Biggest loser. You just heard from courtney, after missing on earnings and slashing that forecast joining us for the full first hour, wealth management. Josh, as we just mentioned, fedex down a full 10 on earnings whats your take on that its important to point out that this trend in fedex stock actually began in january 2018 its been falling almost two years straight with very little respite on the way down. At this point, i think the answer, what you do with fedex, differs if youre a trader or an investor if youre a trader, youre not buying the stock i dont think theres any Material Support looking back at a tenyear chart until about 119, 120 that was prior resistance. It broke out it has retested that level before successfully. Thats where i would look at a tradeable bottom were not quite there yet. If youre an investor, you have to look at this moment to say this is maybe conceivably the most confluence of events. Having trouble integrating the tnt acquisition, thats a headwind theres an industrial recession. I dont know if you heard about this its being masked by new alltime highs in the dow jones. Things are not going well in the businesstobusiness parcel realm. Thats a headwind. International trade slowing down its not great so youve got those things youve got the amazon thing. Were still not quite sure what that would do. And last the thing thats been masking this industrial and manufacturing slowdown is the shrink from the consumer ecommerce has never been better the problem is that the floor in what you need to do to compete in that business has gone higher now its seven days a week now its last mile now its i want this thing right this second. And fedex is still in this transition period before they can get to that point where they can do it not only effectively but profitably margins will collapse. Theyre not sugar coating it at all. Theyre telling you this looks like a bottom to us. It may not be. If youre an investor, its worth taking the risk. Its worth saying, you know what i might be 20 points early but ive been waiting for the stock to come down to this level i would be a buyer with a three to fiveyear outlook. Lets take a pause on fedex and take a look at one of the other big stories on the nations consciousness today turn to impeachment and turn on the market ylan mui has the latest on where that process stands. Steve liesman is looking at how americans view the trump economy and mike santoli zeros in on the impact lets start with ylan in washington ylan contessa, the house is now in its final hour of debate on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power it will then move on to three more hours of debate on whether President Trump obstructed Congress House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will preside over the final votes of articles later tonight she has slowly and carefully built the support of her caucus around this vulnerable moderate to rapidly fallen in line over the past week but on the floor this afternoon, republicans laid responsibility for impeachment directly at pelosis feet. To my democrat colleagues, madam chair, i say, please stop tearing the country apart. Stop this sham. Democrats argue that they have been forced into action. We cannot rely on the next election as a remedy for president ial misconduct when the president threatens the very integrity of that election he has shown us he will continue to put his selfish interests above the good of the country. We must act without delay. Guys, we will keep tracking the debate on the floor and keep you updated of when the final vote might happen. Back to you. Ylan, thank you for that. Steve liesman next with the new survey, which will look at how americans view impeachment and the president s handling of the economy so far steve . Thanks. The nation solidly split on the issue of impeachment as the house moved toward that view today. The cnbc economic poll of 800 americans nationwide finds 44 believing that congress should impeach the president. 45 do not the president jumps economic and overall Approval Ratings rebound from the hit they took in september. Take a look. 49 of the public approve of President Trumps handling of the economy while 45 disapprove just as the impeachment process began. President s economic approval numbers fell under water for the first time however, 49 disapprove of the overall job. Still the same americans approve of the trump economy but not necessarily have the same thoughts about the trump presidency. Steve, the situation today thats got him those results in voters minds on the economy, are they likely to improve from here to election day if that china trade deal goes through . You know, americans have not necessarily supported the trade deal but only in the latest poll, wilf, since you ask, have they shown more support than in the past for the tariffs that were out there i dont think the average american is judging based on that the economic numbers could improve. But overall, americans views on the outlook, jobs and wages are running pretty high these days its a good time to be running high as we go into the Christmas Shopping season. Okay. Steve, thank you for that. Pleasure. Lets get over to mike santoli for how the impeachment could affect the election. Mike contessa, thats the question impeachment not considered to be a chance of actually removing the president. Its all about what the market determines is the potential effect and who will prevail in less than 11 months. Here is the predicted betting marks. Current quote for President Trumps likelihood of winning the 2020 election. This is real money people actually betting, the wisdom of crowds of course, its not authoritative. This encompasses the entire period of the impeachment inquiry. A pretty narrow band this is not specifically a 48 chance the president wins. Obviously theres friction in this market. Theres a fee you have to pay to win a dollar its 48 cents to win a dollar to win 2020 a related bet, which is which party will win the 2020 election its the same kind of prediction markets. You see again republican chances, President Trumps chances have improved but its still virtually a tossup. I guess i would say one more thing, which is given the Economic Conditions and given the fact that almost all firstterm president s win reelection, especially when unemployment is low and conditions are improving, its a close election and clearly shows a divided populous out there if anything, the president is faring better than when the process started. Mike, to your point, specifically on the betting on the individual person as opposed to the party, given that the democratic field is still so divided, so unsettled, you may have expected the odds for the president to be slightly shorter, slightly more favorable, given all those economic factors you also mentioned. Exactly and the prospects have been amazingly stable matter of fact his approval, disApproval Ratings have been amazingly stable not a lot thats gone on has budged really any of that swing factor inside any of these polls or other measures. All right. Okay. Thanks, mike. Now some breaking news. Scott cohen has the details for us hi, scott. Hi, wilf. Bernie ebbers presided over the biggest accounting fraud, collapse of worldcom, sentenced to a lifetime in prison back in 2005 a 25year prison sentence. Will he now get out of prison after serving 13 years of that sentence he is 78 years old and rapidly declining health his attorney, graham carter, argued in court that ebbers essentially has already served that life sentence he has literally no quality of life left e he will go to live with family in mississippi much of that family was in that court today, breaking down in tears as the judge made that ruling the government argued in terms of general deterrence, cutting a whitecollar criminals sentence in half for a fraud that have magnitude was not right. The judge, valerie peroni, said she heard from many, many victims, some who still have not bounced back from the collapse of worldcom in 2002 and said if keeping him in jail would get them their money back, it would be an easy decision. Of course, that would not be the case she thought it was compassionate now to release him from prison that will presumably happen very soon his attorney saying ebbers quality of life will not be much and there will not be much time left for him he is 78 years old guys scott, thanks so much for that. Still ahead here on the closing bell, impeachment isnt the only thing President Trump is thinking about, as he once again takes a swipe at the fed on twitter well discuss with tom barkin, thats coming up next. Later netflix is release in show per day original content and whether users are switching to disney plus whatd we decide on the flyers again . Uh, fifteen minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. I think were gonna swap over to over seventyfive years of savings and service. What, were just gonna swap over . Yep. Pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. Pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over . Thats right. Instead of all this that ive already . Yeah. What are we gonna do with these . Keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. Geico. Over 75 years of savings and service. [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. Welcome back markets on pace for fresh, alltime highs on pace for a sixday wind streak, only slightly, though. Joining us now in an exclusive interview, richmond fed president tom barkin good afternoon to you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I think theres a bar on both of them. Weve taken out insurance, taken rates down i think that will provide a good stimulus for the economy were seeing parts of it in housing and in auto sales. Rates take time to give the economy some time to move and lets see where we are. In your assessment, president barkin, is your policy, as we stand today, still significantly accommodative or is it neutral that might be a pretty good posture in a world where uncertainty has been high. You know, you have expanded the Balance Sheet significantly, a real reversal from what weve seen the last couple of years. When might the fed refocus on the Balance Sheet, or is this just a new normal . Well, we did take the Balance Sheet up back in the financial crisis i think that was a good thing to do it provided stimulus for the economy. We committed at that time we would take it back down to the minimum level we needed to conduct Monetary Policy. In september, you saw some issues with the repo market. I think that was the signal that we had taken the Balance Sheet down about as far as we could, given the liquidity in the market today i think were in a reasonable place in the ballot sheet. Do you think the fed could walkway from repo support after the beginning of the year . Well, weve put some more shortterm bills in the marketplace. We think that steadied the market and we think that will steady it Going Forward. Were back at the levels of Early September in terms of the market, in terms of the balance she sheet. But well monitor that and see how we do. Were committed to conducting Monetary Policy in an ample reserves machine and well try to do that as best we can. You mentioned uncertainty in terms of outlook Going Forward what tops that list for you . Would a fully executed phase one trade deal remove the largest portion that have uncertainty . We have seen a lot of uncertainty over the last year, year and a half. I think thats been holding the economy back and is an important part of the case for why being accommodative matters. I think we have an opportunity here phase one trade deal should be helpful to reduce business uncertainty, usmca passage should be helpful and i think some clarity on where were headed in brexit will be helpful in business uncertainty. We have an opportunity if we can settle the uncertainty in the environment to allow us to grow. Could those things, therefore, alter your perspective in terms of whether were likely to see a hike or cut . If those things came together, would the outlook be quite different, quite positive for the economy in q1 . If the uncertainty reduction leads to increased hiring, investment, pricing, inflation, that would be a Welcome Change as the data changes, i may well change my outlook on rates. You mentioned the calming of these trade tensions with china weve seen and some clarity on brexit we have guests on a regular basis who talk to us about globalization may have hit its peak in the last couple of years. We may see a reversal of this. How does that inform the feds thinking about Economic Growth and so weve had weakness and International Economies almost across the board this year and thats also been part of our story of why we thought some insurance made sense and were also aware of the effect globalization can have on the growth of american businesses, on inflation on wages. And we are trying to monitor as best we can the open economy, the u. S. Economy which, of course, is our focus. If in periods past where increasing globalization led to increasing prosperity, if were stepping back away from globalization, does it lead you in any way to predict that we might be taking a step away from what has been a very successful period, especially for the American Consumer . It is something to watch. I think its hard to know at this point whether were, in fact, taking a step back from globalizati globalization. I think, in fact, we have a new pact with canada and mexico. Im hopeful that will lead to prosperity on both sides well see what happens with china. I do think most economists would say if you take a significant step back from globalization, that would have implications. When you assess the u. S. Consumer and the current strength were seeing across a broad range of measures, do you feel that that is reliant on the u. S. Interest rate level and that is only the case that the u. S. Consumer is strong because the fed eased its rates so significantly this year . I think the major reason the consumer is strong is they have jobs not only do they have jobs but real wages are up, up 3. 1 , inflation is up 1. 6 that 1. 5 gap is a real wage increase when you have jobs and your wages are up, and markets are open, thats a powerful stimulus to the economy i think our rate moves this year have helped some but in the context of whats been a very strong consumer all year long. But clearly, a lot of discussion always about where we are in the cycle certainly were not early in the cycle, whether were late or not. Do you feel that the middle class in america has got structurally more wealthy over the course of this cycle, or do you fear when we get to the point where rates do go higher and stay higher that the u. S. Consumer, almost one for one, suffers during that process of rates moving higher . Well, wealth has definitely gone up during the cycle you guys monitor the markets more than i do but i would say the biggest thing thats helped the middle class is jobs. In particular, the metric i look at is employment in the last few months its actually gone back above its prerecession peak. And thats the best thing we can do for middle class workers, is help them get jobs. Mr. Barkin, you mentioned access to credit markets do you have any concern about the deteriorating quality of credit we watch that carefully as Financial Stability matters a lot. Its hard to find much evidence of deteriorating credit quality right now in the data, but i think thats not something that you declare victory on i think thats something that were going to watch and i watch very closely every month. President barkin, President Trump has tweeted regularly throughout the year about what he would like the Interest Rate position to be and, again, very recently saying he would be so great if the fed would further lower Interest Rates and quantitative ease. Whats your response to that and those tweets are you just used to them now . You know, congress has given the mandate to focus on stable prices and maximum employment. If you look at the numbers, you would say were doing about as well as any fed has done miechlt perfect spe. Your colleagues and you, were there more tensions and more reactions to those sorts of tweets a couple of years ago than there are today is there a sense that this is now par for the course and the president can be ignored when he puts those types of requests out there . I cant speak for my colleagues i just say for me theres always a pressure on the fed. You guys cover us every day and others in the press, legislators, executive branch. Theres always folks with a opponent of view even as i wonder around my district. At every meeting im in, ive got folks who have very good advice on what we should do. My job is to listen to all the advice and try to do the right thing we can for the u. S. Economy. President tom barkin of the richmond fed, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today, sir. Thanks for having me here. We have 38minutes before th bell right now, the dow is up 16 points, just fractionally. The s p following suit were seeing it higher as well coming up, casino stocks have been on a hot streak this year one firm put out its 2020 gaming shopping list. The names they say to bet on next. And later well hear what fedex ceo saidbo aut the big earnings miss. Down 10 today memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. We believe in education built for all people. , [woman] snhu was the best experience of my life. [man] without snhu, i wouldnt be the leader i am today. [woman] i graduated high school 19 years ago. I still finished. [man] in the military, you feel that sense of accomplishment. Thats what snhu is. You will march from this arena and say to the world. I did it. [woman] you did it. I love you. [graduate] i love you too. Welcome back bank of america, Global Research finding netflix could see about 7 of disney plus users with netflix accounts plan to cancel netflix separately, netflix reported 371 original series and movies this year, an increase of 54. 6 from last year and more than the entire tv industry did in 2005. Nomura instinet out it says theres room to run for mgm, Melco Resorts and boyd gaming upside as much as 40 next year for these three stocks another potential tail wind for the casino names china reportedly says it will raise the limit on how much money gamblers can transfer from macao to Mainland China accounts instinet points out it would be more of a tail wind if it was money moving both ways if you could take more money from china into macaw and move it back out as well. One more thing to mention, harry curtis told me hes really looking at we have these reads coming in, buying up properties. Be belagio will continue to run that property. Keeping an eye on whether blackstone is getting ready to do more casino deals. Its certainly possible youre looking at the world of private equity in totality youre talking about Something Like threequarters of a trillion dollars raised but not allocated. That wont happen all at once but youre going to need larger and larger targets to put that money to work or it will get sent back to investors nobody likes sending money back to investors i wouldnt be shocked to see more deals in that realm its a tactical breakout big buying came in the stock essentially had been in a bear market from the beginning of 2018, really up until recently yes, its up 30 its actually down on a twoyear period its flat on a threeyear period there could be a lot of room to run here i do think that this is related to trade, the breakout in these stocks i do think this is related to the potential thawing in u. S. china relations and the fact that those are happening at once. Relies on those revenues. Theyre all kind of moving together you are right about that. On the netflix call, josh, clearly theyre trying to focus on the International Numbers a little bit more. Yeah. Going into next year if we saw a couple of more quarters where u. S. Subs are flat or slipping slightly, what happens to the stock zblie do think most of the growth is expected to come internationally. But to your point, they cant slack on the u. S. , especially now, given all the new competition thats being taken seriously. So its been a tough stock this is not one of the better names in large cap tech this year, although not terrible. And jo think because they sign on one streaming service they drop another how much more competitive will it get how difficult will it be to keep putting new content up, paying talent thats taes going to be an overhang for the stock i dont think its going to go away. Half hour to go three things driving the action, major averages on pace to extend their winning streak to six sessions, small caps seeing gains as well with the russell 2,000 setting a new 52week high fedex misses on earnings and slashes its forecast. Time for a cnbc update with sue herera hello, sue. Hi, wilf. Hi, everyone trump calling the impending house vote, quote, a disgrace. He spoke in front of workers in saginaw, michigan. Since day one of this administration, democrats have been trying to overturn the results of the last election and theyre back at it again with their partisan Impeachment Vote. Protesters rallied on capitol hill to voice their support for the impeachment of President Trump. Organizer for that event says the message theyre trying to get out is that people are behind the impeachment. Overseas, denise coates, head of the Gambling Group bet 365 was paid the u. S. Equivalent of 422 million last year, setting a new record for a chief executive of uk company, she founded the online betting group with her brother nearly 20 years ago. According to forbes list of billionaires, coates has a net worth of 12. 2 billion. The thing that jumped out to me on this when i saw the headline this morning right. When people say this was a salary income, its probably some kind of stock gain or whatever. Right. But of the 323 Million Pounds total, 280 of it was salary, straight up income. Exactly. Which makes it, actually, i think the biggest globally for last year. Absolutely. I think youre absolutely right. And, you know, it just its fascinating to see how she built that business up with her brother. But she took over the reins quite some time ago and it continues to grow under her tenure. Definitely one of the most success fful uk sports. A sign of things to come for the u. S. Market. Sue, as always, thank you. Lets get over to mike for the second installment of the dashboard. Mike wilf, second question that were asking, when will it stop . It being the rally s p 500 up against the relative in the index for the s p relative strength is really just a measurement of the strength of the trend itself when it gets above the 70 level, it sort of categorizes being overbought t means the trend has been unusually persistent and strong and has taken the market relatively far above the previous trend thats really all it means were on the verge here. The last time were here is crossing below it in that big sharp correction in january, february of 2018 what you want to focus on is the first time after we started to get a rally to a new high, right in here, in early 2017, the first time we got overbought and kind of stayed roughly in there for a long time before acti accelerating late in the year in that meldup point being first time you hit this upper rail, it doesnt mean rally is over. What it means is maybe you need a little bit of a rest or pullback or perhaps youre going to have to have something come along to change the overall input. It doesnt necessarily mean that things are all that stretched. By the way, a lot of technical targets. Real shortterm targets based on this are up around 3230, another 1 up around here if that matters to tactical folks right now, guys. Mike, thanks for that still to come, your last chance trade 26 minutes left of the session. Joining us to discuss the impact of impeachment on the economy and the trump agenda. The benchmark tenyear yielding about 1. 93 closing bell back right after this woman friction points, those obstacles that limit a companys growth. I try to find companies that turn these challenges into opportunities. But by going out in the field, and meeting management, suppliers, competitors. In the end, its these unique companies with Creative Business models that will generate value for our investors. Thats why i go beyond the numbers. The dow just turned negative tech heavy nasdaq set to close on another high. Hey, contessa good to see you. Massive growth in m a is coming with new headwinds. Deal volume has grown 31 annually over the past five years and companies doing more deals are outperforming. The landscape is changing. Deal makers need to adapt to skyhigh valuations, driving up premiums recession is a risk as well but could bring opportunity. Tech companies now have 10 of their val in cash, putting them in a position to make deals in a downturn guys lets talk scale versus scope. In terms of the Companies Just getting bigger or the Companies Getting bigger and branches into new and different businesses. Exactly right, contessa 90 of Companies Made deals that expanded scope, got into entirely new businesses. Calling out for tech executives. Completely new revenue models to integrate, five g. And startups can have different culture cultures. Kate, thank you very much for that is it a warning sign when you see people whose expertise that isnt typically starting to do that, starting to search for growth and opportunities when the fidelities are doing what blackstone and third point typically do im feeling kind of bull esh on it. I dont want to rush to judgment yeah were definitely in a moment where people are funding businesses you saw securities make a move toward loosening up definition of what you would call an accredited investor. Jobs act, just open bucket shops act, private capital for more people a lot of people lose a lot of money and the pendulum will swing back to less interest in private markets, maybe that will be better valuations but were not quite there. As for the broader public markets, we are still higher the dow did dip negative and if the three major averages stay positive well have record closes on their hands once again. With 28 minutes left of the session, well have your last chance trade. Well preview the key metrics were watching as we head to break, here is a check on tesla that stock hit an alltime high in tay sci l right back. Dont get mad. Get e trade, dawg. [narrator] at Southern New Hampshire university were committed to making college more accessible by making it more affordable. Thats why were keeping our tuition the same for all online and campus programs through the year 2021. [woman] i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. I ran to my husband with my computer and i said, look we can do this [narrator] take advantage of some of the lowest online tuition rates in the nation. Find your degree at snhu. Edu. Welcome back 17 minutes left of the session big board at the top all the major averages on pace record closes again. Although only slight gains you would see today, tenth of one percent. Biggest gainers. Biggest laggards. Years from now well do segments about how bullish impeachment has been for stocks. And today marked the turning point. Since they put out the articles a week and a half or two weeks ago, weve been vertical so five years from now well do a segment and be like, look how bullish last time it was an impeachment. When theyre impeaching president kanye were going to say remember how great it was the last time. That might be my next dashboard. Fair enough. Here we go. 17 minutes left. Whats your last chance trade . First of all, an update on macys keep that tight. You dont want to be wrong after being right so quickly lets talk about twitter this is a stock that has not had great news for investor this is year but you now know that there are not many sellers in the 20s. Stock looks like it wants to get back into that post in this gap. You can see it there from late october. Typically thats a bullish sign. If it gets into the gap, shouldnt be a lot of resistance if it can make it to the top of the gap you may want to makeit a keeper right now im talking about a trade. Stock goes in 30. 30, clear as a bell at that level, you are wrong youll be out very quickly its a 21 risk reward to the top of that gap. Thats how i would play twitter for a trade, for an investment, much, much tougher story. Could there be a Catalyst Next year as an investment maybe if the half ceo doesnt move to africa, people might like that. Im not even joking around thats a thing thats being of course it is. Being discussed i dont know. Rallies on that news. I think it already discounted that. Can i tell you something . If ever a Technology Company called for activism this is the i dont know who will file the 13day. If ever we needed one because its a great property, great people that work there its changing the world every day. They just cant make money way their peers are making money and maybe we need fresh ideas. Having slipped significantly in recent months, twitter is up today. Well break down todays biggest movers when we take you inside the market zone next on closing bell. 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. You should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. Apply in as little as a minute, you should be mad at forced camaraderie. And you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not mad, because you have e trade, whos tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad. Get e trades simplified technical analysis. Welcome back 11 minutes left in the trading session. Were now in the closing bell. Market zone, commercialfree coverage of all the action as we go into the close. Mike santoli is here to break down the crucial moments trading day. Today, josh brown from Ritholtz Wealth Management as well. After missing earnings expectations and cutting its 2020 profit forecast, fedex ceo called the results an anomaly and blamed some of it on macro pressures. This quarter has seen significant effects on the industrial economy due to continuing trade disputes, including reduction in International Air freight. Mike, talking about global weakness at a time when were starting to see optimism about the global economy. Exactly. How do you fit his comments in with whats happening with fedex . Looking for all these Global Industrial plays to buy, aemting something better, fedex might have been the first one you chose in other circumstances the macrois affecting core freig freight, and their own structural and pricing issues. So its been a value trap, the stock. So i think its interesting how the market is punishing fedex, a little spillover to related companies but its not really taking it as a broad signal of weakness. To that point, josh, are you surprised u. P. S. Is not down more than 1. 7 in lieu of this i am. And to mikes point, the most important point, that may be the tell that the market is saying, yes, we understand theres some challenges in industrial manufacturing but, dude, fix your last mile business, fix your profitability on ecommerce and its not quite the global macro. The dow has been flirting with positive and negative its up one basis point as we speak. Anything positive on all three major indexes will be a record close. Chrysler and peugeot have reached a deal to merge. Phil lebeau has the details for us. It might take a year for the deal to come together. If it does, it would make them the fourth large est car maker the world. Theyre saying no job cuts, no plant closings, but they do admit it will take a while for regulatory approval, which could be 12 to 15 months as i mentioned, if these two companies can get this all the way through, they would become the fourth largest automaker it shows third here but were not including nissanrenault there. Fourth largest, larger than gm, hyundai, ford. Take a look the at the two shares peugeot has done a great job this year. If youre an investor in europe especially and have invested in peugeot, theyve done a fantastic job this year. Hoping to bring that magic to a combined psa. I find it relatively amusing to think about these brands. Fiat is part of a u. S. Company peugeot, what hope do they have of significant sales in the u. S. Im not sure that theyre planning on growing those brands a whole lot in the u. S wouldnt it be wonderful if peugeot was back here, people would say. This is the most competitive market in the world. Introducing a brand here yes, there are people who understand what those brands are, but sbrugs an auto brand in the u. S. , incredibly tough incredibly tough look what happened when they said were going to bring fiat to the u. S. When they brought chrysler fiat is on life support. Its really hard to bring a new brand into the u. S. Marketplace. Phil, as always, thanks very much for that. You bet. After the bell well get earnings from micron weve got a preview with josh lipton. So, wilf, the street expects micron to report on revenue of 5. 01 billion. That stock has surged nearly 70 this year as investors are betting memory chip prices have bottomed and will move higher thanks to the 5g rollout, new game consoles and game cloud are spending more. On the call, analysts want to hear whether they think inventory levels, which have been elevated this year, have now bottomed back to you. Josh lipton, thank you very much josh brown there was a glut in inventory in these chips. Yeah. Is resolveing that and having some pickup in demand going to take that out of the picture at all . I think so. A difficult part about this game is how much of that is already discounted thats a true cyclical in every sense of the world its not at all dissimilar to Companies Like caterpillar all the psychiccyclicals. It has that same veneer to it. To that point, seeing this stock having appreciated into what people expect is a rebound you might say to yourself how great is the rebound going to be lets bear in mind its 10 below its 18 highs when that problem started. So maybe it kisses that level and that becomes kind of the moment of truth. In the very short term looking at the stock certainly year to day its a tough setup. Its very tough its gone a little vertical here in the last little bit as well i would go even one step beyond as i said about being a deep cyclical its almost like commodity futures. It goes in these crazy, whippy trends its a two its exactly twice as volatile as the s p 500 it really is all about, you know, going on these streaks, pricing for the base product is moving up and vice versa. My note mentions an option, 7. 2 . Do you know what they should do sell memory on a subscription model, even out that cyclicality. Come up with a number. Supply as much this will be in the dow in they did that. Mortgage applications fell 5 last week. Lets get to diana olick for more on that hi, diana. Refis down 7 likely because the average rate on the 30year tux didnt move, stuck at 3. 89 rates were a full Percentage Rate higher same time last year. Mortgage applications to buy a home were also down for the week but 10 higher annually. The economists at fanny mae are encouraged and buys there significantly higher, saying Housing Starts will ramp up to 10 growth next year in 2021 back to you guys. Diana, thank you very much for that mike in terms of the yield outlook, to what extent will we see in the year ahead some sectors like banks, depending on the way theyields go. They have to nudge up higher than they are right now. 2 for the tenyear. On the decline in treasury yield you did not get a tick for tick match with mortgage rates. They didnt fall as much or deeply with treasuries i do think that will be a big part of the story. General outlook, people dont think yields will budge very much i agree its hard to make a case for whether theyll move or not. If direction for surprises is more movement than less, should be ready for that. Notably at your alma mater, not a single strategist that was part of that poll expects the tenyear to get above 220 this coming year, which is kind of i dont know does that surprise you or not really it doesnt surprise me. I guess i know the group the way its set up. Its a very small, implied move. Mike, you looking at the internals . New 52week highs versus lows, were exactly a year ago into the meltdown. So on a 52week basis, things were very washed out thats still a very good lopsided positive to negative breakdown for a relatively flat, overall market did want to take a look at there you go transports for utilities obviously utilities have bounced a little bit some of that quality defensive yield trade has improved, at least in december versus where it was volatility index, the vicks, still higher than it ought to be for a sleepy market t shows you theres event risk. Averaged 16 all year. If you had said to me in january, vicks is going to average who knew in advance . Zblb Rick Santelli has a check on bonds rick intraday of twoyear note yields, 1. 63 laying flat on the short end, glued to the wall. The long end lately has been moving higher. This isnt only here but globally look at bund years, approaching minus 20 getting close. Look at 10, were up four basis points twos were up one 10s minus 2s on the spread, its getting close to 30. That chart starts november 18, 13month highs bertha, the nasdaq is bubbling up sessions. Today, relative basis, communications are leading the way. The sector itself at a new high today. But the big high today is tesla. An alltime high, taking out that alltime high that happened before the notorious 4 20 tweet from elon musk in august of 2018 big recovery there and the big ipo high of the day is 10x genomics. Over to bob. You cant blame boeing, its up 4 points. Problems through the late afternoon. Walmart is weaker overall. Banks, still new highs jp morgan, goldman sachs, regional banks 52week highs almost every single day. Were expecting volume in the next couple of days. The biggest trading event of the year heavy volume in some of these s p 500 etfs and the midcap one. Theres the closing bell s p is just barely in positive territory. Dow down 24 points. If youre just joining us, welcome in to the closing bell im wilfred frost. And im Contessa Brewer in for sara eisen today. Lets check in on where the market close just in the red for the s p 500 and the dow. Nasdaq just higher russell led the charge, up a quarter of one percent we miss out on those record closing highs for the s p and dow. Nasdaq does eek one out. We are moments away from microns Earnings Report and well break down the numbers as soon as they cross josh brown ceo of Ritholtz Wealth Management is still with us and chief strategist of capital wealth planning. First to mike with what was rather a slow day in terms of action on wall street. Yeah. Quite slow very narrow range. The market as a general matter, it kind of sit still more than any other market it reprices when theres news and people are repositioning it gets to a level maybe its overbought, we need a rest and it just rests. Is there a fine line between complacency and confidence well get toward that i think its very tough to say when one shades into the next. I think thats the only thing to look out for the backdrop is positive the market, the rally looks sturdy obviously, you know, the fed is sort of out of the way and all the stuff people know are very much in place. When people get too overconfident and their exposures get higher than they are prepared to defend, thats when you have an issue. Jeff, would you take profits now for the rest of the year i would not our soft strategy, shortterm trading model showed a hint of weakness coming in wednesday or thursday but higher into the end of the year. When we get into the back half of january, however, the market is going to have to deal with a slowing gdp number not necessarily because of boeings workers, but because of the suppliers that supply to the 737 max. And, josh, how are you seeing thispositioning before the years end for january let me just say, one of my favorite people in this business, period one of the best. Everyone should read his stuff jeff, i would love to to you with this question why do we have these meltups every seven to ten years in the s p and everyone is shocked, a, theres career risk heading into year end, people who havent been long enough for fear of one thing or another, start piling we have this perfect storm of oh, man, ive got to buy stocks and then we act surprised by it. Youve been doing this a long time what are your thoughts on that taking place right now do you think we finish out the last week of the year in the same fashion as this week . Yeah. No, i think the markets are going up into the beginning of january. As i said, if you talk to the suppliers for the 737 max, i talked to one yesterday that said if they dont get the max recertified, theyre out of business in four months. So i think the market is higher into january then youll get slowing gdp numbers. I think its just a whiff but longer term, josh, were in a secular bull market that has five it ten years left in it. Apple and facebook today, in different directions. Apple has been kind of ratcheting higher every day. No real news general good feeling i was joking, people want to buy stock, apple is their favorite flavor facebook, the stock responded to an upgrade you have dominantly bullish sentiment which sometimes say little bit of a yellow flag. Right now that one seems like it looks cheaper relative to alphabet. Facebook is up 55 this year despite every potential negative headline you could throw at them. Right. And had a 16 drawdown at some point this year, which most large cap tech has not had yet its still below that 218 high were hitting real close here. That will be a fun moment to watch. A tough setup ahead of their earnings, which have just hit. Josh lipton has them for us. Wilf, micron reporting, moving sharply higher in the after hours, eps of 48 cents and revenue of 5. 14 billion. Turning to the guidance, wilf, q2 eps, plus or minus 6 cents, street at 41 cents and 4. 8 billion, analysts looking for 4. 8 billion. And reportedly also micron ceo comments here in the release, saying with strong execution and improving industry conditions, we are optimistic, he says, that microns fiscal Second Quarter will be the cyclical bottom for fnlgs performance. This company reporting here Conference Call 4 30 eastern well be on it guys, back to you. Thanks so much for that the guide actually not that strong. Commentary strong in terms of the ceos verbiage there. To your point earlier, contessa, the option implied move 7 . This is only half that so far. Maybe it was so much in the zone of what was expected not a lot of reason to make a swing. Jeff, what are you expecting out of these chip makers in the year to come out of the which . I didnt quite get that. The chip makers the memory chips, are you expecting for this to oh, yeah, yeah. The semis are the best way to play the g5 rollout. I think that complex will continue to do very well. Josh . I own a couple of chip stocks i should have owned more this year thats definitely an area that maybe i overlooked im in nvidia, a name ive been in since 2015. Seen it much higher than it is now but its had a good year i think its a very similar story. If there is going to be this rebound in cloud spending, et cetera, this is a name that should do really well. Video game spending, et cetera. Nvidia and intel also talked earnings expectations. Mike, who else gets a boost tomorrow because of this i dont know that its that clear. Ta basically is the memory sector the interesting thing is if the rest of them take it as an excuse to get higher, because its had an incredible run already. Its not as if its a beaten down area that will get a spark. I hope micron doesnt do a stock buy back at these levels i hope theyre conservative with their fwiedance. Theyve got a lot on their hands as they switch to the subscription model next year Thomas Barkin sat down with us last hour, and new york John Williams was on the street earlier, both keying in on one word in particular, unsrnt. Phase one trade deal should be helpful to reduce business uncertainty. The usmca passage should be hef helpful to reduce uncertainty and some clarity of where were headed in brexit could be helpful with uncertainty if we can resolve the uncertainty in the environment to allow us to grow. Theres uncertainty around geopolitical and trade issues. Some of this uncertainty will likely be with us for the time being. My outlook is very positive. I expect growth to be around 2 and unemployment it stay low. Jeff, is the key thing for 2020, at least, that the fed is highly, highly, unlikely to derail the markets, whether or not its a larger amount more . I think the fed is on sidelines here i dont expect Interest Rates to go up any great degree the general investing public is not participating in the upside here before the bull market is over, they will be participating, just like they did in 1998 and 99. When you look at this uncertainty, its counterbalanced by the fact that jerome powell, we heard it from John Williams this morning, say were in a good place. Monetary policy is in a good place. Theres a lot of it seems like what we were talking about earlier, some Comfort Level with where we are right now. The fed officials clearly wish not to have to move for the foreseeable future i think investors are right in line with that and hoping that the conditions still favor them to just be sidelined not have to cut. That doesnt mean great things and, of course, they dont want the fed to tighten. One of the reasons he can say that and the unsung hero of the last ten years, gas prices are the same they were literally ten years ago that they were this week now in the second cutting cycle were in since that time i think its partly responsible for why you saw the consumer dregsry. People have had more license to spend money in restaurants, on amazon. And on gamble. And gambling. The latest warning in a note from citi group says positive developments in the trade war may cause asset allocators to pie into equities in 2020 and citi is cautioning of a possibility of a meltup dynamic in which the market overshoots fundamentals next year theres this ongoing search for yield that is leading traditional safe haven investors, insurance companies, pension funds, to look for return where they probably didnt, mike. Theres no doubt about it obviously, the longer a move like this goes on, the kind of Systematic Strategies will probably follow it although i dont think its about maybe some Time Next Year youre going to get t you could get it, if its going to happen in the next few week, if basically the market will twist higher and people will want to grab at it again, to joshs point, meltups are what you call a market where you werent exposed enough on the long side. Its kind of the way the market does kind of grinds its way higher so the only thing you want to be careful for is when everyone starts calling for a meltup, sometimes it doesnt show up on time. Josh and jeff, thank you both in joining us. You bet. Up next, evercore vice hairman krishna guha will tell usow the Impeachment Vote could affect the economy and your money or training for something youve never done before. Thats room for possibility. Nice rock. Its time to drop gold. Go digital. Go grayscale. I dont think the impeachment will have much affect on the economy one way or another. What is it going to affect it doesnt affect anything specific it doesnt affect Monetary Policy it doesnt affect fiscal policy. The house is debating a vote to impeach President Trump while americans may be split on whether to remove him from office, hes still getting strong marks on the economy. Ylan mui has more. Ylan there is a doubledigit spread between those who approve of the way President Trump is handling the economy and hose to dont. Real clear politics poll shows 54 of americans think the president is doing a good job. 41 disagree you heard republicans touting the president s economic record as a way to defend him against democratic attacks. It is way beyond time for this house to move on from this hoax and put our nation first. Historic performance in the stock market, record unemployment numbers. A booming economy, secured border, better trade deals and a stronger military. Reporter this is all translating into better poll numbers overall for the presiden president. The Trump Campaign highlighted a gallup poll that shows his Approval Rating gained 6 points. Stick with us for this discussion, bringing in krishna guha krishna, do you think this could potentially affect the outlook for growth and gdp next year i think at this point, its unlikely to have a major effect. What the market is telling you today is weve seen this movie already. We know how its going to end. Right . Its almost certain trump gets impeached from the house its almost certain he gets acquitted from the senate and fairly quickly, too. We know where this is going and the polling data is telling us its not a game changer as far as the election is concerned President Trump seems to have consolida consolidated in the polls. If you were the type of investor who was worried about a progressive democrat coming in at the end of next year, then thats another reason to feel more sanguin about the situation right now. The president is able to move past the threat of impeachment, watching these poll numbers strengthening, how do you think that may embolden his policy decisions next year leading into the election i think the truth is that he doesnt have all that many policy levers to pull next year. The big policy lever he has is trade and he has done the smart thing in terms of deescalating the trade war with china the preliminary agreement on the sk skinny mini deal it really doesnt solve, by all accounts, the vast majority of the deep structural issues here, but it cools the temperature going into an election year. The smartest play, as far as i can see for President Trump is just keeping his cool on trade for next year, dont rock the boat economy is performing well hes starting to get some credit for that thats his ticket to try to win reelection. Ylan, if he is impeached, given that we have a fairly heated trial next year, do you think it makes the chance for significant legislation very low next year . Reporter i think what democrats have tried to prove in the house here is that impeachment is not sucking all the oxygen out of washington as many thought it would. They are able to get their legislative priorities done, the government funding bill, the vote on usmca coming tomorrow. Can krishna pointed out very appropriately not a whole lot more is left on the agenda to work through, assuming usmca does move forward in the senate. What else is there left to do . Is the time not focused on impeachment but instead the campaign trail, focusing on voters and whats happening outside of washington instead. Im curious about that. Ylan, both you and i are out frequently in the field, talking to people who have been personally affected by President Trumps decisions on trade, taxes of the like. Even where we see a negative impact, we see farmers on the verge of losing a family farm thats been in their family for generations, their support for the president seems unwavering how are you seeing democrats take that knowledge and play into it where traditionally conventional wisdom had it that the pocketbook would drive the vote good point, contessa. A very interesting survey looked at the Unemployment Rate in some of the key swing states and found that one of the states that has seen unemployment rise the most is actually in minnesota. However, it is that state where we see one democratic congressman, colin peterson, who will likely be the only democrat who votes against impeachment on both articles. Even though we see unemployment, perhaps, rising in his state even though we see the economy may be turning around there, he is still strong in his support for the president , despite being a democrat that speaks exactly to the dichotomy that youre pointing to, contessa. Krishna, pivoting away from impeachment specifically, how are you at evercore feeling about the markets for next year . Look, were pretty upbeat were seeing signs of global stabilization. Thats been a big issue indirectly for the u. S we think that u. S. china trade, the skinny mini deal does get wrapped up midjan and the tensions are reduced through next year, brexit is looking good as well fundamentally, you have the fed on your side even when we get this reassurance on growth, we get to keep todays low rates, potentially for a long time to cop come that is a very exciting combination for risky assets. Krishna guha and ylan mui, thank you. Well see if the run to record highs is making the market look expensive. Later well take the pulse of Consumer Spending in the health of the restaurant injury when were joined by famed restauranteur danny m nny meyer with sofi, get your credit cards right by consolidating your Credit Card Debt into one monthly payment. And get your Interest Rate right so you can save big. Get a nofee personal loan up to 100k. Lets break down the numbers with Kevin Rottinghaus its great to talk to you, kevin, today tell me about how micron beat and what you anticipate going into 2020. Sure. The results were, you know, ahead of the midpoint. Talking about seasonality, that had tempered expectations. Looking ahead to the guidance, we feel like theyre guiding pud enterally, conservatively. It feels like the cycle in our research is just getting ready to turn higher so were encouraged. They talk about slide growth below demand growth. Thats a very encouraging sign and we agree with them in our researc research. Are you thinking that the pickup in demand will solve the glut that happened this year yes on this quarterly report, the inventory already went down. The inventory in the supply chain has gone down and were poised for pricing to go highers a result. Whats your recommendation on the stock, very quickly . Its our favorite going into 202 2020. Despite a runup this year. Kevin, thank you. Thank you. Lets get over to mike. We always talk about the standard, its about 18. Below where it was early 2018. On a longterm basis the price to sales ratio for the s p 500 this is one of the rare valuation metrics that is actually over the early 1999, 2000 the s p 500 is more profitable higher Profit Margins on those sale sales making it look less extreme. Have you dominant companyies wih price to sale. What is that trailing pe up here toward the mid 20s its obviously a little bit rich. One interesting thing about this is look at how this used to be the ceiling before about 1990. You would never get the median p e above that level since 1990, youve been above it more than below it, maybe 50 50. It shows theres a regime shift there in this disinflationary world, globalized world, the central bank, centric world. Something changed. Therefore maybe the current extremes are not as extreme as they might otherwise look. I wonder what the median stock is today i guess it would be two. Its going to change every day. Right we dont know what it is today. I dont know what it is i can sort it for you right now. Can work it out. In terms of the price of sales, twotime sales when we dont come back to enough for the s p 500, for all these private companies that dont have earnings yet, it highlights so brilliantly how expensive this world were. Theres no doubt about that of course, in the s p 500, lots of companies trade at a fraction of sales macys might be. 2 of sales as a ratio. So, your right about that, thou though, in terms of the aggressiveness for already large companies. Mike, thank you coming up next, why legislative gridlock has been unlocked in washington over the bitter fight of impeaching President Trump. Plus will the tariffs give nikes earnings trouble welcome back to closing bell. Time to get a cnbc update with sue herera hello, sue. Group of senators announcing the final passage of Otto Warmbier north korea sanctions act, mappedtory sanctions on institutions that do business with north korea. I am still traumatized by what north korea did to our family and certainly what they did to our son today, im overjoyed at the commitment that these senators have put in their efforts to make a difference in north korea. French labor leaders arriving for talks with government ministers on changes to a controversial pension reform plan, which has led to nationwide strikes frances Prime Minister meeting with unions on potential amendments to that reform package. Here at home, Actor Sylvester Stallone surprising a group of students in new jersey when he greeted them at the rocky statue in philadelphia he ended up taking a picture with the group and then they posted that on social media. I ran up the steps when i went to philly the first time. Did you congratulations. Got to do it. Did you trip. Contessa jump around. We have video of that. Yeah, right. Sue, thank you. You got it, wilf. President trump is on the verge of becoming just the third president in history to be impeached by the house of representatives. Despite the partisan fight, lawmakers on capitol hill have been able to get a lot of other work done recently Kayla Tausche has more on this what kind of work, kayla reporter its because of impeachment, not despite impeachment, that law mashes have been moving at an uncharacteristically swift pace to push through a frenzy of legislation from a bill to lower drug prices to a set of spending bills totaling 1. 4 trillion that carry a host of both parties priorities and not to mention the usmca trade deal on tap for a house vote tomorrow. Roughly three dozen moderate democrats are backing impeachment, despite their constituents not supporting it Speaker Pelosi is set to arm these lawmakers with a laundry list of reasons to tout back home several did that in a letter to Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. We are proud to submit a completed usmca to your desk for a vote along with the hundreds of other bills we have passed and sent to the senate that you have not brought up this year. The house has done its job it will be on the housenate to s it it is the president s signature trade deal ive heard congressional aides wonder aloud whether the president could veto those the top lawmaker on the Appropriations Committee in the senate, i asked him if that could be a possibly. He said could he do that sure but he doubted he actually would because of how closely treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin worked with lawmakers on capitol hill. Switching from the legislative impact, how many members of the house right now will be in the camp of thinking im absolutely furious we have to go through this because its going to damage my chances of reelection next year . Reporter those three dozen democrats called front liners, who were instrumental in flipping the house blue in 2018, despite the fact that they come from districts that went for President Trump in the president ial election, all of those members basically said they struggle with this decision, theyre aware its controversial in their district. One member from congress in new jersey said he would switch parties because he did not want to vote for impeachment, another for minnesota who will not be backing impeachment and another who will be voting for one article but not the other. Interestingly, the Top Republican in the house says these members, specifically, are defying the will of their constituents if you look back to the clipten impeachment, the 91 or so republicans who came from clinton districts at the time to voted to back impeachment then, only seven of them lost their seats in the next election. It will be really interesting how this plays out in stays where there was such a tight margin the president is heading to battle creek you won that state by 10,000 votes. A congresswoman came out for michigan, a democrat, who said she struggle d with it but felt like she was following her consciousness in this way and if it meant it would cost her reelection, so be it. It will be interesting to see if it buys them more compassionate support from progressives or really destroys support from those who were trump sporters but might have voted for democratic congresspeople. Contessa, its too soon to know exactly what the polls will bear out for those members its no secret that the president is heading to michigan tonight. Its a shout across the bow to Haley Stevens and elissa slotkin. Slotkin is who you just mentioned, who said earlier today shes really struggled with that decision she said in an interview i thought long and hard about this ultimately it doesnt matter who is in office, a Republican Holding the call of a leader with ukraine and using leverage thats untoward or a democratic president who is asking china for a small cyber attack either one of those actions would be wrong and she hopes her constituents will see that nuance. Kayla, thank you very much. Sure. Still ahead, forget venture capitalists. Theres a new leader when it comes to investing in ipos of those details, next. Plus shake shack shares have fallen 40 founder and chairman danny meyer will tell us how the restaurant chain can turn around its stock slump. What do advisors look for in an etf . Dont just track an index, help me meet a clients need. Is the fund built to sell or built to last . Etfs are only part of a portfolio. So make it easy to explain. Give me a quality fund that helps me get clients closer to their goals. Flexshares etfs are designed and managed around investor objectives. So you can advise with confidence. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Go to flexshares. Com for a prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. So wim 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. Were back new data showing hedge funds now among the top investors in the 2020 ipo pipeline. Dee bosa is here with us. Tiger global, Iconiq Capital and coatue tiger holds more startups in the 2020 ipo pipeline than any other except sequoia underperform for more than a decade now, startups have boomed tiger and coatue are moving into earlier stage rounds and being aggressive on valuations if you thought we might put a pause on the vc party next year, dont hold your breath back to you. All right deirdre, thank you very much for that. Inside the chicken wars, the battle for popeye, mcdonalds and chickfila. Who is winning this food fhtig shake shack founder and ceo danny meyer, next. Were back lets send it over to mike. You were talking about how you were a bit hungry. Sorry if this makes it worse americans increasingly asking where should we eat . The overall retail sales trend, monthly look you see pretty consistently restaurants and bars outpaced the growth rate of overall retail sales people spend more on eating out than they do right now food for home you also see its very discretionary. Here in august, you did see the growth rate resell radeceleratey the decision to go out to eat is discretionary, often spontaneous and can be a leading indicator of how good the consumer is feeling at a given moment. Guys mike, thank you for that. Joining us now to talk about the health of the Restaurant Industry is danny meyer, the Union Square Hospitality group ceo with restaurants like grammercy tavern in his empire also the founder of shake shack. Thank you for joining us today. My pleasure. You heard mike say that restaurants often outperform retail whats your outlook for the Restaurant Industry given how important Consumer Confidence is for the bottom line of this business well, consumers are eating regardless of their confidence and so when we ask ourselves what are they eating, where are they eating, we now have more choices as to where to eat good food than weve ever had in our lives. We can go out to a restaurant, order in from a restaurant we can order meal kits, go to a grocery store. We can order from our favorite restaurant across the country right now. We just made an investment in a Company Called go billy, which will deliver your favorite food from your home, wherever you grew up, with wherever you went to college to your home in 24 hours. When you talk about Consumer Confidence, i think thats part of t i think a bigger part of peoples decision as to where theyre going to eat has a lot more to do with a whole other emotional thing, which is a desire to belong and to counter the feeling of loneliness. I think that our smart phones have tricked us all into thinking we belong to a whole lot of social networks more than ever, people crave being with people. And i think restaurants and the choice to go to a danny, you just talked about ive got to interrupt, though you just talked about the ability to deliver something from your hometown to your house. The apps and the delivery are such a big part of what we talk about every day with restaurants. And yet thats what keeps people from connecting. Well, now i disagree with that for one second, because i think that the day and age of what i call room service, which is having your local restaurant deliver to your home or your office as opposed to going out and being with people, i think those days are a little bit numbered right now i can explain why i think that in just a second the experience part of this, which is connecting with something that emotionally touched you from your past, where you grew up, where you went to school, where you once lived in your life, thats a very different thing but i do believe that when people make the choice as to where theyre going to eat, a big part of it the point im trying to make is not necessarily connected to their Consumer Confidence but its connected to their psyche. Where can i most connect with other people i think what a restaurant does better than anywhere else, and the reason that your statistics show that even while people are clicking to order retail perhaps delivered to their home, they want the experience of being with people. And they want the experience of eating food and sharing, to share that experience with other people that they know. Danny, i wanted to ask, if i may, about the recent chicken sandwich wars that weve witnessed the last six months or so to what extent are they real and genuine, and to what extent do you think theyve been somewhat manufactured for pr purposes where does shake shack stand on it well, shake shack has a great chicken sandwich and we kind of dipped our toe into the waters just to remind everybody were there as well. We also have some great chicken bites. But i think it was marvelous pr. I think people have loved chicken for a long, long time. Nobody just invented chicken there is, certainly, a lot of excitement these days about hot chicken. I think nashville gets a lot of the credit for that. I think it was a great set of pr, and everybody wanted in on it in the food world theres really nothing new. Its kind of like writing music. Theres eight notes in the octave and a great new song is just combining them in different ways guess what, same thing in my industry i think were always looking for the big story. And i think its fun for consumers to experience that and to say hey, have you tried the chicken sandwich from this place, this place or this place . People love to compare them together it makes for great social media stories, et cetera. Is fake meat new, though, danny . Is it going to stick around or is it a temporary fad . Well have to find out. I think that people do like authenticity people are absolutely craving healthier options. Now the question that we have is, is the only way to have a healthier option to create something in a laboratory that pretends its something its not like meat or might people actually be craving plantbased vegetables one of the things that were actually very, very excited about is getting people to enjoy how delicious vegetables taste and not try to make vegetables pretend theyre something besides being vegetables. I was talking to a neighbor who was a restauranteur about going from four restaurants to owning one he says in large part increasing his taxes have increased. Hes thinking about getting out of the metropolitan new york city all together. Talk to me a little bit about the profit margin in restaurants and, you know, whether size matters. Does it matter if you own more in terms of increasing your profit margin . Not necessarily your friend is absolutely right. Our industry is probably more challenged than its ever been for sure everything since ive been a restaurateur has only gone up. And meanwhile so many great ways you can eat, that the pressure to keep pricing low is mighty right now. Danny, i was discussing your restaurants with josh brown earlier who i think as you know is a big fan of yours. And we were discussing how in your book you talk about the best way to look after customers is to look after staff and have that sense of enjoyment in the workplace. Since youve pushed that as an idea more do you feel that others followed suit do you think that is increasingly the norm in your industry or are you still an outliar. I dont think it ever dawned on me there was another way to do it. Its like the old Bumper Sticker you see on the streets every now and then, have you hugged your kid today. The reason they came up with the idea is that presumably if you hug your kid your kid does Better Things for the world. The works the same way in a restaurant, any business i think if the people who come to work love coming to work, taking care of each other, the chances are dramatically improved that those employees are going to take great care of customers. Danny, thanks for joining us. Great talking with you its my pleasure. Still ahead on the closing bell, the house debating ahead pehmvosident trumps historic imacent te well have the latest when closing bell returns Office Drones were the way to do it. [ laughing ] drone voice lol. Our market share looks good, but. Drone voice where are the bagels . Well, cdw can help you modernize your company the right way, with a scalable infrastructure from hpe, making you more efficient and secure. Great. Oh. [ drones buzz angrily ] lets find a different room. For transformation that works, you need Hewlett Packard enterprise and it orchestration by cdw. People who get it. Through the at t network, edgetoedge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. From finding out whats selling best. To managing your fleet. To collaborating remotely with your teams. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. 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. Welcome back a look here at the closing bell big board. The dow and s p 500 finishing lower, snapping the fivetaiwin streak while the nasdaq eeked out another record close. Still, to come. E y things to watch as we head into a new trading day. Were back in a couple of minutes. Ts 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. Apply in as little as a minute, dont get mad. Get e trade, dawg. [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. Live shot here of the house of represent he was where there is a debate op a vote to impeach President Trump. We expect that vote to happen sometime after 7 00 eastern time in the meantime looking ahead to tomorrow, nike results will be hitting the tape and courtney has a preview what to expect. Hey, court. Dow component nike reporting after the bell thursday. Sentiment bullish. Shares outpacing the broader s p over the past ten days analyst looking for upside in the results after hints from foot lockers and Dicks Sporting Goods reports. Investors look for update on the direct to consumer business in china both of which key growth drivers. Incoming ceo john donna hoe takes over january 13th. There are unknowns about how, if and we he markedly shifts the strategy shares up 30 to date. A lot working for investors. Court, thanks for that. Mike pivoting back to the broad are markets. A bit of slapage into the close but at record levels. More at a fatigue on wear and tear where were up at record high as few days in a row. I think tomorrow a little more economic input initial yams remember last week the unusual spike high ner jobless claims we want to see it calm down so its not a trend. That does it for the show today. Out of time thanks for watching closing bell. And fast money begins right now. Yes it does, contessa and wilf thank you very much in a snow Nasdaq Market site over looking times square. Im Brian Sullivan if for melissa lee. Traders are pete najarian. Tim seymour and Karen Finerman and steve grasso ton and fast, a megachip rip micron shares surging in the after hours. The company reporting what it only be described as a blowout quarter. But is it worth your money still . Well talk about it. Plus tesla rocketing to a new alltime high. Issue should you ride the rally or brake yourself for an electricslide in and later cal it a microscope on 34t