Good tuesday morning. Welcome to squawk squawk alle. Happy holidays to both of you. Carl and john have the day off. To our top story, closing in on dow 20,000 yet again, market strategist. Tony, art cashin said that coming in on friday was a waste of car fare and clean shirt. How should we be thinking about volumes and momentum this week . First with respect to dow 20,000, items one of those numbers that of course the general public understands probably the most readily understood number that is spewed out from wall street is the unemployment rate. And that is of course widely recognized and widely understood. Right behind it probably is the dow jones trim average. So in terms of forging perceptions about the economy and the outlook for growth, Financial Markets how the dow fairs matters but of course its just a number. When you think about the day that that we got this morning on a surge of consume confidence and home prices rising, as well, what is the Economic Data telling you . That surge in confidence interestingly the highest in 15 years was mostlily on the back of higher expectations, how consumers assess the present actually declined. And that is the challenge for 2017 and beyond. The move in stocks of course reflects optimism about trump and reflects a view that Economic Growth in the short run will be boosted. But for financial asset prices to continue moving, particularly for equities to rally or for bond yieldses to continue rising, there has to be a permanent change in the trajectory for Economic Growth. Beyond what pimco has called the new normal. The few normal is a run rate of about 2 or so. So to get it back to the old normal, if you will, it would take Something Big and that requires a big change in productivity, a long story on that, but you probably have another question. Can you draw on the number higher in this regard . You have donald trump trumpeting the market rise. Much of this is on the back of an expectation that something will happen in washington. How long does that honeymoon last, when do people need to see something and let me throw in one other question, which is some people have been holding on to their stocks waiting to the new year for tax roeasons. What happens next week . Investors for seven years have taken a leap in faith and buying assets such as equities and Corporate Bonds and real assets and other assets on the back of Central Bank Dominance. The central bank, u. S. Central bank, Federal Reserve that European Central bank and bank of japan, they have dominated the influence on markets for some time. So for the tarajectory to continue with respect to equities, it requires a shift from Central Bank Dominance to fiscal dominance. There is a Movement Toward fiscal dominance of course, but there is still legislation to be had. Things will pass that many are expecting will pass, but it permanently change the trajectory is a big open question. Bottom line, investors are likely to continue to take a leap of faith. They have done it for seven years. Waiting for the fiscal authorities to take control from the central bank. Do you think a pull back will happen because people are holding on to their equities saying i dont want to take my profits now because i think the tax rate will be lower next year . Certainly plausible, but of course youre speaking to short term issues and what investors should be doing is thinking longer term. And if markets do pull back, if there is a riskoff mode because of the technical factors you mentioned and the view that there is some movement in terms of when to sell equities or when not to, maybe they should take advantage of it because the leap of faith likely continues until we see the nittygritty in the details of legislation, what that means in terms of altering the take skreker to on proce productivi productivity. It means growth over the long term and that is something that has been missing globally in part because of election cycles and the fear by politicians of doing things in the short run might hurt them, but in the long run could help the nation. Were seeing today more strategists raising the year end price targets for 17 on the s p, so it would seem that there is still some bullishness. Tony, appreciate your time. With the gift giving holidays behind us, the focus now turns from shopping and shipping to returns which could put growing pressure on retailers and low g logistics companies. Morgan brennan has the details. Reporter hey, kayla. Thats right. Lets take a look at amazon because amazon says that it ships more than 1 billion items worldwide this Holiday Season. Its peak day was december 19th. And a big day for many of the shippers, as well. But expect a lot of those items to actually get sent back. Analysts estimate that about one third of all on democratic line purchases do get returned. That Means Services offered by reverse logistics firmsdemocrat purchases do get returned. That Means Services offered by reverse logistics firms that resell Unwanted Gifts thats the reason fedex bought genco and u. P. S. Announced an investment. U. P. S. Expects to ship 5. 8 million packages back to retailers. Still a tiny fraction of the overall peak season volumes, but it is one that is growing at a double digit rate. In terms of that peak season leading up to christmas, u. P. S. Saying that the season has been very successful with the Company Setting record volumes and meeting customers needs sfek effectively. Coming in to the holiday weekend, fedex said it had been handling a Record Number of packages and on time delivery at record levels. Amazon and u. P. S. Both higher, fedex trade building flat. Back over to you. Thanks so much, morgan. Were joined by ceo of enjoy, ron johnson. Ron, good to see you. Good to see you. It would seem just from the News Coverage that this was a Holiday Season that was dominated by amazon. Who do you think will emerge as the winner and the loser from this holiday . Well, i think amazon will clearly be the winner again. They just had a tremendous run, they had the wind at their back as people increasingly shop online. They have been highly innovative. So you put them in the winner box. Beyond that its pretty hard to tell. In consumer electronics, i think best buy has performed well. But when you get to the Broad Department store apparel sector, i think that we will have to wait to get the reports. That is a sector that you know very well of course having run jcpenney in the past. Wall street journal did some secret shopping and found a lot of items at pennys were marked down in some cases more than 50 . What is your read on the markdown levels that weve seen at Department Stores and how bad margins will look come january . I think pricing has been a challenge for the industry broadly especially Department Stores. That is something that i tried to tack kem when i was at pen democratic neys. I think that he the plan for it, so i dont think that you can read their promotional activity on their margins. A Specialty Store like the gap or j crew, when you see significant entire store on sale, you probably have an indication that margins will be tough for them. So can you explain that to us . Because youre right, there are certain stores where there not a margin cut, its built in, but we need to understand which of those stores. And the other piece of it that i never understand is, whose fault is it . When skrchj crew goes 50 off t whole store, is that the buyers fault would are deciding what to buy and therefore wasnt working . At the end of the day, when youre a merchant, you have to make a decision real time how do i get through the inventory that ive committed to. And if your business is soft, you will move to promotion. If youre a Specialty Store and you cant target people to get into the store, you have to pull them in off the mall. And so you tend to move to these entire stock on sale ads. And therefore its a function a little bit of your merchants not probably having the right stuff, but increasingly the competitive environment. Because if the store next to is you 40 or 50 off and dont have that, people might not walk in. So its a really tough challenge for our overstored industry. If you could put yourself back in the shoes of somebody running a traditional retailer, what do you do on the ecommerce front . Is it just the utility part of the business deliver what you can against amazon or can you neighboring a distinctive experience, use Customer Data better or anything else . I think its really tough. The reality is online is growing rapidly, but for the large physical stores, as you grow your online share, your physical share tends to drop. And so its kind of this very tough problem to figure out. And everyone is trying to navigate it, but at the end of the day, the winners in online tend to be amazon or they tend to be smaller boutique products that are very hard to find. But for the large store, its an essential thing to do, but its a low margin and it trades off your physical store business. Ron, give me a report card on apple. What do you think of the apple Retail Operation these days . They have a lot more products. Well, they have more products, they have bigger stores, they have more beautiful stores. They continue to have extraordinary traffic. I think she keeps plugging away trying to deliver service and an experience for people. And thats what you need to win in retail today. I want to back up and talk more broadly about the economy and specifically a tweet from the president elect of this country where he said the world was gloomy before i won, there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10 and Christmas Spending is over a trillion dollars. Obviously Apparel Companies and retailer, they have issues with tariffs and the fact that they make so many much their products abroad. But do you think that business overall will function more positively under donald trump . I think there will be significant changes. But my theory is if you didnt succeed this holiday, you should reexamine inyoyour playbook. Were at an alltime high in the stock market, were at almost full employment, housing prices are going up, gas prices are low. We had a favorable retail calendar with the full week before christmas. So if you didnt succeed this year, you have to rethink everything youre doing. As we look forward, i think there are a lot of challenges to the retail industry. You have wages going up, especially minimum wage laws. You have issues potentially with importing apparel if there are changes in the economic policy. So it could be a tough period ahead for some of the large apparel retailers. What do you think of this proposed 10 tariff on imports . Do you think that would be onerous enough to bring apparel jobs back to the u. S. . I think at the margin, yes, but broadly speaking apparel will continue to be made outside of the united states. The economics just arent there to make that industry flourish here in the united states, i dont believe. Were learning more and more about those economics by the day and for now, ron johnson, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you. When we come back on squawk alle alley, why fitbit holiday bump will be short lived. And plus sony hacked again. And later snapchat reportedly making a multimilliondollar bet on augmented reality. The details coming up. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Welcome back. Fitbit enjoying holiday cheer. The iphone app rising to number one among apples free apps suggesting wearables are back in vogue. Important to note fitbit was the number one holiday gift last year, but if you look at the shares over the past 52 weeks, down 75 in one year. Amazons alexa devices also topping the list of most popular items. I love talking to a legslexalex. Lets bring in our times reporter and unicorn ceo. Good morning to you both. Should we even be looking at the charts on the app rankings as a real barometer of anything . By the way, goutkayla got a new fitbit that shes wearing. I think its a fuzzy metric. People have looked at this for a while, people download the app, it rises to the top of the store. But hard to really tell what that means against other apps. You know, if you bought an apple watch, that app is already on your iphone. So you wont be downloading that app. So its hard to tell. I wouldnt put a lot of stock in that metric especially given the trouble that fitbit has had over the last year. What about the alexa, the echo piece of this . Because that does seem substantive for amazon long term. And i have an easier time believing that although amazon releases fuzzy stats also, but echo has done really well over the last year. Amazon has put more are make you k Marketing Muscle behind it. This is one of their big bets and hope this is their next computing platform. So i would put more stock in that metric. Alexa was sold out which was news i had to woefully disclose to my inlaws. Theirs will arrive this friday. But do you think that made a dent in sales to people who would have otherwise wanted to buy that and decided against it because it wouldnt arrive until weeks later . Well, its obviously done really well. But i think the alternative is the google owned product which is also really good and really popular. I think google has taken notice of a lelexa and they are trying compete as well as they can. I think they called it will they renamed it from google cast to google home and they traded a speaker system, they created cast devices that hook up to your televisions. And theyre really trying to dominate the home. But for me, i tend to look at the private side of things and see rather than looking at the app trends and what the top apps are, you know, i look at sort of private companies in a similar space and where theyre going and companies that are about to go public. Companies like the ring door well for example. Its a product that is gaining a lot of traction and will go public and will likely be bought up by one of the Big Companies because theyre taking a big chunk of the connected home market. Well talk more google and alexa in a minute. We have both now in the house and we have them compete against each other. We actually tried to get them to talk to each other, but that was a failure. In the meantime, lets talk sony because hacked again. This is something. This time cyber thieves targeting their twitter account under the sony global saying Britney Spears is dead, tell you more soon. The company saying it feed was compromised, apologized to spears and her fans. They dont have double authenticiand you then and you thuthentication. Yeah, everyone watching should turn on two factor authentication especially if youre a big company. You just have to enter an extra code or some other thing. Good b. But here is a problem. Big companies that have mum people the on the same account, like a twitter, multiple people on the same twitter account or other social media accounts, they cant do the double factor because someone has to have the phone where you will get the sms message. How do we fix that . Youre asking me to be apon the spot start up founder. Its a good point. I think there probably are ways around it because other companies figure out ways to do that. Especially if youre running an account that can report, you know, life and death news like that for celebrities that could materially change like peoples careers. I think you should do something about that. What is the end game here . Where is it headed in temps of a strategy for the outfit responsible for the hack . The end game is that privacy is becoming less important to people, but security is becoming more important. So Security Companies are just going to be the thing to look out for in 2017 and beyond. I think Online Security is paramount. Anybody that is in that space will do extremely well over time. And i do agree with you, i think two factoruthentication. Even jack dorseys twitter account has been hacked. Lots of people have been hacked by clicking on the wrong link or that sort of thing. Although if youre Britney Spears, sony has 4 million followers and youre currently selling tickets to a show in vegas, you might not be so mad that you got some free publicity, no. Probably not. I dont think britney needs it, but probably not about that. Snapchat also in the news, the Company Making a big bet on augmented reality, reportedly buying media for 30 million to 40 million. They help consumers usually li e visualize what an item might look like in their homes. It seems this was the purpose of going google glass. Will snapchat be able to do this better . Snapchat has been doing really well with their filters. If you go back to the app charts and you see where snapchat is after christmas, theyre number two in the app store, i think that has a lot do with the fact that parents are buying their kids, you know, ift pipod touchd things like that. I think that the idea of buying an augmented Reality Company so help them monetize through ecommerce where you put a piece of fun chur in your home and get to view it and that sort of thing is really interesting. I think snapchat is doing some really, really interesting things behind the scenes in their business and theyre monetizing in ways that most people just dont understand. How do necessary guys make money. Believe me, theyre making a lot of money and i think they charge Something Like 50,000 a day to put stuff on their app. So i think theyre doing really well. This is hardly facebooks billion dollar bet on instragram right before its ipo, but how should we be thinking about a Company Going on an acquisition spree and attempting to diversify . This seems like a smart bet for snap. They have been doing a lot of things recently and kind of going out in different directions. I think theyre both trying to keep a mystery around them. Nobody really knows how much money they make, how they make a lot of their money, theyre an advertising company. They also but they advertise in ways that sort of are unusual in the digital ad business. And theyre also trying to become a media company. They have a news division. And now theyre a Hardware Company with their spectacles which are like one of the most awesome gadgets ive tried recently. So theyre doing a lot of Different Things and i think that is smart. Theyre betting in many different directions. And what is most interesting about them i think is theyre trying to do things that are completely novel, that no one else in the Tech Industry is trying. And whether they fail or succeed, that makes them worth watching. Well leave it there. Thank you both for joining us. Good to be here. And as we head to break, take a look at shares to disney. Rogue one win i ning the box office. And the dow inching closer to the 20,000 mark. We are looking at just about 40 points away. Wererowning information. Is the sff that matters . Is, the stakes areo high, ur finances, the styour futo high, w y solve this . You dont. U partrtr with a firm thadviss anthe fortune 0, an can deliver insight person person, whamatters toou. Morgan snl cnbc is getting out the playbook to forecast what may happen with verse sarious secto. Next we look at health care. Reporter repealing obamacare is easy. The challenge for the Trump Administration and republicans in 2017 will be coming up with a replacement plan and pulling off a smooth transition. Three predictions . First, repeal and maintain obamacare. Republicans will repeal the aca especially the unpopular individual mandate early next year, but replacing it could take a couple of years. In the meantime, they will keep obamacare subsidies and to prevent a collapse of the market, they may come up with fund abouting to offset losses second, m a on pause. One certainty surrounding changes to the medicare and medicaid government helle problems driving growth in health care, insurers and hospitals will refrain from big mergers in 2017 and instead work on partnerships aimed at bringing down costs. Which brings us to more pay for value. Hospitals are already feeling the pressure. Next year drug makers distributors and pharmacy benefit firms will be on the hot seat to deliver lower prices, too. Better that. And wire counting down to the close in europe. Markets there were closed all day in the uk in observe advance of boxing day. Elsewhere Broader Market mostly quiet. Advance of boxing day. Elsewhere Broader Market mostly quiet. 600 headed for its biggest monthly rally. Ecb saying need Additional Capital to bolster the balance sheet. And boxing day is meaning the boxing day. And coming up, marching toward dow 20,000. Nasdaq already hitting a record high. We will discuss when squawk alley returns. Ted to tnk your supporteam r walking me throuou ted to tnk my fst oions trade we only y t for everyone gary. Well, wee alaboueducating lpeoplen optis stragies. Ll, dont rry, i t t this accishment go tmy hd. Im still e o gary. Wait, u forg your french dictnary. Oh, muo gracias. T he on tions trading th thinkorswim, oh, muo gracias. Ly at td ameritre. Its a shark its a canciging ark. Thano st. Jude childrenns research hosta because all family woabouis helpingen, their ve. Waa pl. I. Andive to those whorereot. Kids in your life dote nowt stjude. O or shop e you see the st. Ju logo. Why cant i be shark . Enjoy yo phone shark . U too. L right, be cool. You t the amg new hone 7 onouse by swing to at t. What . . Aand you gotunlitedat laughs self inisbelief okay, wdoor . Itco nd you gotunlitedat get the iphone on us anlited data en you switch to at t d have directv. Here is your cnbc news update. Toshibas chief executive is publicly apologize to go his shareholders for what he calls trouble and inconvenience after the stock price plunged by 13 in asian trading overnight in response to the companys forecast of a several billion dollar loss related to its purchase of a Nuclear Plant builder. China wants an apology from japan ahead of todays pearl harbor visit by Prime Minister abe. She says hes trying to liquidate history while failing to reconcile with china. South Koreas Constitutional Court held a second hearing as efforts to impeach that countrys president continue, but its slow going. Another hearing is set for friday after both sides could not agree on who will be asked to testify. And in michigan, a flurry of activity as engineers try to save more than 20 homes threatened by a huge sinkhole caused by a burst sewer pipe 45 feet below the ground. Thats our cnbc news update. Are you batting for cycle . You will see me on closing bell and who those what else. As we count down to the final week to the new year, lets look at tech stocks in the Broader Markets. What should we expect going into 2017 and will we see dow 20 k . Maybe this afternoon. Joining us is Portfolio Manager and also chief equity strategist. Thank you, gentlemen. Terry, tell me about where you think the markets are set up going in to year end right here. Maybe we get to dow 20,000. Its been a strongly trending upmarket. The dollar trending much higher. Is this just going to be a pause or not even a pause in the nene will we have a payback . Obviously 20,000 dow is a notable milestone, but i think more importantly it reflects underlying economic strength. 2016 has been a good year, performance is certainly above expectatio expectations. I think the economy is in the goldie lox zolocks zone. And i think we look for equities to trend higher in the new year. Technology stocks specifically, they were a laggard initially, but they have done some catchup. Was this lull in Technology Performance an opportunity for you to pick some things up or do you think that maybe technology has maybe a little more to give back considering how great an outperformer it was for the prior couple of years . I think money initially was flowing out of technology into some of the cyclical sectors like industrials and banks and people have a large weighting in technology so needed to find the money for those other sectors and thats what led to the stocks lagging. But i think the fundamental performance of some of the sectors and Technology Like the semiconductor sector, youve seen some positive preannouncements or positive announcements in that area. So i think that is leading investors to come back to the sector. Its hard to imagine the gains that that sector has already seen being replicated again from here. What is your outlook based on the gains that weve already seen for where investors can still get in in a good value and make money next year . Well, we continue to like the semiconductor sector. We think that industry has been moving toward more of an oligopoly and theyre slow to add capacity and the industry tight in some products. So where e think that tightness continue and if the economy recovers, that period could stepped throughout 2017. So we should see good demand for semi conductors and the equipment suppliers. But we also like some of the lagging sectors, amazon and apple have been lagging somewhat. And we think that those stocks look pretty good in 2017. Terry, every year about this time we revisit the accuracy of strategists across wall street. And what they are expecting for the year to come. There is some sense that this year wall street just got lucky with what happened after the election, how accurate some of those expectations actually were. What is your price target for next year and how accurate do you think viewers at home should be thinking about those expectations . Because normally its just a shot in the dark. Our price target for 2017 is 2400 on the s p 500. And that is based on a multiple of about where it is today, 19 times 2017 estimates of 127. So that gets you to roughly 2400. There is up side, but that is do con ttingent to timing out of washington. So what has propelled equity prices over the last three, four years really going back to the financial crisis has been driven liquidity and low Interest Rates are changing. Were seeing the rates move up. Secondly, you have multiple expansion. The broad index is trading at call it 21 times trailing 12 estimates. Im not sure you get much multiple expansion above those levels which then takes you to earning as the key driver. And were expecting earnings to increase, but i think the current levels of the market may be a little bit optimistic. I think we might see the broad index trade generally sideways into the new year. But in an environment where earnings are increasing, i think earning still trend higher. Where could you place us . Are we nearing the he saend, do have to be prepared for the idea that weve seen the vast majority of the gains were likely to see or do you think we can reaccelerate on from here . I think equities still trend higher. For me, its too early to put the bear suit on. I watch inflation and until you see inflation creep into the marketplace, i think valuations can stay in the high side. Also, if you look at the sectors, we have a progrowth washington that seems to be emerging and industrials, energy, financials, materials have all permitted exceedingly well since the election. And as you may know, you have financials up roughly 18 since the election alone, energy un10 . So i think some of those sectors are still well positioned for the new year but id be cautious near term. I think we might be able to pick some of those companies up at lower prices. I agree with technology, i think that is a sector where there up side for the new year. We also Like Health Care and that is somewhat of a contrarian call. You have still drug pricing concerns on the horizon and that could weigh on the sector. But expectations are low, they generally have companies within the sector performing at a price faster than the overall economy. So i think that is favorable. And lastly dont forget about the consumer. I think you have opportunities for Consumer Spending to accelerate as the year unfolds and if that is to materialize, partly driven by sentiment, i think that sector works well as well. All right. So maybe the rotation continues. Walter, terry, thanks very much. President elect trumps plan to invest more in the countrys infrastructure has led to a post election rally and a whole host of sectors, but namely in smart grid stocks. Now more on that part of the story. Good morning, deidre. Thats right, we found that it has returned nearly twice what the s p 500 has since november 8 when trump won the election. Bigger building and construction stocks like caterpillar and vulcan are the more obvious way to play, but another way is the pay grids index. Its made up of smaller infrastructure related Tech Companies that do things like smart power grids and intelligent water systems. To name a few of those outperformers, dak tronnics, it builds signs for roadways and surged more than 25 since the election. Mueller Water Products is another one. It does advanced water meters and is worth about 2. 2 billion in market cap. It climbed more than 20 . Tesla is a part of this index, too, as the thinking is that it would benefit from smarter roads and infrastructure systems. And its shares have gained nearly 10 . As a whole, the smart grids index has returned about 9 . And of the 24 stocks in that basket, only four traded lower since the election and all of those by less than 2 . Something to note, though, as i end here over the last few weeks, as doubts have rich over trumps plan to actually push through a massive infrastructure package, the k grid index has moved lower. So since december 13th, it has lost nearly 2 and underperformed the Broader Markets. So whether youre betting on or against the trump infrastructure hype, smart index is one worth watching. Okay. When we come bakcome back trumpn Holiday Spending and a lot more. Well take a look at stocks at this hour, youre looking at the dow up everything is up well call it marginal. Coming up, the bullish signal one guest says could keep stocks climbing well after the dow hit 20s,000. Plus our 2017 playbook roll on with the top plays for the new year. And halftime confessions, the trades that didnt work this year and the lessons our traders learned as a result. Well see you in about 15. Lover the halftime confessions. President elect trumps twitter feed taking no holiday over the weekend. His cabinet picks and confirmation battles ahead and a plan to dissolve the trump foundation. John harwood joining us with more on what was a very busy corner of the internet this weekend. Well, donald trump was twooe tweeting up a storm. He announced on Christmas Eve that he was going to shut down his Foundation Even though the attorney general said hold off. He challenged president obama over the u. N. Resolution that the Obama Administration did not veto condemning israeli settlements. And he also challenged president obama on the assertion that president obama could have tweeted donald trump this fall in the election. Donald trump said no way. But one thing that the Incoming Administration is bracing for is some difficult confirmation battles. Lets take a look at three of them. First of all, Rex Tillerson for secretary the of state, he will take fire over the relationship with russia, dutdonald trumps his own. And for being the chief executive of a major oil company. Exxonmobil. That will produce flack. And if he loses democrats and three republican votes, he would be defeated. Not predicting that, but something that is a responsible to slow down i go his inauguration as secretary of state. Steve mnuchin for treasury, he will take fire for his relationship with wall street. Hes a former Goldman Sachs banker. Donald trump ran a populist campaign. Criticized others for being in control of Goldman Sachs. And tom price nominated to be the health and Human Services secretary, he has proposed big changes in medicare. So has paul ryan the house speaker. And that will be a flash point because donald trump as a candidate said he wasnt going to touch medicare. Well see how that shakes out. All of this has the potential to slow down, distract from the donald trump agenda, but is not ultimately going to stop it. Because remember, donald trump has gotten both houses of congress in republican hands and that is going to accelerate some of these changes even if some nominees are in limbo. Okay. John harwood in washington, great to see you. As we head to a break, take a look at shares of tesla. The Company Striking a deal with panasonic to manufacture solar cells in buffalo, new york. Production set to begin this summer. Help creating jobs up in buffalo. Elon musk now joining that committee to help donald trump. But first before we head to break, lets head over to rick santelli. What are you watching, sir . Of course im watching the markets, im muwatching the run 20,000. What we will talk about after the break, in the Financial Community and global finance, there are missed opportunities in 16. Maybe we should have reached 20,000 for Christmas Present for the globe. What a shame we didnt. Tune in after the break and well give some suggestions of things we think could have turned out a little better. Welcome back. Lets get to the cme group. Rick santelli with the santelli exchange. Thanks, andrew. Hope you had happy holidays, as every viewer out there tuning in or listener on satellite radio. You know, just relegated solely to the Financial Community domestically and globally, theres a lot of things i think we could have done better in 2016. You know . What a shame. For example, what a shame that savers didnt experience a bigger bump in 2016. For anybody thats tried to set up a mortgage or take out a loan or has a home equity line of credit, you experience the bumps almost instantaneously in 2015 and 2016. The savings side, not so much. You know, what a shame that we didnt see more reform in parts of the euro zone and china. As i look at all the stories in my inbox on ilgs or all the problematic aspects of certain parts of the Banking System for some of the southern European Countries its a shame. Weve come out of the crisis for so many years, but everything gets swept under the rug. Also, japan, negative Interest Rates. Even in europe. I think its a shame that we didnt have a Bigger Community of economists and financial activists screaming at the top of their lungs that this isnt a good thing. Maybe the number one area is the cold war, and, of course, im relegating all of this only to the financial side so im not talking politically or from a Foreign Policy standpoint. Im talking about the relationship between governments and their financial sectors, and this country specifically about wall street and about banks. Listen, its been a lot of years since 2007 and 2008, and i understand the bailouts, but one thing i also understand, weve come through a nasty election, and in the end if really we want hope for better social implementation of our programs, we want more money for senior citizens, we want to be able to help students, the only way you can do any of that seriously is to have a better more healthy, more prosperous, bigger output type economy, and you were never going to get that without a thaw in the relationship by the toll keepers, the transmission of everything that is economic, through the financial sector. Its what a shame that we apply the word shameless to the president elect. Everybody can have their own opinion, but the president elect is trying to set an example by top down that things are too expensive. Were not going to just write checks. Were going to keep better care of the american taxpayers dollars that were taking in, but its more ridicule he is getting. Whether its boeing and lockheed martin. Listen, these are probably small concessions, but there is something very interesting about the man at the top leading by example. I think its a bit of a shame that weve applied shameless to what used to be called negotiating. Kayla, back to you. All right. Thanks so much, rick santelli, in chicago. When we come back, a bullish start to the week for the dow, but stalling a bit on its way to 20,000. What a shame. We did come within 20 points, but that was earlier this morning, and weve pulled back since then. More markets and more squawk alley in just a moment. We had an intraday earlier in the session. The dow is currently up 21 points. Just about 45 points away from 20,000. Continuing to hover below that key level, but, mike, again, Goldman Sachs is good for eight points on the dow. Apple, interestingly, postholiday, good for six. Interestingly, the dow among the major big cap indexes is the und underperformer today. The s p and nasdaq getting a lift from their bigger concentration in tech. It seemed like there was a little bit of daylight that dow tried to run for an hour, hour and a half ago after the open. It seems like on these kind of holiday thin days its tough to kind of get a sustained buying push, but well see if the close brings something more. Were looking at boeing also down about one quarter of a percent on the day. Interestingly, officials from iran said that theyre only paying about half of that 17 billion price tag to get those jetliners where. Hard to know what to make of that. If its just different ways of couching the same deal, but clearly not helping sentiment in boeing. The industrials in general not where its at. The dow is attempting an eighth straight week of gaenz. That would be the first time that happened in over three years. Of course, we still have three trading days left after for the holidays. The markets really flattened out. Its been kind of impressive how its held the gains. When it first approached 10,000, the dow in 1999, it teased you for a while. Hopefully were not in for the same exact gain. What does alexa think about the markets . Have you asked her . I have not. Cnbc has an app both on the on alexa and homm, and i tried it. People have probably seen that ad on our network if they watch cnbc. Andrew, thanks for being here. Mike, thanks as well. Lets get over to halftime confessions and scott wapner. All right, kayla. Thanks so much. Im scott wapner. The bullish sign for stocks that could keep them climbing long after the dow hits 20,000. With us for the hour jim levanthal, joe terra nova, sarat with us as well. Also with us kevin oleary, etf chairman. Lets begin with the sign. One market watcher says could lead to big gains for the s p in 2017. Jonathan of mkm Partners Joins us now on the phone. Jonathan, welcome back. Thanks