Transcripts For CNBC Squawk On The Street 20131129

1 00 p. M. , the bond market i believe at 2 00 p. M. We are poised at what would seem a higher open. Were not going to get a lot of hours of trading in. As in for the 10year note yield, lets take a look and see where we are. There it is. 27. 66. And well go to the map in europe where i can never figure out the geography. You know the boot is italy. I know the boot is italy and i can pick up russia. Our road map here back in the United States starts with what else, retail. Millions of shoppers, yes, millions hitting the stores for black friday. Well go live to say how sales are going. Brian . The markets are open today for an abbreviated trading session and we are poised to open at record highs again, which will be about the 40th time this year. I guess you guys could say that here on squawk on the street. The nasdaq finishing wednesdays session at a 13year high, kayla. And thin trading today on a shortened trading day. And also bitcoin keeps on surging, topping 1,200 earlier today, doesnt even sound real. Its having its on black friday development today. I think were going to be talking to someone from the retail side of ebay. If bitcoin keeps going up in value and it keeps going up in value then i will have overpaid you. But why would he accept that . Because it will be going up in value. Or he doesnt want to lose my business. The holiday search for bargains is under way this black friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, of course. Many consumers across the country lined up at malls in the wee hours of the morning to get first dibs on sales. Courtney reagan is at the mall at Fairfield Commons in dayton, ohio. Shes checking out the action. A lot of tinsel behind you. Its pretty festive in dayton, ohio. We a a big pick up last night when the Stores Opened earlier. A bit of a lull overnight here but traffic is starting to pick up. If we think about categories, electronics near the top of the list of what shoppers are checking out with today, including smartphones and tablets. Which cant be easy. We know some of these employees have been working the eequivalent of double shifts and we opened at 4 a. M. And ill be working until 10 00 at night. Math a little fuzzy here, about 18hour shifts. It seems that the foot traffic has been heaviest at macys. Shopular, an app, says thats where shoppers are spending the most time on average, 79 minutes followed by jcpenney. Certainly those are not the only stores that shoppers are hitting. Came out at midnight. We went to kmart, old navy, h. H. Greg, here, the mall. Payless. She was pretty ambitious. Were hearing from ibm that loon sales on thanksgiving day up 11. 5 . So growth there, too, for those who didnt want to deal with all this. Online sales will represent almost half of the sales if not more than that. That almost seems like a low number, given how many people are on their tablets rather than going to the mall. Its a huge issue people buying the devices to of course buy many things but not store. You wonder is it because they stink or is it because everybodys wave ug. Or if the parent isnt bringing the mall, are they not bringing their teens . Ive called for years for everybody to do 100 of their shoppingline so that america is just littered with empty strip malls. Well, speaking of malls, the biggest mall in the country, what is black friday looking like at the largest Shopping Mall in u. S. . We go to jay gray at the mall of america in minnesota. Good morning. Reporter hey, there. Good morning, kayla. Here people take blad friday very seriously at americas largest mall. They work in shifts. So the late night shift that came in looking for deals have just about wrapped up and the good news, for retailers anyway, that. Walking around has a bag or two bags or three bags. It looks like theyre shopping and talking to them. They say they are finding deals. They say it takes some work and some walking but that they are finding deals. A lot of people are saying theyre spending a little more this year than last year. So all good signs for the retailers. Jay gray, good luck out there in the mall of america. Lets bring in stacy and brian. Brian which retailers are doing it right and will win this season . Its tough to say now but within my group, best buy will be a winner. Theyre pricing better against the competition offline and online. Stacy, welcome. It good to see you. Not to get into best buy for a little bit are you surprised at how well it been . Yes. Buttist in best buy last night, one of 3,900 in line waiting to get in, but you talk to the salespeople and they actually know what theyre talking about now. Theyve cleared out all of the sort of c players and the staff is incredible. I i was there for research and i did not buy a thing but purely supposed to be the market for yes. But the best deal is on the games. And there as a lot of gift cards. So there are good deals out there. Brian, this stock price we all have remarked on it many times on this show. Were talking 12, they couldnt get an lbo done at more than 17 a years ago meerp we are at 40, backed off from 43 after the last quarter. Given what youre seeing, do you think its actually got more room to run . I think best buy is still cheap here. I think the real catalyst for the stock has been a new management team, new ceo, new cfo joined the company about a year ago. Theyve been in a very short amount of time, significant change to that company. I look at best buy still inexpensive here. When you think about the big promotional environment, the question is to what extent are they discounting some of these products . Did you think that will hurt margins in these stocks in the long run . It tough to say. I think one of the benefits there it gives the retailer a lot of time to prepare. Theyre working with their vendors. No question price motions are a negative for margins. When you look at the retail holders, it outperforming the s p 500 by about 3 . Jcpenney the top performer. Thats a special case. Macys has done well and surprisingly dillard. If you take a macys, theyre a middle income and they also have a lot of brand notice store like any of the others that have been limp manying around. Theyre probably the better retailer. The the key is is theyre going in and theyre getting the market share and theyre not letting it walk out the door. Analysts, well done, you go and do your store checks but of course, for example, in best buy were talking about showrooming. We dont hear about it anymore, but the idea of so many of these potential sales going online. Stacy, what are your expectations . Online stales are about 10 of the business right now. Loon purchases right now, almost 25 are being made on handheld devices. The guy who is do omni channel, like macys, theyre going to win. We cant leave without talking about jcpenney. Do you believe theyll be able to turn it around based on this Holiday Season sp. Theyre up against minus 31 comps, how can they not top comps . Have they sent their customer headed for the exits and how do they get them back . Thats not a stock im involved with. Stacy and brian, thank you very much. Happy thanksgiving. Coming up, black friday from a ceos perspective, were going to talk with farooq and steven when we come back. Looking at covered call strategies to generate income . With fidelitys options platform, weve completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. To get a list of equity options. Evaluate them with our p l calculator. And execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. Im greg stevens, and i helped create fidelitys options platform. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. When it comes to black friday, we know it can get serious. A video on youtube showed shoppers screaming and fighting over televisions at a walmart in North Carolina. Im from the south. Thats thursday. The user says hooves kicked out of the walmart for reporting. You can see the fight. Somebodys victorious. I was at an opening of a walmart in china, many years ago at this point, and there were fights at the cashier register routinely, just in the two or three hours we were there so this is not uncommon. And its also true for social media, too. And those tvs are probably smart tvs enabled with a youtube app, they can go home, install the television and watch a video of themselves trampling their neighbor for the purchase. Its like the pink floyd im off on a left field never mind. I like when you do that. Are there street signs today . No. We say black friday like its easter. Many of the stores have started their specials, like macys, a week ago. You wonder if today has the same meaning for retailers that it did once prior to the interweb. The interesting this evening is cyber monday, too, that used to be the big day for the deals online and now people have been shopping on line for the last week, two weeks, even a month. Heres a good question for the viewers, what do you guys have squawk on the tweet or something . We do. Are the deals really good today . I dont buy anything for anybody anyway so i dont have to worry about deals but is today a good deal day . I actually dont know. Theres door busters but are prices better now than they will be in a week . I have no idea. Im a similar shopper to you in that i dont. Im a nonshopper. If jim cramer were here, hed have an answer for us, he goes through i got a 75pound bag of dog food for the four dogs in my house. It appeared to be the same price. Coming up, want to avoid the masses at the mall . Ebay would like to tell you. Well tell you how ahead. And the nyse closes at 1 00 on this shortened closing day. We are up 34 in the dow. Can anything stop this market run . Were going to talk about it when squawk on the street returns on this holiday black friday. Stick around. Ya know, with new fedex one rate you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. How naughty was he . Oh boy. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [tdd 18003452550 life inspires your trading. Tdd 18003452550 where others see fads. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. Hi honey, did you get the toaster cozy . Yep. Got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. So i knit until it was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is that nana . [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Were just about ten minutes before the opening bell on this shortened trading day. Ben, it seems like theres nothing on the calendar, a very thin next week. What are you watching for in terms of retail . Its the only thing the market is going off of this day. The only thing is the arbitrage in the retail sector, target versus coach or macys versus penneys. Why the traders are interested today will be the closing, when you get whats called window dressing, whether defending those positions, long or short going into the closing bell today, you may see a little bit of excitement. Other than that, keep an eye on money flows that are going into mutual funds, its going to keep this bull going. Were at 16,097, do you think the win dro dressing today will be largely profit taking . No. At this point i dont see any reason to take profits. Ride this as long as can you, flight. The bull called tina. There is no alternative. Right now the market seems to be collecting in the money fund market, sitting short term, waiting for the right time to invest. But if youve waited, you missed the trade. Is there a quiet feeling that this will end badly at some point that, were just going to ride the roller coaster as long as we can . Why be the first one off . Everybodys enjoying the ride. Are there whispers this will not end well . Ive been in the business for 30 years. Every professional i talk to will tell you the money they want to spend is at least on some protection to the down side. Weve not had any significant correction for the year, we had one 5 , one 4. 5 , a lot of complacency. Were going to be in december soon and thinking about the end of the year and the taper. As i tried to explain to people, if you want to retire, you should not be in bonds. This market is going to continue to do what its going to do in anticipation of one of the worst recessions depressions weve ever been in. I think the low fruits been picked. Its where do we go from here . The conventional wisdom is the market will keep going up but there could be volatility in december. You have the jobs report, november retail sales and you also have the budget deadline december 13. I hope so. I hope for volatility. What happens in the middle of deficien december . In full disclosure, i believe the fed was going to taper last month. So that was my whole prediction. Im not alone when i see firms like goldman sachs. The fed gave a clear signal to the market and they disappointed. Youll see the fed try to regain that credibility. Are we in the media too focused on this idea of taper . The reality is we know it going to happen at some point. If you know somethings going to happen, you plan for it. It may be longer away than you think but its still going to happen. I think earnings still should matter. If we grow the 1 next year, youll see the market go down considerably because earnings are going to go up. If we grow at 4 next year, the market should go up because earnings will expand. It is that simple. Its not necessarily the media but the fact of the matter the fed has interjected itself to manipulate the marketplace. If its quantitative easing, the opposite of easing has to be tightening. It may not be the tool thats what they call their tool, but thats why weve seen the tenyear go from 1. 6 to 2. 5 to 2. 7. In the meantime, these few short months will look like a blip on the screen in the history of when you should have been in the market. The opening bell on this holiday shortened trading day is just about four minutes away. Squawk on the street is back right after this. Ng, isnt a thing at all . Its lots of things. All waking up. Connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Became big business overnight . Like, really big. Then expanded . Or their new product tanked . Or not . What if they embrace new technology instead . Imagine a companys future with the future of trading. Company profile. A Research Tool on thinkorswim. From td ameritrade. That aside, heres the issue. Do i care how much somebody sells . Do i care how much theyre making from what they sell . Jcpenney will probably sell a lot of stuff but what is their apple going to be . What is apples margin . 40some percent . Thats a good point. You hear the opening bell here at the nyse. At the big board, we have chaired buzz, raising funds for nonprofits. Over at the nasdaq, sears holdings. And which also owns kmart. Is lampert there . Hes probably down in florida. Theres more green. Then i leave it to cramer and he takes it from there. People say why are stocks higher . You say because people are buyi buying, more buyers than sellers. Thats always the answer. The small cap is beating the nasdaq by about 5 . No ones paying attention to the small caps. They are just continuing to run. What im saying to our audience, this worldwide audience of billions right now, Pay Attention to the small caps. Hes a good piece of advice. Some people paying attention to best buy this morning. We talked a good deal about if around the 9 00 hour, the stock was at 1. 8 right now. Off of its high but what a story this has been over the course of the last year. That stock up around 250 or more percent. 240 . Just trailing two of your favorites, netflix and tesla. Best buy was my pick for street signs last year. And i finished i think second if the season would have continued, i would have destroyed my competition, like i like to, but you brought up that the founder, richard scholes, could not get a buy at 15. The run for best buy has been spectacular. When you look at the leaders over the last month or so, no knock on the jcpenneys, the first solars, the xerox, the pitney bowes. When you talk about those stocks that have risen, a lot of those are best performers from an alltime low. Jcpenney is one of the best performers from the alltime lows. A lowquality rally. These are not leading names. I havent heard the tina analogy that ben made earlier because theres nothing else to buy, there is nothing else to buy, t. I. N. A. , im going to borrow that. Europe, a lot of very shot people said im poking around in europe and im starting to buy big cap european stocks, a lot of people said he was nuts, hes outperformed. You can be right but at the wrong time. A lot of people said go buy europe, buy european equities. Do you think that right now is the time to actually get into its hard to know. Last year my main prediction was the nikkei would be the best selling developed market on world im going to listen to you this year. If you picked the nikkei and best buy, you got something going on here. Why are you working here . Even a blind skiquirrel finda nut. Ill give you a preview. Cinquo demayo. It has nothing to do with the date. If we rallied off qe 1, why wouldnt be nikkei also rally when the experiment is bigger and japan is working up to the fact that they need more bursts and they need to put people in the workforce. The whole men work and women dont is garbage. Mitsubishi bank, i used to work there. Put the smartest people in the job. In the next five years, i think mexico is going to be a fantastic story, unless its not. In which case ill never mention it again. Citigroup is making big bets on mexico. The consumer is just starting to have spending power. The middle class. Manufacturing capacity. If they can control the violence, the drug violence. A lot of people used to go to mexico on vacation, they say i cant go. Mexico needs to fix that and you should see tourism rebound and give the market another runup. James, target, home depot all up this morning. Generally a positive take on retail. Mary thompson joins us on the floor with more on what is moving this morning. Good morning, mary. David, we see a continuation of the record run weve had on wall street today in a holiday shortened trading session. Well close at 1 00 eastern time. A little bit of weakness in the banking stocks and Energy Stocks as well as the reits today. The markets are on track for their third month of gains, the dow up 3. 5 , the nasdaq up 3. 2 and the s p up 2. 9 . So overall a very strong threemonth period for the markets as we head into december, which also is historically a fairly strong month for the markets. Lets take a quick look at the retailers. I know david just mentioned them in early trading, were seeing them up across the board, retailing looking strong amongs groups that we follow in todays session. The shippers are moving higher in the previomarket. Theyre seeing big gains in things like coal and grain. A couple of other stocks, Archer Daniels midland, the company is saying that the Australian Government nixed its bid to buy product and pulling back a bit. And renren down 4. 5 . The dow keeps climbing, though, up 44 points. Kayla and david, i want to ask you two to opine for a second, if you will and you can clo choose to pass or avoid. And theres no pink floyd reference . No. You keep making the absurd statement if earnings will rise, they will rise unless they fall, earnings dont rise anymore. This is a fedinduced bubble. To say anything different is silly. So some think that its 100 of the rally that weve seen is from the fed. I think some of it is from the fed but 100 . What do you think . The Asset Managers i spoke to are focused on the taper, coupled with a rising multiple and the question as to whether Corporate America can continue to justify that by deliverings earnings next year. I think its a valid concern. But i think weve reached a point where you have to talk about revenues because companies have become so efficient, theyre using excess cash to buy back their own stock, theyre not hiring. Revenue growth has been paltry. The bottom line has been much stronger than the top line because of the productivity. Everybody i know in Corporate America is maxed out. Theyre putting in 60, 70 hours a week. The companies have got to start hiring people. Dear fortune 500, start hiring with your profits. Sheila . We are opening at a fresh 13year high. We are right now at 4,060. Part of the story has to do with apple. It really an up trend weve been seeing this entire week. If we can close above the 5. 50 a share level, we are right next to that right now, thats a level we havent seen since january. Retail of course also in big focus at the nasdaq. Sears did ring the opening bell. No sighting of Eddie Lampert but that stock down about 1 . And retail getting a good lift. Take a look at dollar tree, costco, Bed Bath Beyond and weve been hearing a lot of positive feedback about online sales. And one of the big things about the nasdaqs rise this year, tesla, baidu, netflix, amazon all higher today. Happy black friday to you, rick. Looks like the 10year is 2. 76. What do you have your eye on today . Well, its 2. 75, 2. 76, just to put some perspective. On wednesday, our last trading day, we had a settlement around 2. 74. We closed last week at 2. 74. So we are a little bit above it. A twoweek chart reveals that the immediate issue is the 2. 80 level, which was last weeks kind of high water mark. Of course we all know that the high yield close thus far since this move since the 138 alltime yield on the 10 has been 2. 99, not quite 3 . If we look at the spreads and it really is a spread gain, whether you look at the 5 to 10s or 5 to 30s on a monthtodate chart, you can see there has been some flattening. It doesnt seem to be the favorite trade which is the steepener. Lets look at whats going on overseas. They werent closed. Many talked about japanese data but being of talking with remaining issues with greece and the imf, the troika not necessarily taking the calendar schedule that was out there so when we start to get back into the thick of this after holidays and maybe post next year as we get into 2014, i think europe and some of the southern economies will be right back. On the bunds versus 10s, thats a 20year chart. Dollar yen reads close to 103 in the early trading. Can you see why traders are excited. Some thing the dollar yen could hit 120 let go over to bertha coombs. Reporter this morning we got brent a little bit under pressure, wti floating a bit higher. For the month if you had invested in the brent premium, that would have been the trade to do. These two were at par. Weve seen wti nine next, the worst losing streak with the growing inventory here. Thats the worst decline in the last three monies in about five years or so. The weaker dollar today is spritty much supportive across the board. Weve got bullish news as far as cold in china, about 1030 bought in terms of the physical market. Thats providing a little bit of support for gold. But gold as well working on its worst losing streak, going to be down this year for the first time in this century. Guys, back to you. All right, bertha, thank you very much. Up next, protesters taking aim at walmart, taking aim at higher wages. Phil lebeau is there. Brian, were here in the south side of chicago. Are they protesting for wagers with workers who actually work at walmart . Well talk about that after this break. [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] 1. 21 gigawatts. Today, thats easy. Ge is revolutionizing power. Supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. Using data predictively to help power entire cities. So the turbines of today. Will power us all. Into the future. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of unsurpassed craftsmanship at the lexus december to remember sales event. Some of the best offers of the year. This is the pursuit of perfection. You can fill that box and pay one flat rate. How naughty was he . Oh boy. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. 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They went to the parade, they hung out. You know who else was at the parade . I do, actually. Joe kernen . Yes, i think the camera panned to joe. Front row joe, no disrespect to joe nemecheck, the race car driver. Walmart bracing for activists and their supporters. They believe the wages are too little to live on and they are fighting for more pay. Phil lebeau is there. Reporter there are about 75 protesters and some of the employees, the gentleman in the bright green shirt, is a walmart employee. But generally speaking, weve only come across a handful of employees. The others have been bussed to this location. Why are they here . They call it jobs for justice, they say the average worker makes 8. 81 and should be making 12. 50, what they call a living age. You got walmart employees that are scared and theyre being scared because theyre being intimidated pup g. You getting threatened with your jobs, thats the first thing youre looking at. We want our jobs. But dont nobody know about they have a right to strike and organize because this is the law. Reporter that is one of the few walmart works are that we talked with who is actually out here walking in front of the stores, protesting. Walmart has more than 1. 4 million employees in the u. S. And when the ceo of the u. S. Division of walmart was asked this morning about these protests, heres what he had to say about them paying the minimum wage. Were proceed of the pay that we have. We pay in the top half of the retail industry. We understand there will be people out looking for more. We stand that frustration after five years of a difficult economy and were going to do all we can to look for opportunities for them to advance. As you take a look at the chart of walmart stock over the last year, the question has come up how much will these protests actually keep people from going into, say, this Walmart Neighborhood market or another store we were in today. The people at the other store, they were not fazed by protesters, they were going in. But for now, david, thats the story here on the north side of chicago. Back to you. Thanks very much, phil lebeau. A complicated to deal with there in terms of those wages. Coming up on our black friday edition of squawk on the street, bitcoin goes black friday. Stick around to find out what were talking about. Be right back. You get your coffee here. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. Joining us, the cofounder of century 21 stores. Its been 50 years, we opened up right on portland street and it a small store thats grown over the years and now we have eight years in the tristate area. Does a day like this matter . It does. Its the start of the Holiday Season. Th the crowds do come in, they want to shop. Everybody is on the floor. You made the decision not to open on thanksgiving. Do you feel you missed out on sales . I dont. Number one, we want our employees to be home with their families on thanksgiving. Good for you. And we dont feel it will shift the bottom line. Shopping early moves the monday forward. Being closed on that day is not going to affect the bottom line. Youre discounting all year round. Do you find it amazing how the main line retailers trip over themselves this time of year . Its unbelievable. Everybody has their on. We offer values, 65 off Retail Prices of single day of the year like you mentioned. Customers dont have to wait till black friday to come in and get deals. They can get it any time. Why arent you national . Why arent you a publicly traded company . Why arent you in des moines, debuque . Well, were a privately owned company in. Why . We dont want to go nationwide yet. We are looking out of state for the first time in a long time. But were going to keep it controlled and to our comfort level. Youve managed to stay out of bankruptcy whereas a lot of your competitors, sims or daphnes or filines has visited it more than once. What do you chuck your success up to . Weve learned from companies that try to expand too fast, try to do too much too quickly and overextend themselves. We know what our secret not secret but our formula for success is and thats developing relationships with our vendors, giving us great experience. Staying in business this long, its no accident. We know what were doing. Bank bank and mens wearhouse, should they get together . Thats another question i cant answer. Why do all of your associates wear those gold and Yellow Jackets when they sell houses . When i used to go on the market, im hear from century 21the 21th, they say im not buying house. Who had the name century 21 first . We did. Coming up, well have the ceo of the National Retail federation. And also well have interesting questions on ecommerce. Tomorrow night is the deadline for obama care. Will it be fixed . We have some very big guests on this hour of squawk on the street this friday morning. vo you are a business pro. Maestro of project management. Baron of the buildout. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. aaron purrrfect. vo meeeow, business pro. Meeeow. Go national. Go like a pro. Just by talking to a helmet. It grabbed the patients record before we even picked him up. It found out the doctor we needed was at st. Annes. Wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away. It even pulled strings with the stoplights. My ambulance talks with smoke alarms and pilots and stadiums. But, of course, its a good listener too. [ female announcer ] today cisco is connecting the internet of everything. So everything works like never before. Yes, the madness has begun. Retailers across america are already seeing long lines as black friday begins to shape up. Want to get your hands on a google glass . How about an xbox. They are some of the hottest height items on ebay and following in the steps of retail, ebay started its sales early. And lets not forget the New York Stock Exchange teaming with children will close at 1 00 p. M. Eastern today. And the november 30th deadline for the healthcare. Gov relaunch is just a day away and they just called in hp for help. Well talk with the operators of University Health services on just when the debacle may be over. Kayla . Shoppers all over the country are braving the crowds to take advantage of big discounts. Best buy often has some of the best discounts. Josh hows it going . Reporter here at best buy, the sale started thursday at 6 00 p. M. You saw big crowds last night. When i got here this morning around 5, 5 30, shoppers were already here looking for in electron iks. Tech could overtake closing to new products, a better economy, he said hes looking for Strong Demand in two areas in particular. Large screen tvs and tablet computers. Those have been strong sellers all year. Weve got a lot of great pricing in those categories and lots of consumer demand. Baker says he looking for Strong Demand for apples ipad, Amazon Kindle but the shoppers we spoke to this morning were most interested in those televisions. Best buy is having a sale, 169 for a 39 inch. We just grabbed a 40inch one for the play station, you got to have the whole bundle. Now 31 of those surveyed by the Consumer Electronics association said they intended to buy electronic this weekend, of course the actual number could be a lot higher. Simon, back to you. In the meantime, the National Retail federation is previous districting 97 Million People will shot today. Here in a first on cnbc interview is matthew shea. Before we get into the i think you even put some guidelines as to how big retailers should handle the crowds because they could be so enormous this year. This has been described as the super bowl, the world series, the masters, the stanley cup all rolled into one for retailers. So this is the day that really makes the season for many we retailers. An enormous amount of thought and time goes into everything, merchandisi merchandising, marketing and you really have to approach this as a very significant effort because if you dont execute this week and today and tomorrow into particular, then can you have a tough season. You know, it was bizarre. I was watching a movie last night and i would think half of all the adverts that came on were for tablets, which broadcasters are really trying to avoid putting intel against microsoft against apple. To what extent will electronic sales sap the strength from other areas of the market . Theres also a lot of Energy Around electronics. That tends to lead in many ways and drive traffic for retailers who come and bring people in their stores based on the way they lead with those products. But we know that in spite of the very somewhat positive top line indicators in the economies, stock market, gas prices, housing prices, its going to be very promotional out there. The gdp is not significant, retailers are going to be very, very promotion to to bring these great deals to customers the numbers weve seen have been record breaking, record breaking crowds and we think thats going to lead to a great Holiday Season. Matthew, you talk about consumers that struggling. Consumer confidence fell to a sevenmonth low. To what extend do you think consumers arent ready to spend a boat load of money . Were predicting 3. 9 growth. We think it going to be a very strong season. Historically for the last 10 years, the average has been about 3. 5 but were not back to the prerecession number of high single digits. A lot of that is due to the fact that you have these someone hollow indcys and that would seem to indicate a robust grow, growing and healthy economy. But for many consumers, they dont feel that way. Weve talked a lot about this being a tail of two le of two r broad measure of unemployment. Were just not growing enough. Consumers are looking for deals and theyre going to find them this week. How have the sales been tracking . We got about a dozen of ceos in new york the week before last. I think things broadly speaking, across sectors, have been very challenging, it was promotional. When you get into the Holiday Season, this is the time of year when people are making emotional purchases. It Discretionary Spending theyre doing because theyre excited about the season. So we feel very positive and we feel very good about the numbers that were seeing so far over tonight and heading into this morning. Were confident were going to have a strong season and well see house of representatives the rest of this weekend plays out. Mr. Shea, we are watching scenes in chicago where there are protests against the wages being paid at walmart and to a certain extent that retail giant is on a defensive and weve seen that on the today show today. Have you softened your attitude towards a rise in the minimum wage . Theres a billionaire in california also trying to get the minimum wage raised. I think 10. 10 is what it would have to be raised to. We should really be focused on other policies. Rather than an policy that will increase cost for retailers, we should look at policies that create more jobs. We should fix our tax code, do an immigration deal. We ought to let the market drive growth for everyone. Out of a works for of 160 million, 2 million are working at minimum wage. Its really a starting wage, not a minimum wage. Am i right to say youre also using the Holiday Season to get the thousands take up a senate bill that will impose uniform state taxes on purchases regardless of whether they were online or out of state . Thats right. Weve been talking about main street fair tax for a long time now. Once upon a time it made sense to give them a fair chance when they started out in particular. We ought to have a level Playing Field on main whether theyre in ohio or washington, d. C. Or seattle, washington, theyre buying from states across the country. And those retailers ought to be paying sales tax. Everyone ought to be required to collect and remit that to the state. We cant arbitrarily decide if youre head yes dont thi. Well see if the house takes it up again. Thank thanksgiving. You, too. Of the National Retail federation. Thank you. Deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers. In case you havent seen it, its black friday. This was posted on youtube by a shopper. If you could create a hash tag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be . Tweet us. Well, they may be hard to find in stores but they are on ebay and the prices are high. Well find out just how much they are going for. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. Troubled healthcare. Gov web site is switching web hoster providers from verizons taramark to hewlett packard. This is to try to relaunch and fix the web site. The administration said it will accurately for about 80 of users by tomorrow. Joining me is alan miller, chairman of a fortune 500 Health Care Management company. A lot of people are reveling in the problems. Are is this really just a Minor Technology issues, which in a few months we will have forgotten. I have the whole idea that of afordable care act is to, obviously there are problems at the moment. They may not be ready on november 30th. But were going to see expanded coverage. Our stocks are very strong. 30 more people will have coverage and 30 more people will have Mental Health coverage. So that will happen. When it all happens rn when its perfect, who can tell. But what you have heard, sir . Hopefully can you tell. Youre running more than a hundred hospitals. What you have heard . Were running about 200. People are telling us that it is more difficult than they had anticipated but people are coming to hospitals. People are getting sick, people are getting injured. They have to go to hospitals and they are still coming. So i think it temporary. I dont know how long that lasts, him and that will be very good for the industry and for the. We can see there are problems with the front end of the desk. Can you give us an idea of what is happening at the back end and to cross reference the data and make it available to Health Care Providers like you. Because the word is that there could be chaos in opts because nobodys abe to work out who officially has coverage and at level going into the Holiday Season . I think thats going to have to be worked out. Certainly the insurers are very concerned with the actuaries. The big problem is are younger people going to sign up . And insurers are very concerned about that, no question about it. But i think ultimately we have to see the extent of the coverage and then the i surers, they will be in business. There are exemptions then youre going to have people who will happen the government will provide subsidies and give the coverage. Were looking forward to the fact were going to have many more people covered. It as simple as that. Ncht and and hes expressed skepticism about the fact that the wb site will be up here, governor dean joins us. We should note he is also a cnbc contributor. Thank you. Were ignoring a huge issue, half the people on the obama care, half a million of them are on medicaid. That. But walk you throughs what happened tomorrow. Whats the best and worst Case Scenario here . Lots of moaning and growning over the talk shows over the weekend. I think the president actually stated this pretty well. 80 is not what youd expect from a good web site but its a whole lot better than than what it was. So im looking at this story in the wall street journal that hp is replacing verizon as the host of the web site. It also said hp signed a contract this summer. Is this opt ibs for you . If it doesnt work, the president and democrats are in a lot of troum and they. If i dont have coverage, i still get treated at hospitals and the fiend is less that what i pay in premiums. Unless i get into a car wreck, im going to be able to sign up, even if i get sick. Thats actually not true. After the initial signup period, you can only sign up once a year and you dont get any tax subsidies. Thats the first problem. If god forbid something does happen to you and the child and the wife. Listen, at 25 years old, i would have signed up in i could. It the 26 to 30yearolds that you have to worry about here. And i grief with you, there will be a resistance to signing up but they eventually will. Not because of the fine but because it makes sense. You may have spent the Harley Davidson if you get sick. And theres always this de13thline to have budget. Senator paul murray. Ok , i a ridiculous process and they cant get their act together. What would you do if you were in the white house . Cry. No. I think congress has the purse strings, they have to get this together. I think i would probably be having a lot of meetings behind the scenes. Theyre going to get a bare minimum of strategy talks after this deadline and we need to get this to move on. In 2014, are you running for congress . No, i like hillary clinton, irthink shed be a great president so im supporting her. Wheres she been . Shes difficult nitly laying low. Shes worked hard for a along. Why are we talking about the 2016 race . Hobbs clinton, 2016 . What makes you think i woulding on that side of the aisle . Thats a good question, governor. Who is going to be challenging anybody is it hobbs cruise, hops h what more could you do, right . Sal lot of value adhere when were talking about the obama care budget. Of course well be talking about that for three years. Up next, how the moles over the country are taking extra measures to protect shoppers this friday. And well check in with Homeland Security right after the break. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of exacting precision and some of the best offers of the year [ ding ] at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. At the lexus december to remember sales event. Is a really big deal. U with aches, fever and chills theres no such thing as a little flu. So why treat it like its a little cold . Theres something that works differently than overthecounter remedies. Prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. So call your doctor right away. 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Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. Yep. Got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. So i knit until it was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is that nana . [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. Baby, its cold outside its take your kids to work day. Always a fun day on the floor. Right now the dow, 16,167. The inflation adjusted alltime high, 16,219. Were pushing that now. Its interesting with the s p constantly above 1800. We can debate whether that is a Fresh Trading range. Ebay, gamestop and microsoft are the top gainers, companies that will feature prominently in the Holiday Season and at least they hope. In the wake of high profile shootings in jersey and in kenya, Shopping Malls are taking security very seriously this Holiday Season. Eamon javers is live with more on that. Reporter good morning. Were here at tysons small in virginia, if you manage a mall, that shooting incident in paramus, new jersey is very much on your mind, as well as others around the country. Theyre stepping it up. Take a listen. Were just hoping everyone is in Holiday Cheer today. There will be an enhanced police presence. The mall security is complemented by a Law Enforcement patrol. In many centers, theyve worked through response protocols where theyll shut the doors, attempt to evacuate areas very quickly or shelter in place where its safe to do so. We certainly saw that in paramus. One of the problems for mall security experts, you dont want to scare away shoppers. Shoppers today say theyre comfortable with the security around the ball. Were just hoping everyones in the Holiday Cheer. If you get too worried about that, you wouldnt be able to go outside. Theyve got it covered without them being around. So there you have it, direct from santa claus himself. He says the security here is fine. If santa says it, hes fine. Eamon javers, the only man in america in a suit right now. He isnt the only person wearing a suit this Holiday Season. Youre wearing a suit. But im not wearing a full suit. You dont know whats on the bottom. David kalb was arrested after being featured in an episode of american greed. Heres a clip. April 2012, 29yearold david kalb pleads guilty orchestrating a series of mortgage and lending frauds across the country. He may be young but hes destroyed lives and stole nearly 11 million says u. S. Attorney james bowman. I think theres no question hes very intelligent. Unfortunately, he decided to use that intelligence to lure people in to give money he was going to lose or spend for himself. He pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 50 families in three separate different fraud schemes. Not everyone ventures out to the stores on friday. Some use the internet. Well find out how much online traffic is expected coming up. R] if we could see energy. What would we see . The billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. Wed see all the electricity flowing through the devices that connect us and teach us. Wed see that almost 100 of medical plastics are made from oil and natural gas. And an industry that supports almost 10 million american jobs. Life takes energy. And no one applies more technology to produce American Energy and refine it more efficiently than exxonmobil. Because using energy responsibly has never been more important. Energy lives here. The National Retail federation says more than half of americans will do their shopping online today. Chris payne is the head of ebay north america. Welcome to the program. Good morning. What are you seeing . Its going to be a big few days. Lots going on. Since midnight last night, we started our deals program for black friday. Were selling an ipad minui a second, believe it or not. It will be an exciting few days. You were selling an ipad mini a second . At midnight. Wow. How big is the tablet spend going to be this year and to what degree do you think it will all spend away from other areas . How are you focusing the product that you have . Theres a lot of great deals available online. The hottest gifting item this holiday without a doubt is the gaming console, sony and microsoft are kind of duking it out. Theyre out of stock most places. Fortunately you can get them on ebay. Were selling one every couple minutes at this point, people are reselling them on ebay. So if little johnny needs one for christmas, you can get them there. But theres lots of products, particularly around electronics, that are hot this season. Google glass going for about 26 on ebay. Is that going to be one of your big sellers . Whats your outlook for the product . I wouldnt say its a big seller yet, its an innovative product. It wont be a big one for us this holiday. You mentioned the reselling of items. I know thats a big part of ebays business. Does that push a lot of your sales back . Are you going to see a lot of sales coming from people not being able to return them and actually reselling them on ebay . Ebay is about 75 new items. So its not redominapredominant resale business any longer. Right now were in the heat of the deal season, everything selling out very, very quickly. But as we get past christmas or people want to return something or didnt like the present they got, absolutely, people turn to ebay to sell that product and move on. Chris, how do you get paid . Do you care if an xbox one goes for a thousand dollars or 500 . We take a percentage. If an xbox one is going between 600 or 700 today, we take a cut of that transaction. This is still an investing network. Have i to ask you about where we are on the profitability of the company and where we are on your stock price. Youve had a huge surge in google and amazon stock prices. Yours continues to fall back. The company warned on october the 16th of a dramatically decelerating u. S. Ecommerce growth. How do you square that Public Statement or that reaction to the interview weve had at this point . Were not focused on the shortterm movements in the stock. Were focused on delivering for the customer. Theres a lot going on. Were really pleased with the first three quarters of this year. At ebay, inc. , our commerce vol um is up for the year. Were really focused on innovating on behalf of the customers. We think we do that, good things will follow. Forgive me for asking you, are you still seeing a dramatically decelerating ecommerce growth in this country . I have nothing to add other than what bob swan, our cfo, added at the last conference call. As you guys know, cyber week, if you will, is a very important week. Its happening right now and were focused on delivering that value to our customers. Chris, we spend a lot of time debating the merits of bitcoin. Your ceo was quoted as saying it would eventually accept bitcoin. What is your take on this new currency and do you think ebay will eventually start accepting this . Its early in the Digital Currency realm. We allow it in a classified or free format where we dont take a cut of the transaction today. John donahoe, our ceo has talked about it as a part of our industry but its very well. Thank you for joining us. Some stocks are trading in the s p right now, ebay is the second best performer today. Amazon is about ninth out of 500 names. So people are biography the ecommerce names today, perhaps out of the cyber bounce. Its had a rough time when everybody else has been able to accelerate into year end . Whens simon monday . Simon monday . Coming up, well see who is the true winner this year. And are you putting your money to work . Floor trading for gold will close at 12 30, electronic trading will remain open until 5 15 eastern for those overachievers. Squawk on the street will be back in two. Its raining men, amen announcer at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. With scottrades online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login. To easily move my money when i need to. Plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer scottradeproud to be ranked best overall client experience. Is a really big deal. U with aches, fever and chills theres no such thing as a little flu. So why treat it like its a little cold . Theres something that works differently than overthecounter remedies. Prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. So call your doctor right away. Tamiflu treats the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. Before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if youre pregnant, nursing, have Serious Health conditions, or take other medicines. If you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. Children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. The most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. So dont wait. Attack the flu virus at its source. Ask your doctor about tamiflu, prescription for flu. Maestro of project management. Baron of the buildout. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. aaron purrrfect. vo meeeow, business pro. Meeeow. Go national. Go like a pro. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Black friday is in full swing, though technically it started yesterday. Courtney reagan is live at the mall in fairfield, ohio with more. Good morning. Reporter good morning. It feels like afternoon or evening here. Weve been going strong for quite a number of hours now. Ibm says thanksgiving day online sales up 20 . Traffic beginning to pick up here at the mall. Thats what im hearing from malls around the country as well. Jcpenney, one of those retailers that opened doors at 8 00 p. M. Jpmorgan thinks traffic is picking up at jcpenney. Not every jcpenney shopper agrees. Listen to what one of them told us today. It wasnt as crowded this year compared to last year, which i was surprised. So it wasnt too much of a difference except for the fact it want crowded. A couple of analysts do think that walmarts gradual door buster sales have really helped with traffic. Observations traffic heavy at walmart around the country. Macys noted as a clear winner, the door buster specials with the brand names really helping and that data seems to be supported from what were hearing from the folks out of shopular, its an app and it says walmart foot traffic up 150 and that macys is winning for the longest shopping visit at 79 minutes, followed by jcpenney at 72. Thats because people are wandering around aimlessly trying to find what theyre looking for. Perhaps. Where are the socks . Hey, go oakwood high. Just want to throw that out there. You know what i mean. Lets get the news on the Luxury Brands. And the luxury spender, the fed has made everybody richer. We play in a different paradigm than a lot of the headlines were seeing. A lot of the true Luxury Brands werent open, arent discounting. There are winners and losers. Its really about the product. We can look at a lot of the stats. The luxury shopper is there but theyre making choices. Do you have to discount . At the high end, why discount . We are not discounting. Our business is really about supporting our designers and about bringing the best product and listening to our collectors and theyre there and theyre buying. Can you just give us questions on the products weve got here. How much are the pigs . The pigs are 88. Theyre hand painted. The other ornament is about 150. And its neiman marcus, sachs, fifth avenue . Thats right. Your consumers are not breaking down the doors. What does that mean for aurora brands . Luckily our consumer is breaking down the door but theyre buying at regular price. Most of these things are limited edition, hand made, theyre very special products. Our customers there are. It is a very important week for us. How much of your business do you do this week in terms of the overall Holiday Season . Well, holiday is about 20 of our business. Well probably do 15 of that this week. Lee, youre a private equity guy. You bought this business, youre restructuring it. What is your exit strategy here . We see a lot of private equity getting out on the market. Do you look for an acquirer . We have important luxury, home, gift, Lifestyle Brands and were continuing to build on that platform. That isnt really an answer. What is your exit strategy . I think it is either at some point to take the business public or sell to a large strategic. Thats pretty much what any company will do to maximize their exit strategy. Sell the company. Our plan is to close up shot and walk away. He might say i dont want to exit, i want to stay in this. Nobody does that. Really . Still ahead, the chairman and ceo of ethan allen will join us with his take on the Holiday Season. Back after a quick break. Were aig. And were here. To help secure retirements and protect financial futures. To help communities recover and rebuild. For Companies Going from garage to global. On the ground, in the air, even into space. We repaid every dollar america lent us. And gave america back a profit. Were here to keep our promises. To help you realize a better tomorrow. From the families of aig, happy holidays. The dow is up 53. Lets get to Rick Santelli in chicago. Good morning, rick. Good morning, simon. You know, an expression that we hear quite often these days is there is no alternative. T. I. N. A. Using that expression seems to, at least in the urban legend category, to be credited to margaret thatcher. But the way i think i would like to discuss t. I. N. A. This morning is in the context of what weve heard just today alone, at least several times. And that is equities are going up for one major reason, and that, of course, is liquidity and fed programs and supouuper low Interest Rates, m postcrisis super low, and there is no alternative. The flows will go in the riskier areas because there is no return there isnt any return in other areas. But i think that t. I. N. A. Can be applied to the fixed income markets, as well. One of the conventional wisdoms just like the notion that stocks will keep going up is that Interest Rates are going to be broken up into long, medium, and short maturities with the big trade being a yield curve steepening. And historically, at least for the last several months, and maybe even for the last year, its been true. Its been a great trade for many on this trading floor, and many viewers and listeners that are running funds and big investment pools, that may be home today watching. But consider. What if theyre wrong . I had a guest on wednesday who said, you know, i think maybe the economy would heal faster, which means that the steepeners could quickly turn to flatteners. But think about what that could mean. Think about all of the anxieties that we experienced in the credit crisis due to the fact that Companies Like lehmans, like bear stearns, like Drexel Burnham lambert, its about shortterm overnight money, trying to procure funds to keep the operation going. A yield curve flattening would mean that short rates could pop up longer and faster than long rates. And if that is true, what about all of the companies that have really fed at the trough of cheap money . What would happen to them . Ive been thinking of ways that the yield curve could flatten. Ill have a guest on. Well explore that. Ill give you a final thought. The 2014 midterms. Now, no matter what side of the aisle youre on, the gridlock in certain ways is one of the reasons i think the yield curve remains steep. If one party becomes dominant, i think that could change. One of the signals, maybe we should pay more attention to is, if the gridlock stops, whether for good or bad, will the yield curve have dramatic changes . Big question mark. Back to you. All right, thank you so much, rick. Always enlightening. Thanks for your thoughts. Second mention of t. I. N. A. On the show. We had ben willis on earlier talking t. I. N. A. Meanwhile, were watching the stock market. And if you need stockingstuffer ideas, how about a stock filler . Dominic chu has some of the possible winners this Holiday Season. Dom . Kayla, lets stay in the black friday spirit of things, because, of course, its a huge shopping holiday. Lets look at some of the Retail Stocks that end up doing the best, and this time around, were going to look at one part of the retailers specifically, and those are the jewellers, the ones tied to the jewelry business. Now, the thirdbest performing stock among the big retail names that we talk about, over the past black three black fridays to the year end, so black friday to the end of the year, over the past three years. On average, blue nile is up almost 16. 5 a year during that timeframe. Not too shabby. Number two, also on the jewelry side of things, zale, one of the Biggest Jewelry Companies in america. That stock is up nearly 19 a year, in terms of the black friday to the yearend period for the last three years, on average. And number one is movado, up over 19 during that time period. The Consumer Discretionary stocks are a big focus for investors, because if you look at the overall picture, the etf, the one that tracks the Consumer Discretionary stocks, is up massively, 222 over the course of the last five years, and on average, over the last three Holiday Shopping seasons between black friday and year end, kayla, those stocks are up about 4 on average. So again, if youre looking for a place to put your money, some stocking stuffers, check out the Consumer Discretionary stocks, specifically the ones tied to the jewelry business. Back over to you. Thanks, dom. A programming note for the gentlemen looking to buy Something Special and shiny, watch on monday. Blue niles president and ceo is an exclusive on squawk on the street. All right. Tweet time. If the pushy crowds and shopping deals arent clue enough today is black friday did you know that today was black friday, america . And heres what it looked like inside a walmart in North Carolina yesterday. People basically pushing and shoving, their own children to the ground to buy a television. So today, were asking you if you could create a hashtag for the twitter verse that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be . We want to hear from you. Tweet us squawkstreet. Well read some of your answers coming up after the break. You get your coffee here. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. Yep. Got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. So i knit until it was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is that nana . [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of exacting precision and some of the best offers of the year [ ding ] at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. [ male announcer ] if we could see energy. What would we see . The billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. Wed see all the electricity flowing through the devices that connect us and teach us. Wed see that almost 100 of medical plastics are made from oil and natural gas. And an industry that supports almost 10 million american jobs. Life takes energy. And no one applies more technology to produce American Energy and refine it more efficiently than exxonmobil. Because using energy responsibly has never been more important. Energy lives here. Time to squawk on the tweet. Deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers, it is finally black friday. On this mornings squawk on the tweet, if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be . Trader bf hunger games. Zero margin. Which is a point that weve covered many times. And jim tweets, consumerorange i goseason. Not to put too fine a point on it. What would you have gone for, brian . I dont know, im sort of fascinated by this hey, ladies . Ladies, would you do you want to come up here toer a second . Will you come up here . Come on up here. Its okay. A very fun day. Its family day at the New York Stock Exchange. I have me fiance, too. Hes enjoying the day. He hasnt gotten his face painted. These are not my kids. Theyre children of folks here at the nyse. Come here. And honestly, this is a nice family environment day. Yeah, there you go. What is that . A butterfly. Its a butterfly. Very cool. You know what im thinking about, thinking about spending time with the family on black friday, and having a great weekend with wine. On that note, brian, thank you for joining us. You are very welcome. You do your own show no, im going home baby. But watch street signs monday at 2 00. If youre just tuning, good morning, so far this is what youve missed this black friday morning. Bye. Great job, girls. You made national television. Thank you. Announcer welcome to squawk on the street. Heres whats happened so far our competitors were going to be open, so thats what drove our decision that, yes, we definitely got a major, major traffic flow of the young Millennial Consumer last night and early this morning. We are really encouraged with what we saw last night. The customers were out in droves and they were excited and shopping. We think theres a lot of pentup demand, customers are excited about the christmas season. All of the teen retailers have done absolutely miserably, and you wonder, is it because they stink, or is it because everybody is saving up for the latest iphone . Started black friday, actually, last friday. They had 65 off plus 20 off with a macys card. Yes, that will hurt margins a little bit, but the key is, theyre going in and getting the market share and not letting it walk out the door. [ bell sounds ] and this has been described as the super bowl, the world series, the masters, the stanley cup all rolled into one for retailers. So this is the day that or the beginning of the weekend that really makes the season for many retailers. Since midnight last night, we started our deals program for black friday. We weremini a second at midnight. It will be an exciting few days. Announcer here we go again. The squawk on the street countdown to christmas has officially begun ho ho ho its beginning to look a lot like christmas everywhere you go oh, yes, good morning if youve joined us. Were live here at post 9 at the New York Stock Exchange. Its giddy day here at the exchanges. Lets look at where we are on the markets. We trade through, higher on the day, up 53 on the dow. The s p, of course, still above 1,800, a big debate as if that now becomes a floor for the market. As we go into 2014. The top 3 winners in the s p right now, vertex farmer, alexion pharma, and ebay a focus for many on this black friday morning. The black friday madness continues this hour with shoppers in full force. We have two big retail chiefs. On tap, the ceo for ethan allen for the pulse on Home Furnishings, plus an exclusive interview with the tanger ceo. More than 180 million shop at their locations, and apple isnt big on deals or discounts, but today, the tech giant is giving out store gift cards with certain purchases. Is this enough to grab shoppers attention . All of that coming up this hour on squawk on the street. On the news alert, lets take you live to washington where First Lady Michelle Obama is due to welcome the official White House Christmas tree. You see the staff standing by. The daughters. As soon as we get that, well return to the white house for another festive image. Target has already been open for over 12 hours. The retailer opened at 8 00 p. M. Last night for the first time ever. And it hopes to keep shoppers coming through the weekend holiday. Julia boorstin is live at a target in los angeles with more on that. Julia, good morning. Reporter good morning, simon. There are more than 1,000 people in line here when target opened last night, rushing in for limited doorbuster deals, including a 239 50inch flatscreen tv which sold out almost immediately. It stayed busy until 1 00 a. M. Local and really quieted down. Its starting to pick up again. The mall that the target is located in just opened up. Now, its not just the flatscreen tv that people are going for. All sorts of televisions continue to be really popular. Also, a lot of apple products this year. Were seeing a lot of people walk out with ipads and ipad mi minis. Target had a special deal giving a gift card to those who bought the air. A lot of people going for electronics. Headphones are a big seller. The accessories and games for the new video game consoles. And, also, people are just going for toys. Planning ahead for the big Holiday Season. Heres what shoppers told us. I got a tablet for my son so he could be able to download apps and music. We came for the sales. For the deals. So we got her the beat solo, and my husband got himself this bluetooth for his ipod. My son got himself his ipod, and a game. Reporter one big trend this year, doing Research Online to save both time and money. The folks weve talked to are researching product reviews on youtube, comparing prices on amazon, and using targets new cartwheel app to get additional discounts. All of the Online Research is translating to more online purchases. Target. Com saw record traffic last night, and the company says that in the Early Morning hours, target. Com sales were double last years. So, kayla, well have to see if all of the Online Activity depresses activity here in the stores over the big shopping weekend. Back over to you. All right, well, stay tuned for that, julia. Thanks again for that report. With millions of americans hitting stores today, the next guest is homing Home Furnishings are on the shopping list. Farooq kathwari is president and ceo of ethan allen interiors. Thank you so much for being with us. Home furnishings doesnt strike me as a traditional black friday business. But is that changing . You know, it is not. In fact first of all, im glad to be here, especially with all of the kids. If i had known that, i would have gotten our granddaughter samantha with me. Fantastic. Youll know for next time. Next time. It is normally not. But there is a change, and a shift is taking place where today i think you are taking a look at the people are now starting to give gifts to themselves. And homes very important. And with all of the crazy things happening in the world, homes have become a haven. And for us, for the first time in our history, i just brought it over, because i was looking at it, you know, we have never done this. That is, black friday goes red at ethan allen. Its a fullpage ad in the New York Times all over the country, television. So youve never taken out an ad or done this steep of discounts on black friday . Well, discount. Take a look, its only 15 . Thats a big issue. If you go into the rest of the paper, 40 , 50 , 60 , to some degree discounts have lost the credibility, because of the fact, how can you have 40 , 50 , 60 discounting all the time and be profitable . But ethan allen, to give 15 is a big deal for us. And this is weve done it for the first time. Weve been debating, you know, the profitability of the retailers. You touched on the one thing that analysts, traders at the New York Stock Exchange are talking about, with the discounts, how do you maintain profitability . At what point do you say, we cant discount any further . Absolutely. You know, of course, there are two aspects to it. One is, the issue of credibility. A lot of retailers are losing credibility because consumers now understand that to give 40 , 50 , 60 off, either youre going to be out of business, or you raised your prices to do it. But a lot of that a lot of that stock a lot of the discounts are not really real, are they . As a businessperson, if you looked into it, they probably never sold it for the higher price, or if they had, its been limited only. Thats been well covered. Im fascinated about your focus on what works profitably. Surely these very big names with very sophisticated managements know what theyre doing. Yeah, see, it is, absolutely. But it is people are following each other. Its like a craze. When one major retailer does it, others follow it. Somebody else does it even more. It really is going, as you have said, its almost going its a race to not making money. You dont see, then, as these lost leaders to get people into the store, to then buy other stuff once they bought whatever initially attracted them in . Is that concept dead to you . I think so. I think people today understand that to buy anything at regular prices, it does not make sense. Whos your customer right now . When i think ethan allen, i think middlemarket, possibly a firsttime home buyer. Who are you really trying to target right now with some of the discounts and with your actual Product Selection . You know, ethan allen, weve been around for 80 years. We are an iconic american brand. 70 we also manufacture ourselves. We have interior design services. But today, the consumer, especially the younger consumer, is looking for not only great style, great products and also looking for you might say instant gratification. Thats a big, major change. So its a younger consumer . Whats the confidence level of that consumer . Well, its lets face it, at this stage, we also have very, very strong consumer base, that you might call baby boomers. Because, you know, we are we sell great products, great quality, great services. The Consumer Confidence level, i would say, people are somewhat concerned, i would say that. Let me ask you about the International Expansion. You have 70 locations in china . We do. Sevenzero locations in china. And youre opening now in korea, jordan, saudi arabia, and romania. Those are kind of emerging markets. Are you just describe to me what the International Expansion strategy is. Do you see the emerging market as the place for you, because they are perhaps a lower middle class thats emerging, thats where the expansion is . As opposed to what might be happening in this country . Look at china as a great example. You mentioned korea, the middle east. Even now, im going a week from now to bucharest for the grand opening of our first ethan allen in eastern europe. They want american brands. Are they franchises, or are they fully owned . They are franchises. We have not in america, almost, 70 are owned by the company. We have opened two in belgium this past year. We own those. But the rest are franchises. And the great thing is this, they love the quality, love the service, and were expanding also in china, and also, as you said, in korea, in the middle east jordan and saudi. And saudi arabia. Definitely an interesting expansion story. We want to check back with you, farooq, to see how the black friday promotion worked, whether it was successful or not with how you had hoped, Farooq Kathwari of ethan allen, thank you so much. Good to be here. Good to see you, simon, too. The clock is ticking there you are. Were one day away from selfimposed deadline to get the obama website up and running. What happens if it is still not working properly . Well ask the former hhs secretary Michael Levitt in a moment. First, rick san tetelli worg his way through the next hour of squawk on the street. If they miss that deadline tomorrow, i doubt the world will come to an end, which maybe is the problem. I also think the world coming to an end in terms of the yield curve, which is our topic today, money markets may have a lot to do with knowing when the yield curve actually starts to flip the other way. Why, you ask . Well, of course, youll have to come back in ten minutes when i talk about that topic with dan the man stesich. [woman]ask me. [announcer]. If you think the best bed for one of you might be a compromise for the other one. [woman]ask me about our tempurpedic. [announcer] theyre sleeping on the newest tempurpedic bed. The new tempur choice. [man]two people. Two remotes. [announcer] firmness settings for the head,legs,and back. And with tempur on top,that famous tempurpedic comfort comes any way you like it [woman]ask me about the lumbar button. [man]shes got her side. And ive got my side. [announcer] tempurpedic. The most highly recommended bed in america. [woman]dont touch my side the Obama Administration is preparing for tomorrows selfimposed deadline to fix the healthcare. Gov website. In the meantime, the administration has also announced a oneyear delay of the online insurance marketplace for Small Businesses. Lets bring in Michael Levitt, founder and chairman of leavitt partners, served as hhs secretary under the last bush administration. Hes, of course, the former governor of utah. Mr. Secretary, welcome to the program. This decision to delay now for one year the ability of Small Businesses to buy what they need online, theyll have to go through other agencies, through other brokers. Do you think thats decent triage or an indication that they really are very troubled now . Its been very evident that the Small Business exchange was in trouble for a long time. They had deferred this before. It does put Small Businesses in a precarious situation, because they have not been relieved from the mandate or individual mandate, but that the businesses will have fewer choices. I think many businesses were thinking this would be a means by which they could find choices for their employees, and obviously, that will be the burden now. Do you think in the meantime that the white house will meet its goal of having basically 80 of americans able to do what they have to do on the federal website as of tomorrow night . And how should they communicate that to the public as, of course, they go out next week to try to court younger pooh eer join that process . If they say everything is fixed, they could presumably overload the website if people try to log on, as they must do . Frankly, i have not heard the number 80 before. But the vast majority, or as the number that ive heard them use. I think, frankly, theres going to be a gradual improvement. It has been gradually improving. But one of the dilemmas that the administration found themselves in is they had to put out a date certain, but they created such expectation now around this date, itll in some ways hard to meet, because everyone who doesnt see it, theyll have failed. I think they will continue to see steady improvement in the technology. How quickly people will come back is a mystery to all of us. Mr. Leavitt, depending on what happens tomorrow, there will be detractors and there will be people who cheer it. How are you watching it, and what are you watching for to mark the relative success of how this relaunch actually goes . What are you looking for . My point of reference was the Medicare Part d plan, which i was responsible for implementing. We went through a six to eightweek period of frankly a lot of Technology Problems that over or at least in the sixth, seventh, eighth week, we did see it smooth out. Our problems with were different, they were less profound. But what im going to be looking for are a set of metrics that can demonstrate that there is clear progress, understood, and that its steady. Mr. Secretary, given your experience, are you able to just shed some light on what the technical implications are as we now learn of the decision to move the contract to host the whole service away from verizon and over to hp, and presumably, therefore, all of the great d a databases and action to hp over the coming weeks . How big of a job is that from your point of view, from a policy perspective . And would you have made that decision given where we obviously are . Well, none of us have the benefit of real insight into why they made the decision. But i think you could look at it one of two ways. You could say, first of all, it shows an aggressive desire to get it fixed, and they must have come to the conclusion that what they were doing wasnt going to work. And secondly, obviously, there was a point where they had to say, we have weve got to take a chance here on a new vendor. The biggest, and i think most important change theyve made, is that they have implemented now one contractor to be the integrator. Thats where that was the most serious mistake, in my v w view, on top of the that mistake, and then the mistake of not getting the regulations out in a timely way. Those were the two mistakes that have ultimately created all of this dilemma. In the meantime, it will be a very interesting weekend. Mr. Leavitt, former secretary, thank you very much for joining us, sir. Thank you. If youre watching this video at home, you may be one of the lucky ones, because Stores Across the country have been mobbed this black friday. So just how much are people spending this Holiday Season . Well ask steven tanger, ceo of Tanger Outlets, a little later in the show. Were back on squawk on the street after a quick break. You get your coffee here. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. Losing thrusters. I need more power. Give me more power [ mainframe ] located. Ge deepsea fuel technology. A 50,000pound, ingeniously wired machine that optimizes raw data to help safely discover and maximize resources in extreme conditions. Our Current Situation seems rather extreme. Why cant we maximize our. Ready. Brilliant. Lets get out of here. Warp speed. [ male announcer ] the parking lot helps by letting us know whos coming. The carts keep everyone on the right track. The power tools introduce themselves. All the bits and bulbs keep themselves stocked. And the doors even handle the checkout so we can work on that thing thats stuck in the thing. [ female announcer ] today, cisco is connecting the internet of everything. So everyone goes home happy. How old is the oldest person youve known . We gave people a sticker and had them show us. We learned a lot of us have known someone whos lived well into their 90s. And thats a great thing. But even though were living longer, one thing that hasnt changed much is the official retirement age. The question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Shares of bertex pharmaceuticals on the rise. One of the better performers today. Its being helped along by a positive note. Saying the recent sale of product royalty rights to a hepatitisc job to janzen pharmaceuticals, so again, simon, nice moves for the vrtx shares. Over to. Sure is. Dom, thank you very much. Lets check on where we are with gold. Of course, today, were not finishing out the week a holidayshortened week, but finishing up the month of trade. Its worth noting that so far gold is down about 6. 5 . That would be the worst november since 1978 when it plunged almost 20 . Its the worst month since june of this year, and it is the third, kayla, consecutive monthly decline. Theres an interesting chart on our website right now. Bitcoin versus gold. And the question, would you rather buy an ounce of gold or one bitcoin . Bitcoin is at 1,165 roughly earlier today. So theyre right in the same price range there. What would you do, simon . Im very concerned that we keep covering bitcoin as though it were a as though it were an asset of value and quality, and bitcoin is not an asset, according to the critics of value and quality. I dont think its valuation is simple supplyanddemand the valuation is manipulated by things we dont understand. Two other stocks we want to mention at alltime highs, some of the shippers, fedex, u. P. S. As people are shipping on cyber monday, coming up. And, also, thanksgiving, big day for online. Those stocks are also at alltime highs. Meanwhile, treasury prices dropping on a shortened holiday trading day. Weve been watching them all day. The market is scheduled to close at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, so we have an hour and a half left. Well head over to Rick Santelli in chicago for more on the treasury market. Rick . Well, thank you. First of all, market closing, the cash market, it will definitely be closing at 2 00 eastern, the futures markets at 1 00 eastern. And with regard to bitcoin, i had an epiphany listening to you talk about it. The only way to bring bitcoin down to a real price to make sense is to start minting them in gold. Thatll definitely be the end of the bull market, right . [ laughter ] all right, dan, i hope you had a nice thanksgiving. A great one. We talked about t. I. N. A. Earlier. Right. There is no alternative. And i think that describes stocks adequately. Would the steep yield curve by the t. I. N. A. With regard to the youll curve . At this point, that seems to be the case. People are flooding to the equities. The shortterm rates arent there, so you have to make something somewhere. And theyre not there for what reason . The fed is keeping them artificially okay, the fed is lets not get yeah, right. Lets kick the tires on this a bit. Borrow, short, lend, long. Its not as cute as t. I. N. A. , but bsl squared. Sounds good. We have seen how companies have lots of value, but if you cant get your hands on it in a timely fashion . Theyll get caught in a squeeze, and it will cost them extra money. And the firms wont be profitable. Lets walk down the fantasy lane. If the fed can do it, why cant we . Lets say the bulk of the economy does better, the pavl pavlovian effect, with the salivating, weve have conditioned companies to do, live in the short end where rates are cheap . Isnt that possible . It is possible. What happens to the companies if theres a quick curve fluctuation from steep to flatter . If, in fact, the economy doesnt grow enough for the firms to be profitable, you have an issue. Because theyre not getting the revenues in. The economy is doing a little better. The km he has to do a lot better in order to keep the same equation, because youll have the higher shortterm rates, and it will cost them more money. If we ever came to the point where, lets say, the fed acknowledged that a bulk of the economy was really starting to fire on all cylinders, would these issues about the yield curve be important in the realtime, or, i think, the greatest fear is, is that the market would sense that early and start to flatten the curve early . The impression of things Getting Better . Well, you know, the market senses whats going to happen, first. If you look at what happened to the 10year and 30year when all of the talk was maybe the fed will begin tapering. If you want to watch things, you have to watch the money market. Dont watch what the fed is talking about, because theyll be behind the curve. Were out of time. If theres trillions of dollars in the money market now, what would happen if short rates moved higher . Well, you get a bunch more in there. Where do you think that might come from . Well maybe the equities . Possibly a closer market, better return, though. We have to go. Thanks, dan youre welcome. For showing up on this friday. Back to the gang. Thank you, rick. The bells are about to sound overseas. Were just a few minutes left in europes trading day. Well have that close for you and the impact on the u. S. Markets right after this break. Black friday morning on cnbc. r. And were here. To help secure retirements and protect financial futures. To help communities recover and rebuild. For Companies Going from garage to global. On the ground, in the air, even into space. We repaid every dollar america lent us. And gave america back a profit. Were here to keep our promises. To help you realize a better tomorrow. From the families of aig, happy holidays. Tdd 18003452550 trading inspires your life. Tdd 18003452550 life inspires your trading. Tdd 18003452550 where others see fads. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. Announcer the european markets are clothing now. As the bells sound, youll see were relatively flat overall. If you look at the numbers on the video wall. Interesting data, house prices in the u. K. Rising at their fastest in three years, up now 6. 5 yearonyear. A bigger issue is that the euro zone inflation strengthened on the latest figures to 0. 9 , and unemployment actually ticked down from the record 12. 2 to 12. 1 . Both of those are positive signs, but its not enough for the ecb to just stand back and not do anything moving forward. It seems to be the view. There was, incidentally, a big miss on german retail elsas, falling month on month. You can argue the pace of the economic expansion is not picking up momentum in the euro zone at the moment. Of course, yesterday, we actually traded in europe when these markets here in this country were closed. So lets have a look at how that tracks for the week overall. And i think its a slight outperformance for the european markets. Yes, there you go. Meanwhile, today, the banks have done well. Its basically on individual corporate data. You see credit agricall is higher. Italys Third Largest bank doing well after the capital raise. And just want to mention where we are on the euro, because in the last 24 hours, the netherlands have been stripped of the aaa rating by s p. Spain has been raised from negative watch by s p to bbbminus. Both of the elements seem to be shrugged off by the markets, because, as we heard in our slot just now, the markets have to move in advance of the ratings agencies. You see the youre reuro still strong. Kayla, people are saying, when does that become so painful that theyre trying to talk it down . The credit waiting bumped up one notch, still in the singleb rating. The map earlier, it was largely green. We did see a reversal from what we saw earlier in the morning. Its tiny. Marginal. Yes. We want to look at whats moving here at home. We have Mary Thompson on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with a look at the u. S. Markets. Mary . Hey there, kayla. A record day in a shortened day of trading here at the New York Stock Exchange. The dow and s p continuing their march into record territory. The nasdaq at a 13year high, with nasdaq 4,100, within striking distance. Now, the dow and s p both on track for the eighthstraight week of gains, long winning streak for both of those. Lets look at the sectors moving the markets now to the upside. This is Consumer Discretionary. No surprise. On this black friday. Were seeing strength in energy, particularly the oil and Gas Equipment Companies Look strong today. And technology is strong, as well. Speaking of technology, all of the commentary coming out of the retailers suggests that is one area of strength. A lot of ipads being sold, a lot of video games being sold. And as a result, both best buy and gamestop are performing well today. Taking a look at some of the companies that are hitting alltime highs, the stocks are hitting alltime highs today. Its fitting on black friday that you have walmart hitting an alltime high. Macys hit one earlier, pulled back a little bit, along with hasbro, the toymaker and some of the participants that will deliver, fedex and u. P. S. But fedex pulling back. And the dow transports, for the past three months, strongest among the dow, s p, transports, et cetera. The leader have been the airlines, but theyre weaker today. Simon, back to you. Thank you very much, mary. Shoppers out in force, of course, this black friday, as you might expect. Lets check in with a man who has a very good gauge on the pulse of the computer here at post 9, steven tanger, president and ceo of Tanger Factory Outlet centers. They own and operate 44 Shopping Centers no you in 26 states and canada. Good morning. Hi, simon. How are you . Hows business . Whats happening out there . Business is very good, thank heavens. The consumers are out enjoying being together with their fam y family. We had a more robust black friday than we had anticipated. As you might imagine, you probably heard, the month of november is the new black friday. Yeah. The season has been extended. But overall, were expecting a good Holiday Season, up probably low single digits. What is the what is the pressure i think you opened last night at 10 00, didnt you . We did. What is the pressure within the mall, with the other with the other clients . I mean, what are they saying to you opening the mall overall . Whats the discussion like at the moment . Well, its a fine balance between family time and social issues with opening early to attract more customers. Do they approach you . Do they say, look, we have to open earlier . Is there conflict between retailers . No, there really is no conflict between retailers. As you might imagine, we get paid 24 7 every day. So we encourage retailers to do what they feel is right, to balance between the social issues with families of their employees, and the Economic Issues of trying to generate more sales. Well, what is the conflict with having to sell online . Because oftentimes, the draw of an outlet is you have to drive there to actually get the deal, and you have to walk into the store and see whats being offered there in person. Ive noticed some of the reta retailers have started launching factory website, j. Crew is the one that comes to mind. Do you worry that the outlet is going to shift online, as well . We dont think so, kayla. But were finding less than 7 of our tenants have a an o outlet dotcom website. We sell 93 , 94 of the products sold in Tanger Outlets are apparel and footwear. Its difficult to buy that online when you have colors and sizes. You really doesnt know except if youre buying basics. And going shopping is a family experience. Its a social experience. Is it also true to say that if i am a brand, the merchandise that i sell in my main store and online is of a Higher Quality than what i would sell in an outlet . Its not the same product, is it . Meaning, you cant have a website for both. It would conflict. Every product sold in the Tanger Outlets center by every one of the close to 500 brands has the brand name in the label. Every ceos primary job is to protect and enhance their brand. No products sold in any Distribution Channel is going to diminish the quality of the brand. Well, whats the tech footprint at tanger . Because youre mentioning apparel and luggage and jewelry and that sort of stuff is typical at an outlet center, but weve heard all morning that tech will probably outsell a lot of the apparel stuff this season. Do you worry that youre going to lose out on some of the sales by not having a lot of tech outlets . There is no real hot item today. Apparel sales will be extended all the way through the first of the year. The outlets do a tremendous volume between christmas and the first of the year where gift cards are exchanged or used. So were not seeing that. Its, as in every year, small electronics, whatever the hot item is, Consumer Electronics tends to sell early. But apparel, the weathers beautiful now around the country, its chilly, outerwear is selling, and most of our brands are exceeding their plan. Mr. Tanger, before you go, there is this whole conversation about the bifurcation of the market, the fact that those that are more upscale, probably have more money because of the stock market and house prices rising, those at the bottoms have incomes that have not shifted and food stamps cuts in food stamps, forgive me. Is that showing up in what you see for 2014 in the sort of leases and the sort of activity youre getting from the clients . Are you seeing value being less anxious to expand . Were not seeing that, simon, at all. Tanger Properties Around the United States and in canada are 99 occupied. Most of which have waiting li s lists. So were not seeing any of what youre commenting on. Sounds like a good business. So far, in the past 33 years, its been a great business. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming in. Steven tanger, joining us exclusively. Thank you, simon. Were still on retail on this busy black friday. We have big protests under way at 1,500 different walmart Stores Across the country, fighting for higher wages and better benefits. Well bring you the latest from one of the protests. Thats coming up next on squawk on the street. Announcer where can an investor be a name and not a number . Scottrade. Ron im never alone with scottrade. I can always call or stop by my local office. Theyre nearby and ready to help. So when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Thats why im with scottrade. Announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. Stick with innovation. Stick with power. Stick with technology. Get the new flexcare platinum from Philips Sonicare and save now. Philips sonicare. [ male announcer ] if we could see energy. What would we see . The billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. Wed see all the electricity flowing through the devices that connect us and teach us. Wed see that almost 100 of medical plastics are made from oil and natural gas. And an industry that supports almost 10 million american jobs. Life takes energy. And no one applies more technology to produce American Energy and refine it more efficiently than exxonmobil. Because using energy responsibly has never been more important. Energy lives here. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of true artistry and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. But it sure feels that way. Because with power ports. And wifi. And inseat entertainment, for everyone on board, now when you fly, time flies too. Flight Attendant sir, were about to land. vo were adding a brand new plane, with all this, every week. Its just one way were building the new american. Welcome back. Were in an abbreviating trading day this holiday. Markets close at 1 00 p. M. Eastern. You know what that means . That means closing bee ining be. We have Bill Griffeth and kelly evans holding down the fort. That doesnt look like englewood, guys. Where are you . You wont believe this, kayla. They have me at a mall. I dragged him down here. How is this possible . He said something about doing channel checks for elle brands. Shes looking for door busters at tesla. There werent any. We are checking the retail side of the whole thing on this black friday. Weve got some ceos coming up to tell us. Thats right. Well talk to the ceo of lands end, to see whats flying there, out of their stores. Well also talk to ibm about some of the analytics, because you know we love the numbers here. They should have an early read. They have 800 points of sale, where theyll be able to tell us exactly what people are or arent buying today. Does priceline have a season like this . Is this important to them . You bet. The ceo of priceline americas will be joining us. Come on out, if youre in the area, at the short hills mall. And bring a coffee. Please. The line at starbucks is out the door. Some things never change, guys. A special closing bell today. Thank you very much. Big protests are under way at 1,500 different walmart Stores Across the country. Workers and supporters are demonstrating against what they call wages that are too low to live on. Phil lebeau is live outside a walmart in chicago. Phil, over to you. Phil, can you hear me . Youre live on the television. Phil lebeau, can you hear me . I think we have reporter simon, im down the street from a walmart anybo Neighborhood Market sheer in the lakeside avenue neighborhood of chicago. I can, simon. Do you hear me . Im not really sure what happened. Okay. Phil, weve got a terrible delay getting to you, phil. Well come back to phil lebeau in a few moments time. Meanwhile, we do want to talk about apple. A company thats not big on discounts or deals, but today, only, the tech giant is giving out store gift cards with certain purchases, including the i pad. Will it be enough for tim cook to get an apple ipad christmas, or will the competition bridge that gap . Well bring in a writer with the street. Com. Thank you guys for being with us on this busy black friday. Good morning. Rocco, well start with you, because the big question is whether apple can maintain its market share. Its been slipping in the last kwauf quarter. It was 29. 5 . What do you see being the a risk here for apple . I see the future being at risk, but thats about it. Im not concerned at all about market share. Apple is the perfect illustration of whats right in retail. They create an experience. They have this new tablet, the ipad air, people said, well, its a little lighter, whats the big deal . Go to the apple store and play with one, and youll see theyve created an experience, and what they feel like a tablet should be, and people are buying it. Theyre buying that and the mini. You go to an apple store, you go to, say, lulu, even a tesla store, even though youre not buying a car, you might be compelled to pick up a tshirt, because they create great experiences. Thats a longterm strategy in retail. Suck people in with the experience. Dont get them all excited about doorbuster deals that everybody is doing and this thing that people are calling a race to the bottom now. My concern is, can they maintain this momentum, can they maintain the hale effect . I upgrade my iphone every couple of year, upgrade my ipad, can they maintain this in the future . Can cook come up with another category to kill, reinvent, or create . Well, experience aside, the real issue is price tag does matter. Eric, for a lot of the deals, the ipad money going for 299 at most retailers, and a samsung a higher price range there. When youre canvassing the tablet market this Holiday Season, who do you think will end up winning this race . Oh, i think apple will win the tablet market hands down. Anecdotally, people have been telling me in my twitter feed, the lines for the ipad products are long, and the other products, not especially long at all. You did mention that apple is dropping market share, but i think its falling in market share its about a 30 , 35 market share, depending on who you ask, thats as the tablet market generally is getting bigger. So by volume, its probably quite a bit larger, even though the share of the 100 pie is a little smaller. You know, rocco, i want to push back about what you said just now about apple basically winning the party on its own. You are a man of great culture and indeed great wealth, and you may see you may see the world in a different way to other people that are more prescient, and if you look at the type of advertising on national television, particularly from the likes of intel, or from the likes of microsoft with the surface, they clearly think that there is a game there for them to win. I would agree, there probably is. They can pick up some of the people that arent going to buy apple products. The point that were kind of missing in this conversation is that apple really never has cared about market share. Now, sure, they were the market share leader with the ipad, but things have changed in that market. There are more entrants, as we just illustrated. So why focus on market share for apple . They dont want to focus on the people that will pay the 200 chromebook. Thats not their market. It never has been. They dont cut corners. They create experiences. They go after a customer that is going to pay a high price, no question the stuff is overpriced, but they know theyre getting experience and quality product they can count on. Thats the market. I dont care if they miss an analyst estimate by 500,000 units on the iphone. I dont care if their market share, you know, happens to slip one quarter. Thats not what theyre about. Theyre about building a longterm strategy thats sustainable, and hooks people into what is hands down the best ecosystem in tech. Right. Well, we will soon enough see how that panned out this Holiday Season. Rocco and eric, we have to leave it there for you now. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. You bet. This is the firstever bitcoin black friday. Well be joined by the cofounder of the fight for the future, the group that is helping to organize todays event. Have a look at how bitcoin is trading against the dollar right now. Relatively flat from the session overall, but you will be aware that it has had an amazing run. You can stand me up at the gates of hell [ tires screech ] chewleys finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. Get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade. Lets send it back to phil lebeau, whos outside that walmart in chicago. Massive protests are under way, 1,500 different walmart Stores Across the country. Phil, what do you have for us . Reporter simon, were in the lakeview neighborhood on the north side of chicago, and this was the scene just an hour ago in front of a Walmart Neighborhood market. There were about 75 protesters here [ audio difficulties ] in front of the Neighborhood Market. The police warned them to move. They would not move, because they were stopping traffic. So several protesters were arrested for blocking the traffic. Two of the protesters arrested were walmart employees. Heres what one of them had to say as he was being led away by the police. I normally get retaliated tonight when i come in, but it doesnt matter. Im 45 years old, and like i said, everyone else have a living age in the chicago area, and we need one, too. If we stood up and fight with everyone from cta, chicago police, chicago fire department, we stood with them, and now we would love for them to stand with us. Hey, this is working. Its not for me. Its for my workers. Reporter this is what 1,500 protests scheduled for around the country. Walmarts minimum wage is 8. 80 an hour. [ audio difficulties ] comes out to 12. 50 an shower. Keep in mind, we have reached out to walmart executives to get their reaction today. But weve not heard back from them. [ audio difficulties ] walmart executives have said they pay their employees a fair wage and that they are willing to talk with them, but thats the story from here on the north side of chicago, back to you. Good to see you, phil. We apologize to the viewers for the poor quality of the audio link. Phil lebeau, live, as you can tell, in chicago. Mark your calendars, bitcoin is officially going black friday this year. Supporters of the Virtual Currency are bringing together more than 500 merchants in whats being billed at the firstever bitcoin black friday. An Online Shopping extravaganza just for those that have their hands on bitcoin. This on a day when bitcoin topped 1,200 earlier this morning. Helm wilson is part of the group helping to organize bitcoin black friday. Welcome to the program, sir. What essentially is it, what are you organizing . So bitcoin black friday is a oneday event where you can get great deals on Holiday Shopping for using bitcoin. You can get everything from smartphone to a bottle of wine to coffee or honey, gift cards, to wellknown retailers like target, amazon, or gamestop. And theres even a site selling Christmas Trees. You can get a fresh Christmas Tree delivered to your door. If you buy with bitcoin, theyll include Christmas Lights for free. Are you creating platforms that people can use their bitcoins on that access other vendors, or are more vendors taking bitcoin directly . We have a site that has over 500 deals listed. So we put out the call to vendors that are accepting bitcoin. We tried to get some new vendors to start accepting bitcoin for the day of. And theres over 500 of them. Some are well known businesses like the webhosting site wordpress or Online Dating site okcupid. And theyre all offering deals today, but only if you use bitcoin. When you look at that image, holmes, it looks like a fairly smattering of merchants. What has the reception been like when talking about this concept and potentially participating . What have they said . Well, people are excited about it. I mean, a lot theres a lot of excitement around this new technology. It makes doing Online Transactions so much easier, and it also it also cuts out the fees. You know, whenever you use a credit card online, there are these fees that are largely hidden to consumers, but really add up for businesses. Bitcoins a bit more like cash. No middleman. If you send someone bitcoin, they get all of it. And its much more simple and efficient. Its not like cash, though, is it . Lets have a look at one of the charts for the year, if we can. Up 8,600 . Cash is something that is basic fundamental, like a utility, you kind of know that tomorrow its going to be worth what it is today. Now, that charts fine. If youre selling if youre selling merchandise and accepting bitcoin, good for you. Because the bitcoin that youve accepted is gaining in value. But its a huge liability. If bitcoin becomes bigger, for those vendors with the holding bitcoins, sir, because as you know, holmes, it could equally plunge. Of course, yeah. One really important thing thats happened in the past few months is that Merchants Services like coinbase and bitpay let businesses that accept bitcoin cash out into dollars or other currencies immediately once the transaction is completed at the rate of that moment. It becomes a passthrough and a way to get transactions done, like paypal, only more efficient and simpler for everyone. All right. Fascinating development. Holmes wilson, thank you for joining us. Thank you. And just a reminder, keep the tweets coming. We have deep discounts, pushy shoppers, all of that means it has to be black friday. Youre watching a scene inside a walmart yesterday. Shoppers fighting over tvs. Wow, quite a brawl going on there. Were asking if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be . Tweet us at squawkstreet. You get your coffee here. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. Tomorrow is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. No two people have the same financial goals. Pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. Visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of true artistry and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. You can fill that box and pay one flat rate. I didnt know the coal thing was real. Its very real. David rivera. Rivera, david. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. [ bagpipes and drums playing over ] [ music transitions to rock ] make it happen with the allnew fidelity active trader pro. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Get 200 free trades when you open an account. Tweet time deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers, yes, black friday has finally arrived. So weve been asking you all morning, if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be . Homenet tweets, blackeyefriday. Will tweets, omggottahave it thats a mouthful. And manny tweets trampled. Which kind of sums it up in many ways. I think it does. I like walmarthungergames. Kayla, thank you for today. Thank you for having me. That brings us to the end of squawk on the street for this black friday. Lets send it over to a special early extravaganza of a closing bell. Thank you, simon. And welcome indeed to a very special noontime edition on the east coast of closing bell, im kelly evans. On this black friday, we are coming to you live from the mall at short hills in new jersey. Ive dragged him here. I cannot believe im saying, im Bill Griffeth, here at the short hills mall in new jersey on a black friday. Im shopping on a black friday. This is my Worst Nightmare here. I dont know. I saw you over thereoo