at internals today. Pretty heavy if you look internally up down stocks in the New York Stock Exchange has been pretty skewed also, oil is very weak today kind of quietly down a few percent. And that is also dragging down the Energy Sector so thats not helping the overall indexes. I would point out the volatility index even when the markets were flat up a point on the day. Perhaps people are wondering if its time to kind of sit on this but also, buy some protection going into a new month. Two minutes to go now lets get over to Rick Santelli now for a check on bonds rick. You know, its been a very different sort of november for tenyear notes and all the curve. Look at the tens we moved up. Couldnt get over 80, 180, and back down a bit. On the day, were up one basis point. On the week, were up one basis point. Open month to date, were on nine basis points on the month very compressed month for Interest Rates dollar index, look at the month to date. On the highs of the range for the month. Matter of fact, up close to one cent on the month. And it seems as though the big nasdaq had a good year in the month of november. Yeah. Its been a november to remember here in the Nasdaq Record highs for the nasdaq composite but also a big rebound when it comes to biotech and thats really driven the strength both in small caps, the Biotech Sector up about 11. 5 . New sector today at a 52 week high other end, apple had another strong month here. Responsible, in fact, for about a third of the nasdaq 100 gains this month over to dom chu. So bertha, thank you very much for that. Were watching whats happening with the s p 500 weve lost some steam throughout the course of the day. Incrementally to the down side right now, the s p 500 currently just around floating 3141 or so as you can see here. But as the chart shows you, we have been drifting lower pretty much steadily throughout the course of the day. Again, a third of a to the downside nothing again, a very light volume holiday shortened day. Retailers always a big focus as we hear the cheers coming from the closing bell over here lets check out a couple of them on a relative basis on the winning side of things some people watching whats happening with cigna jewelers, one of the big winners so far today. On the downside, abercrombie and filch on that retail side of things well watch those shares as well and what you are hearing right there is the closing bell on this friday for this holiday shortened black friday trading day. Now, here is that closing bell welcome to the closing bell, everyone. Im Contessa Brewer in for sara today along with Mike Santelli. Lets check in where the markets closed down 0. 4 for the s p 500. The dow and the nasdaq down a little bit more than that. Quite steady selling during that final hour of the session. Just off the lows at the close but the dow still down just more than 100 points. All sectors on the s p were lower. But as we said earlier in the show, we were of course at record highs when wednesdays session finished just 48 hours ago. Joining us to talk about the market day now, lindsey bell chief investment strategist and liz dunn, founder and ceo of proforma. Still with us, mike, here we are black friday last trading day of the month. Is this the way were going to start a santa claus rally so to speak . Its hard to know if we should extrapolate from this but i actually think its pretty appropriate because the market is essentially digesting, spending the day digesting and also, honestly, wondering if if we overdid it in november because we did have a straightup month pretty much in november with the exception of one little flat week we pulled back today really just to where we first hit on monday. So in other words, you gave back about two days worth of upside but i do think its relevant to ask if, you know, the gains we had in november and year to date have kind of priced in a fair bit of the favorable outcomes out there. Whether its an upturn in Economic Growth or a trade deal or Something Like that so without really reacting too much to the action today, it shows you the field position is very favorable the question is, you know, even if we went flat the rest of the year, itd still be a great return. To your point, mike, just earlier, i mean, what kind of level stepping up from the lows would be a concern up, what, one point or so today, not huge. Right this is still very much kind of bouncing off a very low level. I would say youd have to get up well above 14 or 15 to say, okay, the complexion of the market has changed and maybe were bracing for a little more chop back and forth. That would probably come with a little bit of a deeper pull back than weve seen so far but right now, i really do think its kind of the mechanics of, okay, were past this holiday. We have this known potential deadline out there for the trade deal and the tariffs lets just maybe buy some protection ahead of that. You have the s p 500 up more than 25 year to date, lindsey amid all of these geopolitical uncertainties and and whether the China Economy is going to pick up some steam here, whether theres going to be a trade deal, whats happening with brexit, whats going on with impeachment and politics what are the issues that youre looking at that would either be a drag on the market in december or add some fuel to the fire yeah. I mean, i think tariffs december 15th deadline is the number one risk to the market it continues to be this risk thats been underlying the market for a year and a half right now. So thats number one thing were looking at but the fact of the matter is because of all the issues that you just laid out, the u. S. Equity market really is one of the best markets to be in right now. If you if youre looking somewhere to put your money. Because Interest Rates have remained very low. Theres not a lot of alternatives out there. What about the fact that stocks are expensive well, at 18 and a halftimes, thats right i mean, if youre not in the market now, you pose a very good question but where else are you going to go to get the 25 return in one year liz, broadly speaking, coming into the final month of the year, the most important month of the year for shopping how strong do you feel the consumer is . I think the consumer is in great shape. Obviously, there are concerns about the broader economy. But the consumer is is feeling solid with record unemployment and wage wages on the on the uptick. So i think the consumer is in good shape theres lots to buy. Theres too many stores to buy things at. But the consumer is solid. Steven grasso is able join us now as well. Steve, whats your takeaway today as to why we sort of sold off . Why dont we look where weve been from . I think its all a relative basis. Weve been so happy with the bulls running that i think today was just a little bit of a give back, anticlanti anticlimactic. Lets dive in on the Retail Stores shoppers of course out in force this black friday. Courtney reagan is at the Woodbridge Center mall in new jersey taking the pulse of Holiday Shoppers hey, court hey, will so traffic is starting to pick up here. That makes sense, right . Weve got the busiest day of the year for retail expected 115 million americans are going to shop today in store, online, maybe a combination of the two yeah we know the has changed over the years. Right . Youve got those doorbuster deals on thanksgiving thursday you even got some of the black friday preview sales earlier on in the shopping season still, its a really key day here at this mall, things were pretty busy last night i understand aeropostle was giving out free blankets that drove a decent amount of traffic. One of the jewelry kiosks sales five times what they did last black friday but there were other names here im told actually had about half the sales they had the year before so its kind of hit or miss depending on the products you have and the prices youre offering them. Followed by walmart, kohls, and costco target actually slipping out of the top four with doorbuster deal searches online down by about 76 over this time last year black friday deals, though, you know go beyond just those bigname retailers shopify, which has been smaller and medium ecommerce size players that use their platform to power their sites they tell cnbc so far, black friday sales peaked after midnight at 1. 2 million per minute that was about double the amount the sales peak hit on thanksgiving thursday. So far in the u. S. , up about 60 . But today is expected to be a very, very big day back over to you. Heres my question for you. Given the fact that cybermonday Online Shopping has now surpassed black friday, weve seen that in years past. How much of black friday is really about experiential shopping again its about going out and doing the Treasure Hunt, elbowing the crowds coming home with your treasure that leaves people feeling with what the malls are trying to accomplish by adding in all these experiences and bricks and mortar facilities. Thats such a good question, contessa, because i think while a lot of people want to be anywhere but the mall on black friday, there are a lot of other people that wouldnt be anywhere but the mall on black friday because its what they always do with their families. Whether they are buying for themselves or theyre buying gifts for the Holiday Season it really is something that people like to do together and there is an awful lot of that happening were certainly seeing people walking with bags. But were also seeing lots of families here together and families have been here for hours and hours and some dont have many bags at all. But the traffic is being driven to the stores. And at some point, theyre probably going to have to buy something for christmas even if it doesnt happen here today wait, you can do a Treasure Hunt i mean, you cannot believe the kinds of things that they get out there. And the kin kinds of buys you w to buy liz, when were talking about black friday, how much do the results on black friday factor into what you think of as a successful retail Holiday Season well, specifically, with a shortened holiday period, you really have to make every day count. So its important to capture the the deal customer on black friday and just really hit every single day of this Holiday Season the shortened Holiday Season hard i think that black friday, youre right it is kind of an experiential thing. Its something that families do together and it remains the biggest shopping day, physical shopping day, of the season so its very important liz, we know, of course, that online is still growing much faster than bricks and mortar in their theme of recent years of course is amazons portion of that growth now less compared to where it was in the past couple years . Because others have either caught up or invited in other ways yeah. I mean, walmart and target are both growing their ecommerce business faster than amazon. So i think thats really, really important. I think that the retailers that are set up for sort of multichannel shopping are very, very wellpositioned and this year, its really going to be about convenience. Its going to be about buying online and picking up in store whether thats curbside or within the physical store. I think all those offerings are really, really important. Steve, what are you looking for on black friday . Who are you looking to see outperform i think you brought up a good comment before about how black friday is indicative over the rest of the Holiday Season i think that apple perception with their latest generation on the air on the on their airpods has created a catalyst to get people back in stores you have if you have them in target you have them at other stores but apple sold out of them so people are trying to rush in to get those deals versus sitting at home doing it online but as far as amazon, to wills point, aws is the real Growth Engine of amazon its not the retail side of it its what theyre doing with the money. So aws is actually shrinking in the portion of its revenue contribution thats a major head wind for amazon its not about retail. Its about aws. All right so november giving an early holiday present to investors dom chus looking at what a strong month it was for the bulls. Dom. I mean, a month of a lot of record highs for all the Major Industries the dow, the s p 500, and the nasdaq as well if you take a look at what kind of pushed us there to those rarefied levels in the stock market overall, the sectors that mattered the most. The ones that really outperformed were cyclical, economically sensitive ones. Technology and financials led the way. Healthcare was also in that as well up 5 so 5 to 6 gains for those sectors. Utilities, the biggest lager it was still up but a modest 2 . It gives you the idea of the shifting sentiment now, as for the dow specifically, the ones who have done the most damage in terms of the upside move. Walt disney. 17 of the upside. And Unitedhealth Group up 11 . Those really helped power the gains to the record high levels. Meanwhile, Procter Gamble and home depot two different sides, if you will, of the consumer trade. Still the biggest laggers down 2 and 5 as well and will, contessa, and michael. About the strength of this rally so far year to date in into november and through thanksgiving when the market goes up this much year to date, 77 of the time, it finishes with even more gains to finish out the year so maybe the bulls can argue theres a little bit of history on their side this year, unlike last year. Guys, back over to you. Dom chu delightfully, not at hq for once good to see you. You got it. Thanks very much. Just very quickly, stephen, if someone is still looking for something that could gain a bit in this final month of the year despite the huge run weve already had, which sector would you suggest . I want the cyclicals to start outperforming. I want the chemical plays, the paper plays to start outperforming but i think thats going to be a q1 story i think you have to stick with tech stick with alltime bell weather names. Stick with an apple. Stick with the semis stick with software believe it or not i would sell retail. I think were at the climax point for retail for now till year end. Okay. Thank you all very much. Happy holiday weekend. Lindsey bell, liz dunn, and steve grasso up next, mga entertainments could be one of the hottest toys this season. Ceo isaac larian will join us next with his outlook. Back in 90 seconds not minutes stand against black friday in a protest theyre calling block friday activists staged protests against amazon all around france and tried to blockade a Shopping Mall in paris. Really, the whole goal here is to denounce consumerism and its impact on the environment. Some lawmakers in france have passed an amendment to ban black friday sales and one government minister says she would support black friday if it helped small french businesses but says mostly, it benefits large retailers. I mean, i would think bricks and Mortar Retail would be less bad for the environment than online delivery. And and all the emissions that that would generate. Right. Youve even seen a lot of play on social media about people reminding shoppers, look, youre going to go out and buy a 5 tshirt and how long are you going to keep it and how long does it stay in your house before it ends up in a landfill i do think those kind of mindful consumerism that are taking place not just in france but is it going to have an impact i think people are attributing. Things like h and m have struggled. But i would say this would probably be the extreme though, right . French culturally speaking going to the different small shops for every little discrete type of item its pretty much part of the life there. They love a protest, too. Moving on, meantime. One of the hottest toys since its debut is mga entertainment line of lol surprise dolls snagging spots on adobe, walmart, target. The toys feature several layers of surprises with videos of lol dolls being unwrapped, racking up lol. Yeah. For more, lets bring in ceo isaac larian isaac, good to see you. Good morning, will. Good morning, contessa happy holidays. The lol dolls i remember because you brought some of them along to us last year. So how how how i think theyre the same ones. Were going to move on to this years toys as well. Im very excited to open this in a moment. This is one of the top toys. But were going to come on to this one im looking forward to opening it because it explodes with joy apparently but, isaac, firstly to the lol how rare is it that last years toy is one of the top performers this year as well . It just willford, the reason is we have made a lot of new products in lol. I mean, when you look at the omg dolls and i mentioned at cnbc first, it is already the numberone fashion doll. The lol winter disco omg doll will be sold out by december 10. So its just bringing a lot of new innovations and new products to a brand that is very hot. We have bought 18 out of the top 50 toys worldwide and its very exciting. Isaac, we were just talking about rampant consumerism. Its impact on the environment. How much of these toys is really about just the experience . Weve been talking a lot about experiential shopping on black friday or what malls are doing to entice shoppers into their doors. Is this really about the experience of getting a toy . Its its a combination, contessa, of looking for a surprise everybody likes a surprise and it is also about the unboxing what we have done is we have partnered with the cycle to recycle every piece of plastic that you see in that toy basically, consumers buy them and sell the plastic prepaid freight to recycles it. And does it work . Yes, it does work and by next year, we will have more paper, less plastic, and we are also excitingly working on a biodegradable plastic for our toys so talk talk to me about the nanana doll as i try to work out how to open it because ive seen a video and i definitely want to open it. But this has been very successful that people have been reselling it, right . Right they are selling these they Just Launched literally actually, the official launch that is on december 1 but some merchandisers got in the market. And there these are 20 retail and they are selling them on ebay for 50 and the way to basically the way this works is you you you open it. I dont know if you saw this and the confetti comes out and then im doing it at the moment. So ive got to blow it up first, right . Yeah. A little bit dont do it too much dont do it too much. Thats like a im blowing it the whole way up. Lets see what happens. Nothing its not going. Put that down lower im blowing as hard as i can. So, will, why you do that, inside of this toy, you get two toys in one. And now i no, harder. Really like, push it. Come on. Youga got to use your muscles there you go. Its not look. Basically, it already did on my lap. Thats will, i just did one and it worked so it looks like okay. Wait. Okay. Look isaacs got it already unwrapped. I was more excited about the explosion than the toy isaac, how hard is it to try to keep coming up with the big, hot toy for the next year . Like, how far ahead are you working on that . Isaac, thank you so much. It is it is very it is very, very difficult, contessa, because you got to keep doing research and coming up with new products and testing them with kids and they change their tastes all the time but it takes us about six to nine months to come up with a product. Nanana surprise, you get two toys in one. One, is you get a piece of plush. And then you open the zipper, you get a fashion doll in it so a lot of value in the beautiful hair and thats what the girls, little girls like. Isaac, back to the actual business of all of this. If we may. What are the key price points you think for this Holiday Season and hows the strength of the u. S. Consumer . It is the consume the u. S. Consumer is very, very strong. Some of the bestselling toys right now this fall for lol surprise are the 100 between 100 to 250 retail. So it is very strong we just got black friday we just got black friday sales and you need to practice more or keep your day job. But anyways. Isaac, we we both slightly failed to successfully explode this toy the youtube video, which we both studied by the way and so yeah. But i think you should keep your day job definitely and let the kids play with toys. Well, anyway, isaac, great to catch up as always thank you very much and happy holidays to you. Thank you happy holidays to you. Thank you. Up next, closing bell, much more on todays black friday bow than za. Were headed to the mall of america where some shoppers camped out since 12 noon yesterday. Later, a big shift in small biz. It turns out mom and pop shops are turning to new options for their loans. Well discuss that when closing bell comes right back. [ electrical buzzing ] [ dramatic music ] ahhhh ahhhh elliott. You came back lets go over to Mike Santelli now for his third dashboard of the day mike. Contessa, too many leftovers perhaps in the World Markets for commodities. We saw a little bit of a drop in oil today. The oils been okay this month but take a look at copper compared to industrial stocks. So the industrial sector has tried been handicapping a global upturn. Obviously, emerging market stocks copper, though, very reflective of industrial commodities in general. Here you see year to date really no lift at all of course, industrial stocks have tried to handicap or come back the dollars been somewhat strong then of course this market loves cash flows and industrial cash flows are still very strong. Commodities produced but i do think there is something to keep in mind as we look toward the prospects for actual Economic Data in china and elsewhere Getting Better as the markets have attempted to handicap here. Obviously having quite an impact mike, thank you. Up next, will it be a black friday blowout lines forming over night at the mall of america but can physical retail really hold its own ldiuss the likes of amazon . Wel scwi the ceo of mall of america coming up. Not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa so servicenow put your workflows immhm. Cloud, huh . Your employees must love you. Thank you. Ah, you could say that. So how are things with you guys . Great. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Lunch next week . Terrific. Say hi to the team. Will do. Call my office, i will. Sounds good. Alrighty. Servicenow. Works for you. Im a regular in my neighborhood. Im a regular at my local coffee shop and my local barber shop. When you shop small you help support your community from after School Programs to the arts so become a regular, more regularly. Because for every dollar you spend at a Small Business, an average of 67 cents stays in the community. Join me and American Express on Small Business saturday, november 30th, and see how shopping small adds up. Time for a cnbc news update with the one and only bill griffeth. Thank you very much heres whats happening at this hour british Prime Minister says the accident at the London Bridge earlier today, it all appears to have been contained now. He praised members of the public who intervened to detain the man before police got there. The man also apparently had fake explosives strapped to his body. Meanwhile, thousands of people in asia and europe have joined rallies demanding more action on Climate Change their aim is to force political leaders to come up with Urgent Solutions during United Nations conference on Climate Change that thats scheduled for next week and listen to this a huge black hole has been discovered on the other side of our galaxy its so massive, in fact, that Scientists Say it shouldnt even be possible. Chinas academy of Sciences Says the newlydiscovered stellar black hole called lb1 has a mass that is 70 times that of our sun. Wow. And even though people are out and about for this long thanksgiving holiday weekend, it is not a great time for restaurants. Today, black friday is only the 14th best day of the year for restaurant sales fun fact last saturday was the biggest restaurant day for the industry in terms of people eating out. I have no idea why i would think it would be valentines day or something. Do my best to help them out in 31 minutes time for this tough weekend for them. Bon appetit. Thank you happy holiday weekend. And to you. Thank you. The rise of Online Shopping may have made finding the perfect gift easier but people are still lining up outside physical stores for black friday deals. Joining us from minnesota to talk about the Holiday Season for brick and mortar stores, joe, mall of america senior vice president. Its great to see you today, jill hello, everybody. Happy black friday happy black friday to you how big of a black friday is this put it in perspective for what youve seen in years past. It is outstanding we have 3,000 people waiting outside our doors this morning at 5 00 a. M. And they actually started lining up at about noon yesterday. So they are getting ready for some great deals we actually have a great scratchoff promotion and gave away 200,000 worth of prizes. Whats great is the traffic continues to build throughout the day. So looking at traffic numbers, were actually looking at having record breaking attendance this year for black friday. Jill, 3,000 waiting outside i wonder how many you could fit at full capacity just because reading up, im so amazed at how big mall of america is what are some of the overall statistics about the size . Were actually 5. 6 million square feet. So we have plenty of room for all these shoppers last year, we had 240,000 shoppers on black friday so were ready to keep em coming in and have their traditions here on black friday and help us deliver that amazing experience that were known for. And and, jill, even if there was not a threat of online, which clearly isnt the case but imagine that that was the case, do you find that some mall goers prefer a smaller experience i have to admit i would find it fairly daunting. The idea of heading into somewhere that big and think id never be able to find the shop i was looking for. The people that are here are here for the experience. They love the energy and the excitement so there might be others that are looking for a smaller mall but were not any typical mall even though malls in our name, we are truly a destination for shopping, dining, and attractions. Its all about the experience here and were excited to deliver it this season. When you look at mall of americas performance, are there any concerns on your in your mind that your competitors can pick up whats been successful for you and implement it in their malls and start to take back some of those customers we pride ourselves in what weve been able to create over the last 27 years. And we have 40 Million People that come here every single year and other malls are picking up in the fact that in this day and age of retail, you have to reinvent you have to look at how you can expand your experiences to the customer so you are seeing that across the nation and we hope that they pick it up that challenge helps all of us step up our game make sure that we deliver something innovative and exciting for our guests. So experiential has been big for you for decades. So whats the next innovation in malls . I mean, are we going to hit a point where we jump the shark with food courts the key is making sure that you really understand consumer behaviors and how theyre shopping and really understanding the convenience of Online Shopping but also, delivering the experience that the physical space has to deliver so for example, we have this amazing new lululemon experiential store that just opened last week and it is amazing. So they actually quadrupled in size they kept their footprint for retail but they added a fitness studio, as well as a fuel up bar and a meditation room. So theyre really stepping up their game of what retail is going to be in the future. And youre seeing other retailers follow suit. All right jill renslow, thank you. Congratulations on your 3,000 people waiting outside for black friday thank you have a great Holiday Season. Still ahead here on closing bell, Small Business saturday kicks off tomorrow turns out your local mom and pop shops are seeing a major shift in how theyre getting their Business Loans well explain that story. And as we head out, well look at the big earnings on ckde next week. Stick with us. Closing bell will be right back [grunting] [maniacal laughter] gold. Gold right, uh. Thank you, for that, bob. But i think its time we go with gbtc. Its bitcoin exposure through a traditional investment account. Nice rock. Its time to drop gold. Go digital. Go grayscale. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday it turns out small shops are turning to a new option when they need a loan kate rooney joins us with more kate, what have you learned . Hey, contessa good to see you. So tech is the new option. Paypal, square, and amazon are among those quietly lending to mom and pop shops. These loans tend to be around the 5,000 range so historically, not a big focus for banks. Square capital tells me the competition isnt wall street. Its people borrowing from their friends and family otherwise paypal says it now ranks among the top five Small Business lenders in the country amazon, stripe, and shopify also have some financing options. So these Payment Companies have a few advantages because they handle transactions, they can see money flowing in and out of those businesses based on that, they assess credit worthiness without ever seeing a fico score. Its also a new model of collecting interest so they skim a percentage off of sales coming into the business instead of sending a monthly bill and in true tech fashion, this is all done online guys so, kate, heres my question. How does the Interest Rate that the Small Businesses are paying compare to if they took a 5,000 loan out from their credit card . According to the tech companies, its comparable but the way they assess it so you never send in your fico score and its hard to actually do a sort of apples to apples because theyre taking a percentage off of all the sales coming in. But you get the loan immediately as well so you can do it online and get approved or denied right on the spot. So for Small Businesses that are on a quicker timeline, they do say thats an advantage. Kate, thanks so much. I guess the only thing you could spin the other way of course is that these companies cant make certain types of bigger loans and extension loans because they dont have a bank charter. So theyre kind of focused into this area. No, slootslabsolutely i do think it works for the businesses that do have some kind of critical massive data these companies can see. But these are not necessarily the most creditworthy, you know, borrowers in the abstract. Its funny though for a company like paypal who does now have more cash balances because of the success on their books with very low rates, they have to find some other things to do it if youre in a higherrate environment, suddenly paypal would be quite happy just to let it sit there because if they can get a 4 or 5 return on that, thats better than nothing. But also, its another way to sell the Transactions Service itself, right . So youre competing for the actual transaction business and this is one reason for someone to stay with you if you lent them money. Paypal up about a quarter of a percent today. Small business saturday and according to a new survey, 39 of americans plan to patronize a Small Business tomorrow. Thats down five points from a year ago and just 8 of americans say theyre excited to shop tomorrow compared to 19 who are excited about black friday shopping today. Still, Analysts Expect record sales for retailers tomorrow and for the overall Holiday Season full survey results are at cnbc. Com up next, the countdown to christmas is on. But earlier this year, apparel Industry Leader said the trade war could rain on the Holiday Shopping parade. The grinch has stolen christmas from us. We dont know what else there is to steal. I mean, thats pretty grim. Well get ricks take when closing bell comes right back. M. The van just talked. Sales guy, give em the employee price, then gimme your foot. Handsfree sliding doors, stow n go seats. Can your car do this . Man, yall getting a hook up and yall dont even work here. Dont act like im not doing yall a favor. Yall should be singing my praises. 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Christmas is just around the corner but given ongoing tariff uncertainty, some retailers might not have a happy Holiday Season youre caught between a rock and a hard place do you try and eat it . There goes your margin or do you raise your prices . And then when you raise your prices, people stop buying so either way you do it, youre cooked youre absolutely cooked. The grinch has stolen christmas from us. We dont know what else there is to steal Rick Helfenbein is back with us president and ceo of the American Apparel and footwear association. Happy black friday weve had you on a couple times of late and we always have this back and forth do you feel like the pressure of tariffs on the retailers has been a little less than you feared at the beginning . Well, heres the good news. That call, the cooked call, was on august 1st. And right after that, we all went over to asia and said, hey, you know, we make all our money in the Fourth Quarter of the year can anybody help us out . And pretty much they understood that if we can get through the Holiday Season, then, you know, maybe well survive. What does that mean help you out . Help us out work with us on price. Dont, you know, give us this total increase because the consumer in americas not going to pay for it. So as as you can see, as were going into the Holiday Season now you got 2 million more people in the workforce and theyre shopping so bigger retailers have been able to work around it smaller retailers are struggling. But as you mentioned, the consumer is strong in their spending so whether this was clearly calculated by the president or not, hes hes got away with the tariffs if you want to put it that way. People are spending. People are in jobs and its not derailed either u. S. Retailers or the consumer. Well, heres the good news. Were business people. Were not politicians. So we work really, really hard horse got out of the barn. We got it back in the barn were going to get through christmas. Christmas is going to be wonderful this year. But watch out for next year. You know, everyones saying theres 26 days left till christmas. And Christmas Shopping how great the numbers are. Were looking a little different. Theres 16 days left until the december 15th tariffs hit and thats a concern so, you know, this phaseone deal, we need it to happen and we also need that september 1 tariffs go away as well as december 15th tariffs. And do you have any hope of seeing that actually come to fruition yes i think the news of late has been more positive than negative other than the fact the hong kong democracy act, human rights and democracy act, was signed yesterday. And its hard to say what mainland chinas going to do but hopefully, theyll see that as human rights versus business rights. From your perspective, how cost conscious are American Consumers . I mean, if you were to try and hike prices by 1 on some of your items or apparel or footwear, do you think that would really dissuade your customer from buying maybe not this Holiday Season but, yes, people shop. You know, we talk about how many people are shopping in the five days, 165 Million People are estimated to be out there shopping but theres a difference between shopping and buying. And they are shopping because theyre looking at their phones, theyre comparing prices, and theyre either going to go in and buy or theyre not going to buy. And whoevers got the lowest prices is the winner and thats why youre seeing the split between online and brick and mortar and thats why the brick and mortar guys are are feeling the pain so to speak. There is a line of thinking that if we do not get the december 15th threatened tariffs put in place, by the time you went to next year, even if the existing tariffs remain. We exist in this year versus last year world. So its in the base. Next year, we should be okay well, no. Why not no. Like i said, the horse got out of the barn. We got the horse back in the barn now, were looking at next year. You know, if youre in my business, youre in our business, were buying now for fall of next year. So youre saying concessions that youve gotten on the shortterm from vendors are not going to be there . Yeah. I mean, they pretty much said lets all work together. Get through this Holiday Season. And then well talk about next year so the deal is off and particularly if we get it december 15th, the deal is really off. Wanted to switch focus. Were going to ask you about the change of leadership at nike what did you make of that . Particularly, the shift to such a clearly tech expert. Well, i i think youve seen a lot of ceo shifts this year i think more so than ever before i think were dealing with a new customer the millennial customer shops differently, thinks differently, acts differently i know my son is a millennial. And, you know, you deal with this on a on a daily basis. So tech is the future. Its a split between online and brick and mortar and how you deal with that you look at people being successful, the targets and the walmarts, they are dealing with it theyve found a way around it. And thats the future. So what nikes doing and what a lot of other companies are doing is very appropriate for the time. Well, theres going to be a change in leadership at your company, as well what whats ts nehe next ster you . I dont know. Im going to be back in the new york market more full time and well see what happens. We hope you come back, rick, before you stand down on the 30th of december by the way, happy holiday weekend. Thank you same to you. Okay. So coming up here on closing bell healthcare has been a superstrong sector this year but not all groups within it have been leaders Mike Santelli heads to the telestraighter with that when closing bell comes back. We started livongo with a vision of transforming the health and Care Experiences of People Living with chronic conditions. We believe that our unique Member Experience will soon transform the Healthcare System as we know it today. Nothing could be more meaningful than impacting the health and happiness of our members and were just getting started. Health and happiness of our members yes im stuck in the middle with you, no one likes to feel stuck, boxed in, or held back. Especially by Something Like your cloud. Its a problem. But the ibm cloud is different. Its open and flexible enough to manage all your apps and data securely, anywhere, across all your clouds. So it can help take on anything from rebooking flights on the fly, to restocking shelves on demand, without getting in your way. Send it over to mike for his final dashboard of the day mike. Contessa, healthcare, as dom was saying before, second best performer this month its been a big driver thats pushed records in the overall indexes. But some naughty groups within healthcare others much more nice. I think its interesting if you do the split funds represent different slices of healthcare. This is the overall sector up 15 . This is year to date ihi medical devices and biotech, up 30 year to date. So doubling the return of the overall index. Thats really been helping it to perform. This is healthcare providers, right . This is Health Insurers and such thats in blue thats had the sharpest rise in the last month or two months as people are reading the political implications differently of the Campaign Next week as Elizabeth Warrens poll numbers have gone down whats been left out big pharma that is what were looking at right here just barely over the yeah, its started to come back maybe a little more about slow growth. This is really the market seeking di seeking disruption and growth and steadiness. I mean, obviously, the ihf jump has been because of the easing political pressure there. But also in the other direction shows how far it could fall if you did get an Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders nominee. Very likely in terms of how the campaign goes, i think a lot of people would say actually these businesses are going to be resilient no matter what happens. Okay. Mike, thanks very much still to come, why baby yoda should scare president ial hopefuls like Mike Bloomberg and ene ic wllisss dcu wh wcome back. Servicenow put our workflows in the cloud. This changes everything. Youre right sir. Everything. No not everything, i mean youre still blatantly sucking up to me gary. Brilliantly observed, sir. Always three steps ahead. Six steps ahead. Sixteen. So many steps. You done . A million steps ahead. Servicenow. Works for you. Danafarber Cancer Institute discovered the pdl1 pathway. Pdl1. They changed how the world fights cancer. Blocking the pdl1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. Pdl1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. Pdl1 saved my life. Saved my life. Saved my life. What we do here at danafaber, changes lives everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Im a regular in my neighborhood. Im a regular at my local coffee shop and my local barber shop. When you shop small you help support your community from after School Programs to the arts so become a regular, more regularly. Because for every dollar you spend at a Small Business, an average of 67 cents stays in the community. Join me and American Express on Small Business saturday, november 30th, and see how shopping small adds up. In the race for the publics attention, baby yoda is the clear winner social Media Analytics company finding that since the disney plus premiere on november 12, baby yoda has been driving more social media interactions than any single democratic president ial candidate garnering nearly ten times the buzz as new entrance Michael Bloomberg and deval patrick. Both of whom officially entered the race the same weekend as the mandalorians debut. The statistics are huge just looking at that chart. Clear winner. Congrats to baby yoda. I was going to say its slightly unfair. Apples and oranges here and what would happen if you put it up against fuzzy kitties and adorab adorable puppies or what was the name of the nanana whatever its called i think that deserves some good traction. Baby yoda, even though it was and seems perfectly engineered to create this exact type of phenomenon. Oh, for sure. And yet disney seemed not to have been ready quite to capitalize. Can i just point out how the Disney Plus Streaming Service is going to create other Revenue Streams other than just people signing up oh, sure. Because here you have a licensing opportunity. There was this big thing where they were taking down the gifs because there was some question over whether they were violating copyrights by putting up gifs. So they had to freeze the gifs for a little bit i just think its remarkable and it has the opportunity to bring back these old characters that my kids, for instance, would never clamor for because those movies were out of circulation. Disneys always been a machine on that front with its theme parks and merchandising. I guess a company like universal similarly is netflix obviously hasnt got into that space as yet and probably never will want to because of the multiple it earns on its content creation as opposed to what you get on a ne theme park. It also goes against netflix being this kind of pure, Software Based algorithmic platform. But they did the experiential market in little italy theyre trying to find ways to create those interactions that will last with their customers and make them feel good about spending that subscription fee every month. Pivoting, mike, to broader markets. Clearly, today, end of the lows of the day 0. 4 or so down but thin volumes off the back of highs on wednesday. Yes and i think you could also say its not too atypical to have last day of the month little bit of profit taking after its been so strong. So you can excuse the action and say its not that big of a deal. Its just settling back from a pretty good run. Although, you have to be aware of the fact that not every december magically goes up 70 of them do after youve had a very strong run into december means 30 dont. So i dont think the market owes anybody anything at this point well just see if today was was a blip or not as we get into next week. By the way, today we asked you all on twitter did you have a money conversation at the dinner table and if so, we want to know about it and one user tweeted to us my sisterinlaw is sold on anything marijuana and the economy will be in recession in 18 months. I tried to bring up some other investments but they went nowhere. As most were fooling around on their phones i was telling my friends that my power stock is disney. And then someone named Contessa Brewer tweeted, yeah, i had those discussions at my dinner table. It went like this. Honey, that martini cost mommy a lot of money and i dont want it spilled. Can you go sit in your own seat . El rpe t wl,escto that and i think it means its time for us to go and get a martini. We are a out of time that does it for closing bell. Dealing with fitted sheets . Dealing with fitted sheets . Remember nicolle eggertge. She is best known for her role on baywatch and before that as a teen star on the hit sitcom charles in charge. She was a star with millions in the bank today, shes unemployed, raising two daughters. You dont want to help me and hoping to figure out her next move before all her money runs out. Is this two sheets . Oh, it is. God. Entertainers an