Month. Corporate earnings and sharp moves from the likes of broadcom, origacle, and adobe. And the u. S. Is weighing new 100 tariffs on new european products, including whiskey and cognac plus, a big interview just minutes from now Morgan StanleyCeo James Gorman, a live and exclusive interview right here at the exchange joining us for the hour is lindsay bell, chief investment strategist at ally invest. Good to see you today, lindsey were seeing the markets kind of shrug over these trade headlines, why i think the market has really priced in a phase i deal getting done the news in the Early Morning market got excited and that quickly got deflated the market is up 26 yeartodate its trading at an 18 times multiple which is pretty rich by historical standards this is really just the market kind of taking a breather and waiting for earnings and the Economic Data to really get caught up to those earnings multiple we are set for record alltime closes. Anything positive for the s p and nasdaq would be a record the dow needs to see a little bit more than its got on the books at the moment with 58 minutes left in the session. Lets drill down on the latest things were tracking. Bob pisani is tracking the culmination of a wild week for the market mike santoli is taking a look at the financials in his first market dashboard of the day. But lets kick things off with kayla in d. C what we know about this phase i deal, its 86 pages. Theyre keeping it in a leatherbound book at the white house. It outlines properties on currency on which both countries will abide china will be purchasing 200 billion in new u. S. Goods, including up to 50 billion in agricultural goods, as we first reported on cnbc those agricultural purchases would be spread over two years, but would be on top of a base line 24 billion that the administration is operating around the new tariffs will be on hold as long as the two sides are abiding by the agreement and continuing these negotiations. But no additional tariff rollbacks are scheduled. Beyond the cut to the september 2019 round that the president announced today. Ambassador Bob Lighthizer has been leading trade negotiations for the u. S. He told reporters today that he expects the ministers, not the leaders of the two countries, to sign the deal the first week of january in washington. It would take effect 30 days after that i asked lighthizer what happened over the last two months after President Trump on october 11th announced that a phase i deal had been reached lighthizer said the two countries at that time had made just a notional commitment, but they needed to put exact figures behind that. He hailed this as a major commitment by china, but he still remains skeptical. Lighthizer said it would be wise to say, well see whether china can actually carry out its end of this deal kayla, moodys came out with a statement saying that they dont think that this will lead to a significant shift in moodys Global Economic outlook. And at the same time, we heard from we heard from larry kudlow saying, look, theres going to be enforcement action here are you getting anymore detail about what that enforcement action would look like well, it depends on which part of the deal, contessa this is a mechanism where companies who feel that the spirit of the agreement is not being followed on the ground, they can raise those concerns up through the chain and theyll be dealt with at a few Different Levels so well see as far as Economic Outlook goes, larry kudlow also said that he expects this deal on its face to add half a point to gdp going forward, and that he thinks the Fourth Quarter will be better than expected on the gdp front but i think overall, in tand th chinese officials alluded to this earlier today too, getting the uncertainty out of the Global Market is probably the biggest thing this will do, if none of the actual details of it are material kayla, thank you. Lets get right over to bob pisani on the floor of the exchange with look at how all of these trade headlines have really affected the market, not just today, but this week, bob its been a wild week, on fed and trade headlines, really two things moving. I want to point out a couple of days this week where we moved fed on tuesday there was early reports that there would be a delay it turned out to be accurate wednesday, the fed i think its fair to say, sent dovish signals. That was certainly a big moment for the markets as well. And on thursday, the president said they were very close to a big deal on trade. And on friday, we got the announcement no new tariffs and some existing tariffs would be reduced if you take a look here at trade stocks today, stocks like Illinois Tool Works and deere, a lot of flat moves here on stocks apparel stocks like gap and some of the semis that normally move on trade, i think the key point is, no new tariffs, some existing tariffs reduced that was the minimum the market was expecting overall, so essentially, the market got what it was anticipating. No reason for it to move as for next year, everyones trying to figure out the positives here are the fed neutral, brexit, labor, defeat is a positive for stocks and the trade deal, is this a credible deescalation of the trade wars if it is, bulls are certainly in a better position. I think the one big unknown is the state of china and the chinese economy and Global Growth in general. If those start to resolve, the market definitely can lift further. Guys, back to you. Bob, i dont know whether i should say this, im sure everyone will call me pedantic labor, the u. N. Party, as a u in it. But it was a big move for bank stocks and utilities. Labor lost was the important thing. Whether you agree with brexit or not, uk stocks moved on the labor loss is important thing. Absolutely, bob, and the ftse 250, the more domestic focused smaller uk companies outperforming the ftse 100 as well, up 3. 5 to the ftses 1. 1 bob, thank you, as always. We have got 54 minutes left of trade. Lets get over to mike for todays market dashboard mike wilf, hello what we have here, come back and be here. A big comeback in a longterm way for a big sector of the market that happened in the last 24 hours. Well break that down. And out of the woods, some of the Global Equity indexes acting as if they might be somewhat out of danger after the trade news and fed news and do we need to calm down about the strength of the consumer we actually did not see really strong retail Sales Numbers today. Im going to look at that. And wildest dreams, a look at Investor Sentiment getting a little bit happier, excited about stocks see if its too much or not. Take a look at the xlf, Financial Sector, spiddr basically eclipsing finally the precrisis high from early 2007. That was right here. It took it all of that time. Now, i would point out that on a total return basis, the Financial Sector has been positive, because of dividends so its basically giving you about 2 a year. Keep in mind, the overall s p 500 has been making new record highs for the last six and a half years so obviously, a big laggard group. Take a look at banks, not quite there. If you look at thekbw bank index within the financials, its not quite up to that 2006 high, but very, very, very close. Keep in mind, also, the Financial Sector has about 12 of Berkshire Hathaway in it. Not a bank at all. Plus all of those insurers i want to compare it to technology after the 2000 bubble burst. Very similar, but took even longer this is the march 2000 high in Technology Stocks right here going to try it. This goes up to late2017 it took 17 1 2 years to do there. So by that standard, financials have been very brisk in getting back to a record and mike, clearly, theyve had a great sort of run this quarter, in terms of catchup, but relative to the rest of the s p 500, if you compare it crudely on a p\e basis, still very, very cheap certainly cheap and certainly with a lot of room to move, to really kind of go anywhere near what the overall market has done in other value sectors mike, thanks so much for that after the break, well talk much more about the breaks when we sit down exclusively with Morgan StanleyCeo James Gorman no doubt his thoughts on whether his stock is undervalued or not as well as the broader banking landscape. China, trade, and much more. Plus, chinese fintech stock one connect makes its debut after slashing its ipo size. Well take a closer look at how u. S. Listed Chinese Companies have fared this year and heres a check on our data tracker november retail sales coming up short, rising 0. 2 versus estimates of a gain of half a percent. That excludes autos or when you exclude aus,to sales up just 0. 1 closing bell back after this 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. Im joined now by the Morgan Stanley chairman and ceo, james gorman for an exclusive interview. James, great to see you. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having us, wilf. Great to have you here in person in the Stock Exchange you managed to change all the tickers to Morgan Stanley in the background someone on your team did very well i thought it was always that way. Not quite as we were just discussing, i caught up with some of your peers earlier in the week at a banking conference, and the tone there was very, very positive on the u. S. Consumer, perhaps less so, but coming off the lows for corporate sentiment. Is that how you see things at the moment i mean, its hard to argue with it. Weve got 50year unemployment lows consumer Balance Sheets are in good shape and obviously, the corporate sector, you know, after the tax cut, there was a major surge a little bit of trepidation coming out of the summer with the trade talks escalating and the election discussions obviously creating more uncertainty. So i think the corporate sector has come off a little bit. Consumer remains very strong so, yeah, i saw those interviews and i would agree with them. Do you feel like this phase i trade deal that weve been discussing all day on cnbc, does that drastically improve the outlook for the corporate sector next year . No, drastic it would take a lot more for a drastic improvement. And listen, its good we got a deal, it looks like, or at least some resetting but i think were going to be talking about this for ten years. There are going to be dozens of deals done over the next ten years. In terms of chinas outlook for the year ahead, are you optimistic that it can help their economy as well . Well, you know, china needs to keep growing in aggregate terms, i think it accounts for Something Like 40 of Global Growth its a 12 trillion economy. Percentage wise, its slowing a little bit, but it needs to keep growing. And part of that growth is to have trade taking place with the major industrialized and consumer nations the chinese needs this as much as the americans need it earlier this week, my colleague from david reid from cnbc. Com had a story that said you guys were making quite a few jobs cut gauge for us whether thats perhaps youre increasingly bearish about next year or its part of the usual churn . A little bit of caution were later in the cycle weve had a terrific run for the last several years weve had strong growth. And this was a time to sort of reset the table a little bit so part of it was that part of it was a lot of the investments we made post becoming a bank in our infrastructure have now become business as usual. So were able to cut back on some of those investments, but, listen, you know, i have i hate going through these exercises. I obviously feel tremendously for the folks who are affected by it. But at the end of the day, it was Something Like 2 of our employees, year over year. So, you know, its a big number of individuals and at a personal level, its obviously, you know, a really big event but for Morgan Stanley in the aggregate, its just prudent, you know on the fed, when we sat down for our last interview in june, you said, quote, i personally would be more conservative in cutting rates, because i dont think you want to use your firepower too early. So presumably, you disagree with the cuts weve had since then . Listen, the market priced in those cuts i think there was enough uncertainty in august in particular, in september with at least a cut is deserved. I think were about right right now. I dont see the need for its hard to argue with inflation where it is, with unemployment where it is, with further rate cuts i would hold whatever firepower remains and i think thats what the board of governors just said if we get into some more Morgan Stanley specifics, are you prepared now for a period of evaluated competition and with it pressure on margins within Wealth Management, whether thats because of the broker price wars, the consolidation of schwab td, some reorganizations from your rivals, Jpmorgan Goldman sachs this has been an industry which ive always worked in and been part of for several decades now. Theres always competition theres always something going on the electronic trading going into zero pricing on the equities trades. That was coming, right that was inevitable. No, we have the advantage of being the scale player or one of a couple of scale players in the industry we can make the investments in the technology you need to be world class competitive. And game on. Its not surprising that others are waking up that Wealth Management is a phenomenal business if this recent price war, and you mentioned that you have the scale to invest in the technology, if it was parked by the likes of robin hood entering, who are the ultimately winners . Weirdly, has it kind of played into your hands a little bit it depends on the client segment. Ive always said, if youve got 30,000, you dont and shouldnt have a Financial Adviser you shouldnt have a complex portfolio. You should be invested in an index fund if youve got 30 million, its an entirely different ball of wall and we have over 1 trillion of assets with clients who have at least 10 million, just with us. So theyve got multiples of that in their net worth, so you know, the winners are built around, who is the best in class at whatever the vertical youre working in in our case, full financial advice, workplace marketing through the acquisition, thats where we want to be best in class. In terms of how your clients feel at the moment, do you think theyve got large amounts of risk still to put on the table, or are they fully invested definitely not fully invested have not been very active for several years. Ive been honestly surprised at how muted the trading activity has been among the retail client base theres some sign thats picking up a little bit. I think the trade news, as we get close to the election, the vote in the uk, im sure well talk about that, all of these uncertainties, as they start to fall away, the individual gathers their confidence and i think thats what were starting to see. There was a vote in the uk . Im joking well come back to that a little bit later. In terms of we mentioned schwab td. Schwab has clearly swooped for td whilst they were at depressed price. There were other players out there at depressed price have you considered any of them to help expand your scale . We love the business were in and what were doing we always look at strategic stuff. Thats what youre supposed to do, but we dont do it based upon a point in time pricing transaction. We do we make our strategic choices based on where we want the company to be 10, 20 years from now thats why we bought smith barney back in 2009. We believe that the Wealth Management space was compelling. We wanted scale, we moved quickly. Are you an admirer of e trades corporate stock plan business they have a very good stock plan business, yeah, they do and theyve done a very fis jnib with that. Fidel ty has a great business. There are others out there on the market place and its great its a great way to reach individuals through the workplace. So youll stick with what youve got already in that space . Organically . Were building organically. Were winning business through it honestly, its been, i think this will go down it was a relatively small transaction we paid a lot for it at the time, it was considered expensive for what it was. I think it will go down as a total home run i want to talk about the wework ipo, if i may and you had been touted to be likely one of the leads on that ipo, but then didnt end up being a part of the s1 when it was filed. Why not . Obviously, you know i cant talk about an individual transaction. Were there aspects that you were put off by . That the valuation was too rich or the Corporate Governance wasnt good enough it wouldnt be fair for me to go into that, but clearly there was a misalignment between how a lot of private securities were being priced at and what their public money actually wants to pay for it thats what the ipo process is its what you do and what happens on the Exchange Floor every day. Its finding transparency, matching the buyers and sellers. What founders want to sell their price. And i think thats what happened in this case do you think its marked a turning point where Corporate Governance will now have to be better before an s1 is filed its a fair question. There are always cycles. And you get these spurts of sort of well, greenspan said it best, irrational exuberance. We had it 99 going into that time speeder we had it back in 85 86. There are these corrections. And i think we have a lot of that at some point, longonly investors want to know that the companies around for the longterm are making money and i think theres been some reassessment from that switching focus, i understand you had dinner with Goldman Sachs ceo David Solomon at a restaurant in the west village on the 14th of november. What were you guys discussing . Business or pleasure thats hilarious. Is it true . Were you at the restaurant . Theres no hiding in this city is there a merger that would be great no, davids a great guy. When he became ceo win called him as lloyd did to me when i became ceo were competitors, but we have a lot of things we have to share in common and we said, lets get together for dinner. And he actually picked a restaurant where the maltre d is an aussie from tasmania, which is one of my Favorite Places but Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, as fierce as wall street banks are there are, but youre mates off wall street . Were counterparties, were in a lot of transactions together we have Great Respect for each institution. I have for their leadership. Ive known their ceos going back many years listen, you compete, but youre not unfriendly. We both need both of us to succeed in this marketplace. Its important for exchanges like this for taking Companies Public and the benefit of having a personal relationship is when things do happen between the institutions, its a phone call. Its a very simple phone call and i wish david well. One area where you guys might see eye to eye is when the political spectrum focuses on investment banks and when we spoke in june and i was asking about the spotlight, i said, we are not the problem and went on to say, somebody is always going to find somebody to be angry about six months ago, it felt like tech was the focus i dont think so. I think there are a lot of issues that should be surfaced going you know, will be debated around not just the Financial Sector, the health care sector, technology sector, the energy sector. So, no, corporations are part of the political dialogue i dont think the banks in this particular cycle are especially prominent nor should they be you mentioned the uk election earlier. Does that clear up whether or not Morgan Stanley wants to remain based in london we would always remain based in london. Weve got 5,000 employees there. Weve been there for i think nearly 50 years. Its a huge operation. London is either number one or two most important financial center, as you know, in the world with new york. That was never in question weve moved a couple of hundred employees so far on to the continent. We might eventually move 400 out of 500 ive felt more for the british economy to have clarity around the path forward with brexit, to have a majority government that can be decisive, a set of policies which stand up for Economic Growth. I thought it was constructive. And so you could see that feed into a better european economy next year or just a ukonly economy. I think theres still wilf, i think theyre still interrelated and i think whats good for the uk is going to be good for europe. Lets talk about the stock price. We talked about this last time, as well. Its improved since the summer, particularly the last couple of months, but pricetobook value is still at or just above pricetobook. You set your roe targets, double digit, youre confident of making them. If you do hit those targets for the next three to five years, do you think youll get a much better multiple than youve had for the last 12 months you know, the markets very shortterm can be quite irrational longterm, if you think the markets wrong, youre the problem, right its like the fish in the poker game listen, our stock has had an incredible journey were an 80 billion plus company. At one point in my tenure, i think we were down to 15 billion. So you dont want to complain too much but just rationally, the consistency of earnings, consistency of revenues, wed never had a 10 billion quarter before 2018. Five of the last seven, weve had over 10 billion revenues. And well see what happens with q4 the companys in great shape i personally think the valuations are very low, but ultimately, the markets the judge. In terms of the leadership, your longtime number two Collin Keller announced his retirement earlier in the year. You havent filled the president position yet first, callum did a phenomenal job for us. As my president , just a great guy. Through Morgan Stanleys history, weve had sole president s, dual, and none right now we have none we have a bunch of executives who, i think, are great leaders and were developing and this is giving me a chance without having a president to work directly with them and get more exposure to them and really see what they can do. And im look forward to that and do you see yourself leading the company right through the next full Economic Cycle . Is that going to happen next week or ten years from now . It depends when the cycle is listen, i love doing what im doing, but i serve at the pleasure of the board. I want to develop a team to replace me i have no desire to be here when im 70 years old im 61, i love it. And i tell you what, ill retire when you do. I intend to be working when im 61 theres a little bit of a gap there. James, always a pleasure kaching catching up. James gorman thank you, wilfried after the break, snap has been a wall street darling of late, climbing more than 170 so far one firm says there could be a lot of upside still ahead. Well discuss that and later, zoom media is one of the years standouts of an ipo performer, really. The stock took a hit on the back of earnings. Well discuss with the companys ceo, ahead closing bell is back from the new york Stock Exchange right after this quick break welcome back to closing bell. Time now to get to the word on the street Jmp Securities upgrading snap to outperform with a 20 price target thats after 170 run already this year. The firm is confident in snaps ability to grow its user base, increase engagement, and improve overall monetization jmp also notes that snaps more stable than it was at the beginning of the year. As you can see, the share is up 4. 5 Credit Suisse initiating Sanderson Farms at outperform with 197 price target it says chicken profits should fly to new heights this is due to a rebound in response to african swine fevers impact on pork supplies in china and Argus Research says the shoe retailer benefits from robust Global Demand they believe skechers will continue to develop Innovative Products and expand through new store openings which one do you want to go for here, lindsay . The snap upgrade is interesting. Amazing that were still only at the 20 price target, is the target right i think youve got past the 17 ipo price to see that one take off. But i wanted to talk about skechers there that one, too, is up about 83 i think on a yeartodate basis, its trading at 16. 8 times, which is a premium to its historical multiple. It is impressive, what theyve done from an International Growth perspective, from a Margin Expansion perspective but i think that it might be a little too late. The stock is trading at its 2018 highs. There might be some resistance there. One, theyre expanding internationally. India and china, they say theyre expecting rapid growth there. But also, the fact that they are really investing in directtoconsumer, which is something that weve seen nike expand toward when it remove ed itself from amazon and the like. Does that increase the prospects for this company no, its certainly a positive, but i think its probably already baked into the price. Still to come, weve got your lastchance trade and lindsays taking a closer look across the pond. That call straight ahead and speaking of looking across the pond, Boris Johnson securing an historic win for his conservative party last night. We will discuss the implications for brexit and much more with the former chancellor of the exchequer, Phillip Hammond as we head to break, heres a check in on bonds. U. S. Treasury yields pulling back to close out the week the benchmark tenyear currently yielding around 1. 82 . Gold nice rock. Its time to drop gold. Go digital. Go grayscale. Apple card. Is a new kind of credit card, created by apple, so its simple and transparent with a new level of privacy and security. It lives here and here on your iphone, and it will save you 6 on Holiday Gifts at apple; like iphone, apple watch, airpods pro and so much more. Apply in as little as a minute, right in the wallet app. phone ringing a phones offers big button,ecialized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. , get details on this state program. Call or visit and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state program call or visit welcome back weve got 24 minutes left of the session. Here are the key things driving the action trade, the main factor today and this week. Stocks rallied to near records earlier, but have come down a little bit since the peak of the session. Corporate earnings in focus with sharp moves from the likes of broadcom, oracle, and adobe. And the u. S. Is weighing new 100 tariffs on new european products like whiskey and cognac we are at the moment flat on the dow, so very close to those new alltime highs time for a cnbc news update with sue herrera. Hello, phil phil hello, wilf. I said it backwards. Heres whats happening at this hour Rudy Giuliani was at the white house today, arriving just as the House Judiciary Committee was voting on recommending the impeachment of President Trump the former new york city mayor returned to the u. S. Last saturday after visiting ukraine to gather information on controversial allegations of corruption against joe biden and his son, hunter. And some republican members of the House Judiciary Committee reacting harshly after the house panels vote went along party lines. Representative Louie Gohmert said that the abuse of power was by the House Democrats this is a sad day for the country. Its going nowhere in the senate, but i really hope and pray the senate will not just pick it up and dismiss it. America needs to hear from the witnesses. And we didnt get to hear from them here. This was a kangaroo court. Meantime, family and friends said goodbye to the man who inspired millions of people to douse themselves with ice water, raising more than 200 million for als research pete frates wife and daughter following his casket as pallbearers brought it into the church there were thousands of people that came out to pay their respects you are up to date contessa, back to you and wilf i quite philfred you know, it happens. You know what, its better than will. Well is my pet hate. I shouldnt reveal that. Its all right. Sue, thank you thanks, sue lets send it over. What do you have for us . In a week that saw a very dovish message from the federal reserve, a further decline in the u. S. Dollar and now stage i of some kind of u. S. china trade deal, the question is are the Global Markets potentially heading out of the woods look at this index, three indexes, actually, the s p 500 against the emerging markets index etf, as well as the acwx, all stock markets outside of the u. S. This is now on a onemonth basis. You see, nonu. S. Stocks accelerating and outperforming the s p 500 on a onemonth basis. Its actually been more or less the case for the last couple of months so thats probably a positive sign for global Risk Appetites perhaps the global cyclical trade in a message for the economies. Look, on a oneyear basis, though, where all of these indexes are coming from, it will show you that theres quite a bit of room for those nonu. S. Indexes to make up you had very pretty clear outperformance by the s p 500 for this time. Now you see theyre trying to catch up right here, so i do think that you can make the argument that, in fact, you can have some more performance if the macro picture starts to firm up a little bit. The u. S. Market was really unscathed by the trade war and the global slowdown for the most part maybe as we get relief from some of those issues, its going to be outside the u. S. That maybe sees a greater benefit mike, thanks so much for that lindsay, what do you think about the em dynamic and to what extent is it still the inverse relationship with whatever the u. S. Dollar is doing the dollar, the action of the dollar more recently certainly benefits the emerging markets 100 i also think that youre seeing the move up not just on the trade deal, but global Economic Data, especially manufacturing data starting to turn more positive thats certainly a benefit for that region, too so, i think that theres definitely room for this to grow the u. S. Has outperformed the emerging markets for a very long time at this point we have 20 minutes left of the session. Were currently high by 14, 15 points on the dow. Anything positive for the s p and nasdaq would be another record close coming up next, weve got your last chance trade. Coming up next, shares of sarepta jumping more than 30 in todays session. What the fda says that has the stock soaring. Andtake a look at shares o live nation on track for its worst day of april 2018 on a report that the Justice Department is probing the company for allegedly violating its merger settlement with ticket master. Wel rhtac dont get mad. Get e trade, dawg. vo the flock blindly flying south for the winter. They never stray from their predetermined path. But this season, a more thrilling journey is calling. Defy the laws of human nature. At the season of audi sales event. 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. Is that pgim, we see alpha emerging in the trendsete . Driving specific sectors of outperformance. 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. Every day, 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 lets take a look at todays closing bell big board on top, a look at the major averages below, weve got dow leaders today. American express, visa, apple. Theres also adobe, oracle, and costco moving on their earnings reports, which will hit last night. You can see just slight gains for the major averages overall now we have 16 minutes left to go. I always feel like theyre texting my ability to do subtraction on the fly you got it right there, the full doucountdown. There it is, right there. Thank you for pointing that out. I appreciate it. Its big and orange im always backward timing on the clock. Lindsay, lets talk about last chance trade okay. You know what, i wanted to take a look at the ur, because the uk election lifted an uncertainty about brexit from the market there. And that should help boost growth in that region. Also, youre seeing the talks on china trade here with the u. S. That should benefit the Global Economy overall. Because if growth and demand improves in china, germany should be impacted in a positive way. Valuation, looking at valuation versus the u. S. Stock Market Europe is trading at about a 22 discount to its historical average. Usually it trades at about a 15 discount to the u. S. So theres room to close that gap. I think with Christine Lagarde at the head of the ecb too in waitandsee mode, i think theres potential for stimulus i really like the ability for europe to really close that gap. Definitely a valuation discount the uk point is really interesting. The ftse 100 up a tod percent y but with sterling strengthening, its going to cap what is a fairly International Capture of earnings as we were saying to bob pisani earlier, some of the more domesticfocused uk stocks is whats rallied most of all today. Its kind of pick your exposure to it, but totally get your point on whether there could be a pickup there still to come, well talk more about the uk election with former chancellor of the exchequer, Phillip Hammond but first, this is the last commercial we will take before we head into the close when we come back, we will enter the market zone. Woman friction points, those obstacles that limit a companys growth. 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We are now in the closing bell market zone, commercialfree coverage of all of the action going into the close cnbcs senior markets commentator mike santoli is here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day and today we have lindsay bell for ally invest joining us, as well lets kick things off with trade. The u. S. And china have reached a phase i trade deal the u. S. Has delayed those new tariffs that are supposed to take effect on china in exchange, china will purchase American Farm goods and other goods. National economic counsel director larry kudlow appeared on cnbc earlier today, weighing in on the deal i think this will stabilize the situation. I think this will add some Business Confidence to the situation. I think it will benefit both parties. All right so here we have moodys out with this note saying any improvement in relations between china and the u. S. Likely to be temporary with tensionson both trade and other issues like technology, waxing and waning in the future. Whats the impact as we head into this new year on the markets . The Immediate Impact is the market getting what it wanted in the form of no tariffs additionally on december 15th. To me, that was the reaeeal sole swing factor in this entire thing when it comes to what the market was going to do for the rest of this year. The rollback was handicapped and priced in yesterday. I think the fact that the market is flat, its not really a sell the news, its just more of a, we more or less got what we thought we were probably going to get i dont think anybody is really fully 100 secure, though, that this is final and it is as advertised, or that, in fact, you know, to your point, that it really forestalls tensions down the road and were at record highs already. Lindsay i was just going to say, i also dont think its necessarily going to improve ceo confidence, either theres not really a clear theres not a lot of clarity with this deal, what it means for the future, either i dont necessarily think youre going to see this big bump in capex. Especially, you know, the promises that were won, were hearing now, on chinas part, intellectual property and all of that stuff, it makes it safer to do more business in china. Its not about like more stuff were selling to them, its really more about, you know, businesses here having a better time of it over there. Right nine minutes left of the session. Anything positive for the s p and nasdaq a record high the dow not quite at that level as we stand. One connect is having its first day of trade here at the exchange its the Financial Services arm of chinas biggest insurance company. Lets get to bob softbank, but the pricing discussion was all over the place in the last few days, illustrating how difficult it is to price chinese ipos in this environment. You can see its trading exactly flat right now why is it difficult . Its been a tough, ugly year weve had 22 chinese ipos so far this year. Whats the average return . Down 18 is that good, bad . Its absolutely terrible so overall, u. S. Ipos are up a about 20 on the year. Here we have, obviously, slowing growth in china. Thats not a help. We have trade tension. Thats not helping we have fairly poor performance of the prior ipos that ways on things and we have tighter Regulatory Oversight here in the United States and guys, what may happen, as this continues, youll see even fewer ipos this year than there was in 2018 and fewer than there was in 2008. A alibaba, going over there, the secondary, that was a shot across the bow i guess this could pick up if we get more clarity on the trade deal but they have still come through either way over the course of the year yes, theres no doubt about it its interesting, because a bunch of things are working against this deal. The general skepticism towards these venturebacked deal. Softbank is no longer a selling point, necessarily and the fact that east Chinese Companies have seemed to just kind of shop for a hospitable venue around the world and i think that the u. S. Investor is not necessarily taken with these sarepta therapeutic surging more than 30 today. Meg terrell has those details. A surprise reversal from the fda, aperusing sareptas second drug for muscular dystrophy after rejecting it back in august based on safety concerns. The company had appealed the decision and in a statement today, doug ingram called the fourmonth reversal, quote, unprecedented timing the news seen not only as a positive for sarepta, which investors feared might have been in the doghouse, but also for biogen, which is expected to apply for approval of its alzheimers drug, guys, next year back over grow well, why why would a drug that treats a very rare disease thats mostly affecting children have any impact on a drug that is used to treat alzheimers . Its a great question and a lot of people say there shouldnt be a readthrough, but we have seen analyst notes speculating that bulls will see this as a good sign for biogen just because of fda flexibility, and showing that in the face of pressure, either political pressure or pressure from patients, it will consider approving drugs on less than extremely robust data, which explains the biogen data, too. It will be very interesting to watch next year, guys. Meg, thank you. Five minutes left of the session. November retail sales came in below expectations Courtney Reagan has more on that for us hey, court. So november retail sales up about 0. 2 since october we had expected to see growth of about half a percent so somewhat disappointing. Retail sales are up more than 3 year over year, and if you look at the october growth rate, that was revised up slightly from september. The strongest categories for the month of november, nonstore retailers, thats your online, makes sense, as well as electronics. Health and personal care and clothing, those were the weakest, which sounds a little concerning going into the Holiday Season, but some of the softness was likely due to that very late thanksgiving and black friday and cyber monday actually falling into the december report, so we dont have that yet. Ins instanet said we are not overly concerned. Separately, costco shares are down about 2 after reporting much stronger than expected earnings, seeing some sales pressure from fluctuation in gasoline prices and foreign exchange, though comps were up more than 4 back over to you guys. Court, thanks so much for that i guess thats the november data, of course, we got from the banks this week some insight, if not hard data on how long the consumer has been since then the question is how much has this already priced into the Consumer Sector . The premise has been, the consumer is in good shape. Obviously, the government numbers have not always been very much in line with some of the Public Companies and the other things that investors look at but nonetheless, i think you can argue that its moderated in recent months. And ed with talked a lot before the thanksgiving holiday and plaque friday that this was going to be a shortened Holiday Shopping season. But this number do anything to inform your outlook on the Holiday Retail season . When it is a shorter season, you normally see the november consensus data really underperform, but its made up in december. So i think what we heard from a lot of the retailers that have reported, some of the bank data, credit card data, is telling us that its going to be a strong Holiday Shopping season. How are the two Consumer Sectors set up for 2020 . Do you want discretionary, staples . Im sticking with discretionary, too, because i think the consumer will continue to be the engine of this economy going into 2020. And staples, i think that trade has been played out. All right, mike has more on the market internals today mike, what are you seeing . A little bit soft underfoot, if you look at new york Stock Exchange breadth in terms of stocks versus down right around even, thats not too bad for a market thats also flat in terms of the indexes and also taking a look at the cyclical tone of the market, if you look monthtodate, industrials, small caps have been generally outperforming the overall s p 500. That has remained so for the month, although you see industrials backing off a little bit today. That might be a bit of a sell the news response on the china deal so its sort of in tact, this idea that the market is suggesting a better tone to the economy. The volatility is something i keep checking in on, the vix it has lost a lot of premium today, more than a point going into a weekend this is closer in line to where this should be, given how calm and orderly this rally has been, now that were bleeding away some of that uncertainty the record highs, mike, that we have, weak to date gains are pretty mediocre. Without a doubt, the rally has slowed down. I think it probably does need to digest at some point, whether its nearterm or down the road. Two minutes left of the session. Lets check in on bonds. Rickster reporter yesterday i was all aside about a 30year bond auction, because the price plummeted so much, investors jumped in and they bought it we had three maturities auction this week. Look at a twoday of three year. Look at a twoday of tens, now down seven on the day, auctioned at 182, at 184, its a winner. Look at the 30year bond they bought that at the 230 yield. The yields dropped to 225. These are all winners. Were seeing a record high on the nasdaq and its coming from record highs in the chip stocks. Take a look at this intraday chart. We were all over the place for the week broadcom an outlier, following its earnings analysts a little bit mixed about its strategy going forward. Adobe on the other hand hitting an alltime high following its earnings beat. Apple and microsoft also adding to that alltime high list apple now up 10 of the last 12 weeks, bob its only been down two weeks since august back to you we have a sell on the news situation here this was the minimum that was expected by the market and you can see this in the reaction in banks and industrials. Jpmorgan up almost 1. 5 on the week it is down today same thing with industrials right across the board caterpillar is down today, 0. 9 , yet its up about 2 for the week we are still however ending the week with gains. Stapp 500 up 0. 8 and a rather wild tradedominated week. Federal reserve also involved in that as well we are closing in positive territory on the dow and the s p, just barely back and forth right now. Back to you. Good afternoon welcome to the closing bell. Im wilfred frost. And im Contessa Brewer in for sara eisen today along with mike santoli, cnbcs senior markets commentator lets check in on where the markets closed just positive, it seems. It looks like we fully settled, the s p might be moving up a little bit the nasdaq eking out slightly more gains anything positive is a record high for the nasdaq. Missing out on that act late the s p up 0. 7 . Joining us to talk about the market day, lindsay belle, chief investment strantegist along with John Rutledge and former adviser to the reagan and george w. Bush administrations good to see you all today. Mike, first of all, record highs now on the nasdaq and the s p. The dow edging closer to its record high as well. On a trade headline that mostly made investors go eh the ultimate headline was the minimally acceptable news in terms to how it was agreed to, but i think you have to keep in mind all the market that has done up to this point. S p up 10 in two months weve been setting aside one fear or hurdle after the other whether its recession, the yield curve, the kind of repo market anything that was thrown into the pile of things to be concerned about. Mostly has been swept aside. I think thats how we got here i dont think the trade deal, you know, kind of whether it happened or not was going to determine the real ultimate trend of where this market goes, but it definitely could have undercut if we got nothing and we have a we would have pulled back for shore. John, should the market have rallied more on todays news i dont think so. The question is whats the definition of a new york minute . The time between announcing the impeachment result and the announcement of the trade deal and so we today we saw a lot of politics. You know, its good that we have a deal i dont want to poohpooh that, but its also true that theres not much in this other than buy a few soybeans its very important when deals are announced like this to read both press releases. The u. S. Press release makes this look like a major victory the Chinese Press conference was not very clear at all, if anything, has been agreed. So not much news here. So going into the final week before the christmas holiday, lindsay, what do you think could move the markets even higher and the dow past its record . You know, were entering in a really slow period low volumes are going to be happening over the next couple of weeks and everything. But i think that we really need to Pay Attention to the Economic Data that comes out, the few earnings that are going to come out as well could give us tells into whether Earnings Growth or Economic Data is going into the new year thats really what we need to see catch up to that 18 times p\e multiple that the s p 500 is currently trading at last hour, i sat down with Morgan Stanley chairman and Ceo James Gorman and asked him about whether Morgan Stanleys clients are fully invested in the market. Definitely not fully invested, have not been very active for several years ive been honestly surprised at how muted the trading activity has been among the retail client base theres some sign thats picking up a little bit. Gorman along with other Bank Executives have been on the show throughout the course of the week, talking about the state of the economy. Were pretty constructive on the overall economy. Especially in the United States. The economy feels like it might be accelerating again. U. S. Consumers are employed, wages a growing. And its a terrific wind in the sails of the u. S. Economy. I think the corporate sector has come off a little bit. Consumer remains very strong i saw those interviews and i would agree with them. I think its interesting, because that overall sentiment of strong consumer, corporate sector not as strong, but perhaps off the lows, we discussed the whole time, it feels like its priced in and the markets well aware of that. But you take the first point from james gorman and estill seems to imply that theres a lot of cash on the sidelines for a lot of Retail Investors that can still push us higher if its deployed i think these big institutions have massive consumer client bases view the situation as very stable there are cushions in the consumer Balance Sheet right now. So that basically buffers anything, but also leaves the possibility of spending and growth the corporate side, if it does pick up at all, that has an outsized effect on what stocks do because the consumer is a little bit more steady state in spending and at this point, the corporate swing factor is probably more droumamatic john, mike eloquently ran down all the list of factors that have been removed that were hanging over concern we have more clarity on brexit at this point. We have at least the announcement of a phase i trade deal with china. Are there any pockets of concern that youre holding back a little bit to say, ive got to flag that, because that could be a problem next year . Sure. When problems happen, they always arrive in the asset market, not in the gdp whether theres a gdp up or down really isnt the most important question there, the ceo is whether they do Capital Spending. We have a little more uncertainty ahead. That will help Capital Spending in both europe and brexit or in the uk i think the brexit is a much more important thing today than the uk yesterday i was in abu dhabi and there the interesting question was whether there are one or two sheriffs in town now its pretty clear from the emerging market guys that they understand that there are two major countries in the world w now, so well have an opportunity for some emerging Market Information thats interesting following this no tariff announcement. What do you think about the broader developed world outside of the u. S. . Do you think theres going to be a pickup in 2020, whether were talking about japan or the eurozone john sorry, i couldnt hear if that was addressed to me i think youll see some pickup in the uk following whatever happens with brexit. I think the aramco ipo will give us more stable prices to work with the real growth is in the rest of asia, because as Companies Move supply chain from china, vietnam, cambodia, et cetera, it does a lot for their growth. I think thats where the growth will be. Theres also some explanation. China inflation is four and a half i think we should stop talking about deflation and Start Talking about rising prices. Interesting so john, lindsay, stay with us lets get back to bob pisani for a look at the biggest movers of the week bob . The important thing here is sell on the news a little today. Industrial, semiconductor, apparel, generally up on the week, down today take a look at Illinois Tool Works. Great stock doing well, down 0. 8 today 1 and up about 2 for the week amd, advanced micro, down notably today. We saw some weakness overall in all the semis, down 3 up 4 for the week and in apparel, same situation the gap was down about 2 today and up about 2 overall for the week i think the wellfounded skepticism here is this a genuine deescalation in the trade war or is there a fairly high likelihood that tariffs will come back so yes, sell on the news and a little bit of skepticism on the future of tariffs. Back to you. Bob, thank you for that i wouldnt deny that theres still a little bit of an undertone of skepticism. But if you were smart enough to be bullish in the last three months of the market the fed will get out of the way. Everything has happened. Its a pretty natural time either step back or not really buy any further, because really, what you have from here on out is just seasonal tail winds and not much more to look forward to lindsay, does it mean that next year its all down to earnings again i think thats going to be important, but its an election year, so thats going to drive a lot of the different sectors and whats going to drive the market higher or sideways specifically, are there specifics that you would be looking for that you would make the play or pull back a little bit in terms of who the candidates are, what they say . Well, you know, i think its really first and foremost, its going to come down to two the democratic nominee is. So from there, well have a reaction the market will react to that first and then we have to get to the election in november john, what do you think about the political situation and how it influences business and investment in the year to come well, everybody around the world is asking what happens if trump is not elected next year i ran into it in the middle east over the last few days, regarding iran and saudi arabia. But i really think the big wild card from the election is the tax rate the tax cut itself raised earnings by 10 . Current projections of earnings next year are exactly 0. Minus 0. 3. The last number i saw. If you saw President Trump losing the election ahead of time, you would also see people being anticipating a rise in a tax rate so thats the biggest risk as you lead up to the election is projected tax rates in 2021. All right John Rutledge, thank you very much lindsay bell, thank you for joining us today still to come, shares of zoom media up more than 75 since going public in april, but the stock took a hit last week on concerns over slowing growth well discuss with the companys ceo, next. Closing bell is back in 90 seconds. 2019 has been a rocky year for tech ipos, but one of the bright spots has been zoom video. The stock is up more than 70 since its april debut. It did take a dip last week after its Quarterly Report revealed slowing growth. Zoom is now trading near where it closed on its first day joining us now is zoom founder and ceo, eric yuan eric, good to see you today. Thank you so much. Do you think its your performance postipo, one of the bright spots that weve seen, that leads investors to i dont know, do you think they have unrealistically High Expectations for your company . Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me. I think in terms of the stock price up and down, for the time being, i think we do not focus on that. I choose to believe that we have a much Better Future in i think if our shareholders, you know, hold the stock, i think it would get a payoff in the future and for now, im thinking really hard to look at a stock price up and down every day its really hard eric, since this is our first time speaking to you on closing bell, i wanted to go back to the stock. So what is it that you think that makes your product unique to the other comparable rifles out there . So our product just works no matter where you are, no matter what kind of device you are using, it just works and also, quality, ease of use, architecture, the customer really enjoyed using zoom. And i wonder, therefore, given that, eric, whether you see a kind of comparison between yourselves and slack in that you have this free model that you try to sign bigger customers to. You offer a service that there are definitely some Big Tech Companies trying to do something similar, but you both think that what you do is unique despite the microsofts of this world doing something similar. In terms of our business model, slack and zoom, very similar. By the way, slack is a great customer, also a great partner i think the market is very, you know, huge, right. We do the future of communication. We do the new voice. Thats our focus, right . Even if microsoft, they have a loss of customers in the enterprise space we also have attraction in the enterprise, not to mention so many s p customers, so many high customers, they like the best service like zoom, like slack. Your Company Points out that zooms International Growth is growing at 98 what kind of investments do you have to make to expand your International Footprint . Thats a great question if you look at our international revenue, we make 25 of today. A huge opportunity ahead of us and for now, our revenues, actually from north American Market and next year, were going to double our International Growth. Thats why i think we have a brighter future. Eric, i wanted to ask you whether or not a recession is in fact a benefit for zoom. If you see Economic Growth fall, and with it, Corporate Travel fall, does that play into your hands . I think, you know, if theres a recession, hopefully never have a recession and for sure,right, zoom th truth is like zoom can help. And even, today, you know, almost every customer has a consumer workforce how to make sure employees all over the world are working together, to get the job done. Zoom can truly help. What about the hong kong protests, erik i read one report that suggested in hong kong with clients in hong kong, youve seen a big pickup in volume of use given the protests and therefore perhaps the fall inform level of travel that some corporates have done to the region so our first repeat customer is Stanford University you look at the top 200 nationwide universities, 93 , 94 are already using zoom and a lot of universities, in hong kong, they are using zoom thats the reason why you see a little bit, you know, the usage, recently i want to ask you about the ipo. Clearly, as you mentioned, you have outperformed a lot of your peers on the ipo market last year what did you do differently than them and what would your advice be to companies that are thinking about going publicly next year i think, i did not go to the i ipo, i used zoom in the future, everybody company who wanted to go to ipo, just use zoom it saved me a lot of time. And when i go to new york, on the last day for ring the bell, im i think the truth is zoom can really help. By the way, i think the market is great wherever your company is ready, i think this is a great experience eric, thanks so much for joining us great to speak with you as always my pleasure thank. Eric yuan of zoom coming up next, we will break down the charts to find out if the weak start to the Holiday Shopping season is a warning sign for investors in the market plus, former chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond reacts to Boris Johnsons big brexit win as we head out, a look at how markets finished the day higher for all of the major averages or the big three major averages, at least, or only fractionally so for the dow and s p. Enough for recordclosing highs for the s p and nasdaq nus. Colef in a up o mite dont go anywhere. Welcome back lets get over to mike for the third sblauinstallment of todays dashboard. Mike just asking right now, if its time to calm down a little bit about the strength of the consumer we were talking earlier about that november retail sales report from the government i want did show a little bit of a disappointing trend last month. Heres a longer trend look at the growth rate in retail sales and some of the subcomponents. This is a threemonth average of the growth rate. The total, excluding automobiles. And the socalled retail sales control group. Its an attempt to get a the core retail sales, excluding things like cars, gasoline, businesstype purchases, as well you see here just above the flat line on a threemonth average basis. I would point out weve been around here before, right . We have, first of all, extremely strong growth earlier this year. So were clearly not a lot of pentup demand by this measure also, generally stronger results. We have been down here, where weve had some of these interim periods where you did go down near the flat line nothing necessarily to worry about the overall trend. Look at how the sector has performed. The rth is a market cap weighted version of the Retail Sector the xlt is equal weighted. Meaning the unsuccessful chain retailers have just as much weight as the big guys this is a twoyear look. The market is saying, retail seems okay for now, especially the large dominant ones like a walmart, amazon, home depot that are in that rth. And the data we got, we discussed this, suggest that the Holiday Season can lend a little bit of a pickup. You should see some deceleration in december probably not blockbuster, but probably good enough to get the gdp numbers to stick around that 2 level this quarter. Mike, thanks so much. Now an update we did earlier this week on jpmorgan facing charges of racism at a branch in arizona. Earlier in the week, the New York Times published an investigation that alleged one of the banks africanamerican clients was told he wouldnt be offered Certain Services because of his race. Today, Ceo Jamie Dimon is taking the opportunity to respond on an internal memo that i have obtained it says, quote, im disgusted by racism and hate in any form. Any such behavior explicit or vail israeli veiled, deliberate or unconscious is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as a country and how we serve our clients and Community Every day. We have done some great work on diversity and inclusion, but its not enough. Ive instructed my Management Team to continually look into our policies, procedures, Management Practices and culture to set and achieve the highest possible standards there is always more that we can do guys, we discussed this earlier in the week and said how this the New York Times had brought this to them and there was a sense of huge discomfort and how terrible it was and this had taken them by surprise clearly its reached the top clearly, theyre investigating it further as chairman and Ceo Jamie Dimon saying its unacceptable, even if its one instance the thing to watch for now is if they investigate, if theres anymore instances of this sflp and we saw this with starbucks, too. When you have a highprofile incident, when you see head of the company come out, both internally and we saw it externally as well, that there was a real effort to try to get ahead of any further deterioration in brand absolutely. Jumping on top of it well keep you updated on any further developments on that story. Up next, we will get the outlook for a possible trade deal between the u. S. And tuck when we speak to the former chancellor of the exchequer of the uk, Philip Hammond plus, taylor swift celebrates her 30th birthday by sounding off against the private Equity Industry for buying the rights to heold r music. Those details later on closing bell. Donald trump failed as a businessman. He borrowed billions and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. He hasnt changed. I started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. Im tom steyer and i approve this message. Im running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is a fraud and a failure. vo thewith every attempt, strto free itself,piders web. It only becomes more entangled. 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Every day, 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 lets have a look at the closing bell big board on top, major averages finishing close to flat, but positive. That was enough for a record close again for the s p and the nasdaq the dow still a little way off its own recent high. You can also see todays bestperforming sectors, which were utilities, technology, and staples, and the worstperforming sectors, energy, materials, and financials lets get a cnbc news update now with sue herrera hello, contessa, heres whats happening at this hour. Delegates from almost 200 countries are working to finalize a climate agreement in the final hours of the Climate Summit in madrid the coordinator of that summit telling journalists at a News Conference that officials will work into the night to resolve any outstanding issues we are still confident that we can arrive at an agreement today, but maybe we arrive at a general agreement on article, a principle agreement, and leave a technicality for some intersessional period, maybe but its not something that we are entertaining at the moment actress sally field was arrested at jane fondas most recent Climate Change rally in washington 26 adults including field were arrested on capitol hill during the rally after Police Responded to unlawful demonstration activity and the flu activity across the country continues to rise. The cdc says 23 states are reporting widespread activity. Health Officials Say the best way to prevent the flu is through the flu vaccine. You are up to date thats the news update this hour ill send it back downtown to you dpguys wilf sue, thank you very much. Have a lovely weekend. The pound rallying today on the heels of a big victory for british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson. His conservative party having its best general election result since 1987 now attention turns to what this means for the Global Market and the economy going forward. Take a listen here to Morgan Stanley, chairman and ceo last hour james gorman on the topic. I felt more for the british economy to have clarity around the path forward on brexit to have a majority government that can be decisive, a set of policies, which i think will stand up for Economic Growth i thought it was constructive. For more on the election results, lets bring in Philip Hammond, former uk chancellor of the exchequer and joins us here on set good afternoon, philip good afternoon. Well get to potentially the economic impact, but firstly, how surprised were you by the extent of. Boris johnsons victory it was an astonishing victory. I predicted that boris would win somewhere between a 20 and 40seat majority, but to get it more than double that. Do you think he goes harder or softer . Ive been saying for the last six weeks of this campaign that i think boris is going to win and for somebodylike me who believes that the uk needs to leave the european union, to retain a close trading relationship, close security relationship would be the bigger the majority, the better because it gives boris the authority, gives him the selfconfidence, gives him the Political Capital to be able to move forward in a way thats in the best interests of the country without being able to look over his shoulder all the time the eus chief negotiator has said in a leaked recording obtained by the independent has said that there was no way they could get a deal done in 2020. Does that matter is there a timeline that you think should happen for a successful brexit . Well, thats the next challenge. Because there is, of course, a timeline theres a hard stop at the end of 2020, and thats the uk asks for an extension in june and after this initial euphoria, people will start to recognize that there are two more potential cliff edges for us in 2020 the sooner the government can get to some clarity, obviously, in discussion with the eu about how were going to manage that process and maybe its an interim, relatively simple trade deal that only lasts for two or three years, but allows us a bit more time to work out the fullblown, longterm trade deal, Something Like that might work it will need the eu to be a bit more flexible than theyve suggested in the past. But you know, talking to people across the eu, what im hearing is that they do get that Boris Johnsons very large margin of victory means that a, theyve got somebody to negotiate with who can actually deliver, and b, that they are going to have perhaps be a little bit more flexible in engaging they can afford to feel a little bit more selfconfident. Three years on, the eu is still in tact. No one else is threatening to leave. The economic consequences of a trade split with the uk would be pretty serious for a european economy thats already showing some weakness. So there are lots of reasons on both sides to try to get a good deal in place. And if we cant do it by the end of 2020, at least to get some kind of interim deal in place. What do you think a good deal looks like the main feature from the uks point of view is to keep open our border to the flow of goods between the eu and the uk, but it also has to allow uk services to continue to be traded into the eu why . Because the eu is running 100 billion pounds a year trade surplusing goods with the uk and we offset that with about a 40 billion surplus in services. It would be very difficult for the uk to do a deal that was focused on goods only, without access for our services. The way the markets have responded, it would seem to support the idea that 3 1 2 years later, investors have made their peace with this situation, or theres been a kind of moving closer to a workable outcome do you think the markets at all are looking beyond some of those potential cliff edges that you mentioned or have we gotten it right here, that its a manageable process i think there were two things going on in terms of the markets. I think there was fear of a disorderly brexit. But there was also a big fear of corbin at a corporate level, youve seen today, a big rally in stocks of companies that were threatened with nationalization by a corbin government but you have to remember as well that for the Decision Makers around many of these businesses, the corbin impact on their personal wealth would have been probably as big as the Brexit Impact could have been on their corporate wellbeing they kind of conflicted some of them in terms of their agenda. Look, the corbin threat is gone. We can say pretty definitively now that that threat is dead the risk of a Nodeal Brexit hasnt been removed altogether, but it must have very substantially diminished and i really hope that over the next weeks, were going to see Boris Johnson seizing the initiative and being clear that he isgoing to use the power he now has that does focus on brekting british Living Standards going forward. Do you think theres any read across for the u. S. Election next year in particular, that failure of Jeremy Corbyn i think there is. Look, the message is that voters in mature democracy are very wary of people making left wing pitches with all sorts of promises that strike voters as undeliverable. Weve seen that it hasnt worked for corbin and im sure there will be plenty of people here wanting to draw the analogy that it cant work here you know, weve got a lot of people feeling that the economy is not offering them opportunity at the moment. And theres always a temptation to reach for redistributive politics when your own personal opportunity looks cut off. Weve got to get people back feeling that there are opportunities for them that they can see real wage growth for themselves. And then i think the attraction of redistributive politics will fade i want to talk very quickly about the different perspective that perhaps a country like the United Kingdom has towards china than the United States does, particularly under the Trump Administration does the uk have a more constructive view of where that relationship could go . And why . First of all, we should all be very pleased about the moves to create a first stage trade deal anything that reduces the tension has got to be good for the Global Economy and for a very open trading economy like the uk its very good news for us but look, we have always had a slightly different perspective on china the chinese economy is the second largest in the world. Were a mediumsized open trading economy. We have to be able to trade with china, just as we trade with the u. S. And with the eu and the really terrifying prospect for a country like the uk is that the worlds two largest economies, china and the u. S. , are going to try to force their trading partners to choose between them we dont want to choose. We want to have the traditional very strong, very Good Relationship that weve always had with the u. S. , but we also want to be able to trade with the emerging markets like china as well. So, yeah, we do have ad nuancedh to china and of course we dont have the same strategic issue with china that the u. S. Unavoidably has. Do you think the muchtouted u. S. uk trade deal will be possible look, maybe im an outlier here, but i have never believed that it is going to be very easy to do a uk u. S. Trade deal because of the pattern of trade we already have, we already have very successful trade together, but also because of some of the issues that we saw coming up during the negotiations. There is quite a strong feeling among uk consumers about u. S. Animal welfare and agricultural standards. And we know, because weve been repeatedly told, that access for u. S. Agricultural products is going to be at the top of the agenda in any u. S. uk trade talks. I think its going to be very difficult to persuade uk consumers to accept that and i think its going to be very difficult to persuade the u. S. Congress to do a trade deal that doesnt include liberated access for u. S. Farm. Thank you so much for being here former uk chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond. Taylor swift apparently cant shake it off when it comes to a private equity firm buying her old music. Lately theres been a new shift that has affected me personally and that i feel is a potentially harmful force in our industry and that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate. Up next, the latest details on her battle against the private Equity Industry. Plus, more than 137 million americans are racking up crippling debt to pay for medical bills. Find out what can be done to help fix this medical debt crisis, later on closing bell. So what are you working on . Im searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like im just wasting time. Wasted time is wasted opportunity. Exactly. Thats why Td Ameritrade designed a firstofitskind, personalized education center. See, you just oh, this is easy. Yeah, and thats oh, just what i need. Courses on options trading, webcasts, tutorials. Yeah. Their awardwinning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. And it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. So its like my streaming service. Well exactly. Well except now, youre binge learning. Oh, i like that. Thank you, i just came up with that. Youre funny. Learn fast with the Td Ameritrade education center. Call 8662967451 or visit tdameritrade. Com learn. Get started today, and for a limited time, get up to 800 when you open and fund an account. Thats 8662967451, or tdameritrade. Com learn. phone ringing a phones offers big button,ecialized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. , get details on this state program. Call or visit and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state program call or visit we have some Supreme Court news that can have a big impact on President Trump here. Eamon javers has those details what have you learned, eamon contessa, thats right. President trump will get his day at the Supreme Court nbc newss Pete Williams is reporting that the Supreme Court has agreed today to take up the president s appeals of a number of cases involving access to his financial records. Pete williams reporting that the Supreme Court will take up three cases. The timeline here would be that they would hear these cases as early as march, potentially having a decision in june, which could effect the president ial election next year a couple of cases that are at issue here one involves a Lower Court Ruling requiring access by the president s Accounting Firm to his tax records. Thats a subpoena by the manhattan district attorney, cyrus vance. Theyre looking for nearly a decade worth of the president s tax returns and other financial documents. The other item at issue here is Court Battles over subpoenas issued by house committees, seeking financial documents from accountants and two banks. Deutsche bank and capital one. All of that headed to the Supreme Court with a decision possible by early summer, contessa all right, eamon, thank for that switching focus, taylor swift ringing in her 30th birthday in a big way. The pop star accepting the award for billboards woman of the decade last night. And in her speech called out the private Equity Industry. The unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate. As if its an app or a shoe line my entire catalog was sold to scooter brauns Ithaca Holding in a deal im told was funded by the soros family, 23 capital, and the carlyle group. Yet to this day, none of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly, to perform their Due Diligence on their investment, on their investment in me swifts speech just days after i sat down with carlyles coceo and asked him about the firms investment in swifts master recordings. Shes an incredibly talented performer and wonderful artist im not involved in the daytoday of all of our portfolio companies, but we have a talented, really strong team at carlyle working with a great Management Team at the Portfolio Company level. And ive got every confidence in the world that its going to turn out to be a successful investment i actually when we did this interview earlier in the week was a little surprised his main point back was hes confident that the investment will be successful, because thats not really whats been at debate but also, fair enough, if thats what he wanted to focus on, of course the other point on that is i wonder if it will be as successful as they originally thought if she rerecords her masters, clearly, that reduces the value of the masters that they own whether or not its still above water or not, its very hard to know especially if she engenders some support from her fans who say, im going to go out and im going to buy this and im not going to do x, y z. The other interesting thing is she mentioned she was willing to pay a lot of money for her catalog. And im surprised, if you that you couldnt go back to her and do a bidding war like say, well, this is what this is what this Investment Group is ready to pay. What are you willing to pay for your she said she never got that chance. Right and i would say having spoken to some people on both sides of this, there is a gap in terms of what both sides are saying has gone on here whether or not there was a full opportunity given to all potential buyers or not. And also, since this thing has erupted, that point of nobody is sitting down to discuss it face to face. Again, its very unclear and very hard to be certain whether those types of meetings have been offered by either side. If you have financial owners, private equity that views those cash flows as a equivalent to any other type of cash flow or any other type of asset, it would probably be a very high price. Because every asset based on a cash flow is very highly valued right now. All right up next, netflix feeling the heat a new report by the Washington Post says the company is sending journalists who vote on key industry awards, theyre sending them on pricey trips is that ethical . Llg fallout ahead on closin be. At leaf blowers. 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. Lets send it over to mike santoli for his final dashboard of the day with not an obvious theme at all, mike well, its obvious to some. I tried to do honors to the day. Obviously, taylor swifts song and the occasion of her birthday, which is not a National Holiday yet next year we forgot to make this loud and clear. Happy birthday we just discussed the story and we should have said happy birthday she wasnt probably watching. Maybe she likes closing bel bell. Well, wildest dreams, investors are kind of living them a lot of weeks we take a look at this indicator, bank of america puts out this bull bear indicator. Its a composite, lots of different factors maintain to gauge the Risk Appetite and mood of investors and what you see here, its at an 18month high, which doesnt say that much, because it has not gotten to much bullish extremes over the last year and a half people are getting a little more comfortable or speculative a lot of folks are talking about how the finish to this year, talking about how this meltoff or blowoff top it would look Something Like that at the end of 2017 into 2018 at that point, maybe the market would be more stretched and vulnerable at that point, its not really gotten too much of a head of steam to the upside. Well see if that happens. Mike, medical bills. E key steps to take in order to improve your situation, when we return. Do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging . Prevagen is the number one pharmacistrecommended memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. But he wanted snow for thelace holidays. So we built a snow globe. Ill get that later. Dylan but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. What . Switching and saving was really easy i love you what . Sweetie hands off the glass. Ugh call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. I love her former fda commissioner Scott Gottlieb appearing on cnbc earlier today giving his take on the cost of health care. There is patients facing hardships here i think whats happened in recent yes years is more find themselves underinsured for drugs. When you look at the price of drugs its not increasing that much whats happening is more and more patients are out of pocket for the drug spend and more tide to the list price that isnt the price the health plans are paying. Its common for many to go into debt this time of year and for many its thanks to medical bills. Sharon epperson join us more on that story hi, sharon. Hi, wilf. A recent report found more than 173 million americans face Financial Hardship because of medical debt making the rising cost of health care a hot button issue on the 2020 campaign trail. There is two pieces to this everybody worries about. What is my premium and whats the deductable. Tense of millions of american struggling to pay medical bills. 500,000 people go bankrupt because of medically related issues to pay the bills, many are turning to credit cards. According to compare cards. Com, 33 of card holders are in debt because of medical bills and nearly 6 oh said they used a card because they had no other way to pay if you are saddled with debt you need to take action. Reach out to the doctor or hospital to see if they negotiate the charges. Get on a payment plan which will break down the bill into affordable monthly installments. Many hospitals let you spread this them out over a period of time and often wont charge as long as you make payments. If you have debt upon a high interest credit card, transfer the balance to a zero percent or lower rate card. If it seems too much or health perceptives you handling bills consider a medical billing advocate who might charge a fee but will work on your behalf but you can check out a medical credit card used to cover specific medical expenses and may be interest free a few months but after that be sure to pay off the full balance balance to avoid deferred interest. Another alternative is to take out a personal loan preponderates are generally lower than credit cards. Can you find out more on cnbc. Com your moneyio your future. Thank you, for that up next the buzz oh on wall street all the stories having the investors talking today, including two big tech names today. Well break them down for you when closing bell comes back um houston, weve had a problem its human nature to hate problems. But why is that . Problems inspire us to rewrite the rule books. The history books and future books. Thats why so many people work with ibm on everything from city traffic to ocean plastic. From flight delays to food safety. Problems even got us to the moon and back on one tank of gas. And who knows where theyll take us next. [maniacal laughter] and who knows where theyll take us next. 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. Oh, ho oh, ho, ho, ho you. You got me. Uh, what do you want . Ive got uh, ai robots, ive got vr goggles. I want your sled, please. No. [ chuckles ] timmy. Itd be a shame if this went viral. For those who never compromise. The mercedesbenz winter event. Whoa. He was pretty good this year. Woman friction points, those obstacles that limit a companys growth. I try to find companies that turn these challenges into opportunities. Its these unique companies with Creative Business models that will generate value for our investors. Thats why i go beyond the numbers. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Welcome back time for buzz on wall street first up, the Washington Post reporting that netflix has been sending journalists who vote on awards like the Critic Choice award on expensive paid trips. They say its another example of Cash Rich Companies to unend boundaries netflix hosting members of the media as news junkets is a longstanding practice and one that all studios use. Second, apple offering free again etic activities to Silicon Valley employees they set up ac wellness for employees and dependents near the headquarters to recruit and retain employees. And finally 2019 has seen a record revolving door in the c suite. More than 1400 ceos left jobs. Thats a high dating back to 2008 to challenger ray and christmas. Feeling skrept cal. Me to out of time. Fast money begins right now. All right. Live from the Nasdaq Market site overlooking the rainy times square in new york, this is fast money. Im Brian Sullivan your traders tonight on the desk are tim seymour, steve grasso, brian kelly and dan prime rib nathan tonight on fast money, a with wild ride on wall street new records all around but with the big hangups seemingly out of the way where does your money go from here plus the weaker retail sales number spooking bulls . But was the number as bad as some think is the american shopper alive and well we find out later. Your chart of the week