And game, set, match for Sports Direct as it agrees to sell its tennis brand dunlap for 140 million. Good morning. Welcome to street signs. Lets get you a check on how the european equities are trading an hour into the trading day. Were hoping for a little bit more action now that the uk is joining the post christmas party. A rather mixed picture. Again, we are seeing the uk outperform, but that market is playing catch up from what we saw. Gains in the neighborhood shy of 2 yesterday. Thats in line with the ftse 100 at the moment. The xetra dax in negative territory, same story for the french cac 40, and the ftse mib lower by 0. 2 . Just shy of that mark. Lets give you a closer look at the sector breakdown. Weve been following the outperformance in basic resources. Higher by 0. 2 . Similar to asian session. Strength in the australian miners spilling over to the uk market. Crude prices have ticked up again. On the down side, watching real estate, telecoms, food and beverage, travel and leisure, utilities and insurance. Speaking of real estate, a couple stocks to watch. A profit warning from bovis homes after they downgraded their 2016 home sales estimate citing slower than expected home build. They expect volume delivery to come in lower than the previously anticipated 4,000 homes. Shares of Sports Direct have opened positively after they agreed to sell dunlop for almost 140 million. Its part of a strategy to develop relationships with third party brands. And airbus has postponed the delivery of 12 a380 planes to Emirates Airlines over the next two years. The french planemaker says it plans to increase cost cuts to minimize the impact of the delay. U. S. Consumer confidence beating expectations, surpassing a 15year high in december. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence index rose to 113. 7 this month, the highest reading since august of 2001, with trump in his tweet saying thank you very much, its all down to me. A couple stocks big gainers this year, including amazon. The online retailer said they shipped over 1 billion items this christmas. Amazon echo and the echo dot were the best selling items. Morningstar Research Estimates sales of the devices came in between 4 million and 5 million devices. Amazon said the 19th of december was the busiest shopping day with 72 of customers shopping via smartphones. Joining us is the equity strategist at bank of america, merrill lynch. You have this report, and you look at tech disruption. Was amazon the biggest tech disruptor for the market in 2016 . Absolutely. We do continue to think they will continue to dominate the market in 2017 as well. If we just take a step back and actually define tech disruption, the overarching idea is about the internet of things ecosystem. You have the starting point as rising sensor content, so every few years or so the costs of them are halved. On the back of that were plugging everything into the iot ecosystem, and collecting big data, thats getting stored up in the cloud where things are more easily accessible, more secure from cybersecurity hacks and more energy efficient. These sounds like a lot of big buzzwords, but its important because big data is the input for things like arrested ficial intelligence which amazon tends to dominate in. And ai is making us smarter about what to do with the big data, how to improve goods and services. If you combine that with other macro trends like Climate Change and demographics, that is take the uptake trajectory from something that used to be much more linear to something that is par b parabolic. I think most corporates know they have to do something to tackle the threat in sign oth cybersecurity. Theres been a story about chinese hackers looking into the emails of lawyers on wall street, taking information and trading upon it. In 2017, where do you think investors should be chasing portfolios around cybersecurity . I think there will be more and more focus of cybersecurity of the cloud. Every single sector, every Single Company is likely to be susceptible to an attack. In our minds theres only two types of companies, ones who already know theyve been vulnerable to an attack and those yet to find out. If you think about connectivity overall, today we have 25 billion connected devices. By the end of this decade this is likely to nearly double or roughly double to 50 billion at that time. That essentially means 50 billion potential entry points. With that said, it does tend to be more secure if we put our data up in the cloud, that a larger Services Provider such as amazon through aws, that can help you protect your data during that time. If i want to play intelligence as a utility, if im assuming that, you know, that just like weve seen other trends become household items, like the iphone or whatever. If im playing intelligence as a utility and assuming theres more of it, how do i best play it . Also, thinking about education for example, if education is something, everybody comes in contact with almost everybody. Is there an inroad there . Theres really two different ways of thinking about ai. For one, right now were still looking at the providers of ai software, primarily the googles, amazons, ibms of the world who are strong at that. But increasingly we will be focusing on the holders of data, the feed stock that goes into things like artificial intelligence. At that point, within every sector and within any company you could be looking to, you could essentially assess them on how have they been collecting the data . How are they able to quitalize utilize it. Dont they just buy the Sensor Companies then . Sensing our voice, whatever the technology is, but the actual Sensor Technology . In some ways, yes. But in due time a lot of that will be commoditized. If we look at sectors there are certain sectors migrating faster towards iot than others if we look at a sector like transport and mobility, talk of autonomous driving and shared fleets of selfdriving cars is coming to a peak, i would say. Within the next four, five years i do believe that from a Technology Perspective we are likely to be seeing autonomous driving cars on the roads already. From a sensor perspective, already were putting in roughly 250 to 310 worth of sensor content into the average new car that were selling in the developed markets. By the time we take it to be fully autonomous, thats roughly 2,500 worth of sensor content in todays terms that we require. Throw in additional components like lidar, position mapping, and artificial technology, thats roughly 8,000 in todays terms. Can you give us your view on biotech . A few stocks have gotten hit by rhetoric in the u. S. What is your view on the sector Going Forward . I think it will be a stock pickers market going into 2017 as well. Looking at the mega friends we cover, themes like obesity, health and wellness was some of the worst performing this year. Primary driven by underperformance of certain biotech companies. I think the broader trend is really differentiating between passive versus active management. And i do think that 2017, looking at a rising interest rate, rising eps environment is going to switch back to an active stock picker market again. Thank you very much for bringing us that perspective. And toshiba shares fell over 20 in japanese trade hitting the tokyo exchanges daily downward limit. The drop came after the firm warned it may have to book several billion dollars in writedowns related to its acquisition of an American Nuclear power Plant Construction company. Toshiba shares fell 12 on tuesday after reports of the potential charge surfaced. One of the best f. A. N. G. Stocks to start 2017 with a bang, facebook, amazon, netflix and google, find out more on web web. Were going for a quick break. More after this. Take one. Directv now. Stream all your entertainment anywhere anytime can we lose the all. Theres no cbs and we dont have a ton of sports. Anywhere, any. Lets lose the anywhere, anytime too. You cant download onthego, theres no dvr, yada yada yada. Stream some stuff somewhere sometimes you totally nailed that buddy. Simple. Dont let directv now limit your entertainment. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. A380. Welcome back. Youre still watching street signs. The president elect stateside has chosen a former Bush Administration official, thomas bos bossert to focus on domestic and cyb cybersecurity issues. Hadley gamble caught up with the president of the reja group and asked if Rex Tillerson would be good or bad for the region. The question is trump. At the end of the day, trump made a big part of his platform the fact that muslims are trying to get into the u. S. And blow up americans. And here in dubai and talking to a lot of people in the region its clear that theyre hopeful that was Just Campaign rhetoric and trump will let it go. If trumps popularity goes down or the first time we have a significant terrorist attack against americans in the u. S. Or American Assets in the region you know he will vilify those people. I do worry, like, what happens in this region when there are kids attending university in the United States and they get hassled or have a hard time getting visas. These challenges are clearly going to be coming under a Trump Administration. I do think that wish of the reasons why theyre so happy generally speaking with trump is that they feel like trump will be harder line on iran. Thats clearly true. This is not an administration that would have said lets do a deal with the iranians. Lets do a deal. Certainly people around trump dont have that orientation at all. Rex tillerson, a very capable businessman, he is certainly a guy that knows his way around these blocks. But ultimately i dont think hes going to be the one driving policy. Talk a bit about what this means for the bigger Foreign Policy questions, not just for the middle east but china at the moment as well. How worried are you about some of the rhetoric weve been hearing . You have to be worried that he is not really capable of showing a lot of nuance. As a businessman, thats fine. Youre working to get the hardest hosibpossible deal, you more money that way. But there needs to be diplomacy in your Foreign Policy. And trumps willing toness to g out on a limb himself before he had a secretary of state, lay, i will take that president s call, ill double down on that ill question the one china policy, i dont believe trump has the policy chops to know the implications of what hes doing. I know American Allies in asia are desperately concerned that trump is not a guy that can be counted on. Theyre already worried about obama. Think about the philippine president who tilted towards china. Theres more of that going on now. I dont think Rex Tillerson as secretary of state as one person is going to be able to get rid of those concerns. We talk about the markets. We had five weeks of records at this point. How long before this sort of geopolitical recession, as you described it, starts impacting the markets . The geopolitical recession is impacting the markets. The fact theres massive amounts of instability in this region in the middle east and its hitting europe. If youre the United States, its great to have canada, mexico and two great big bodies of water. This geopolitical recession is not one washing up on everyones shores. When 2008 hit, the entire g20, all those world large economies got together around a circular table and said if we dont fix this, were all in trouble. If you look at six years of war in syria, aleppo falling, war crimes occurring, the average american is saying not my problem. Theres no economic backlash to the u. S. Markets for not doing a damn thing to help the Syrian People or taking the fight to isis across the region. Thats the reality that the markets are dealing with right now. The Federal Reserve surprised markets earlier this month with a forecast showing it could hike rates three times next year instead of two. We spoke to andrew balls, chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income at pimco and asked about his prediction of how the feds moves will shake the bond market in 2017. When we look at 2017, we see upside risk but also see down side risk and we see an awful lot of uncertainty in the outlook, including on the u. S. Administration. So from our point of view, as an active manager, theres been an auchl lot of go awful lot of good news priced in were expecting i will see periods of volatility next year, as weve seen this year. As an active manager you want to take advantage of that. On curve, we overall favor global curve steepeners. We see that as a good way to make money in the current environment looking forward to next year. But on credit, and more broadly on risk assets, we think reduce risk now, have room to add on future volatility. Have you figured what it is that is troubling you here . That call, i think, indicates some concerns that the market has got too far ahead of itself what do you think the anchors are for further momentum on these trades . We have just done our cyclical outlook. We talk about three big transitions as we look out to next year. One is from Monetary Policy or the central bank, easing and unusual policies to fiscal expansion. So hand off monetary fiscal led by the u. S. Could go very well. It could go poorly. Second one would be the trade and nationalism we see in the u. S. And around the world. One sort of risk is u. S. Trade war with china, mexico and others in this time zone, populous politics, ton of elections coming up in europe. And china. China this week, the official News Agencies were warning of chinese concerns following the fed move. The start of this year we had the china move on currency, which dominated risk assets the first two months of the year in china as we move from a peg to a basket to a floating currency over time. A lot of potential for volatility coming from china as well. Its not all bad news. Plenty of upside risk as well. Our markets have priced in the upside. We think you need to have a more balanced overall view at an uncertain time. Having donald trump as u. S. President will inject political uncertainty. Its not a oneway bet. What about the chaos ensue or will chaos ensue if we get a more hawkish ecb. Im not so sure i was right about the tapering we could see or didnt see in recent weeks, maybe you can expand upon this as well. We have another 540 billion euros to the end of 2017 as far as i can see, maximum. Anything more hawkish from draghi and what does that mean . Its unclear what they did. Theres a lot of uncertainty about what they did they announced on a forward basis they will taper. We think they should stop talking about it close to 2 inflation target. Clearly theyre okay with 1 . The bank of japan, by the way, moved away from its inflation target as well. So two of the big three Central Banks basically saying they cant do it either because of the costs and benefits around germany, and a germany view dominating the frankfurt based ecb, and they will do less because of the overall youeuro politics. We conclude from this, be very careful about eurozone assets, about anything which relies in particular on ecb support. Funding italy for less than 2 for the next ten years doesnt offer a lot of value in a world where you have an uncertain and unfortunately looks like a political ecb. Andrew balls there. Lets get more investment calls from the equity strategist at bank of America Merrill lynch. Lets go to facebook, one that investors have been talking about after gains of 200 in five years, double digit gains for 2016. Its had a huge year launching Virtual Reality software and hardware. Big push into ai, also concerns around the number of news items that have gone up and been fake and not removed. Where do you see it tracking in 2017 . What is the Headline News around facebook . How do you view it . I want to see them doing more with regards to tying together social media along with newer technologies like Virtual Reality. From the mega trend perspective, theres not much tied in with the millennials population. Looking at millenniums, roughly 90 have at least one social Network Account under their name. 71 have two or more. I really think that Virtual Reality and augmented reality could be the most social platform in the future. I mean, they made their first inroads with regards to oculus rift. If they continue to press ahead, fully morph that into their overall offers, that would be positive. Youre not giving a top score in stocks to hold for next year. Not yet. Not at the moment. What are the stocks to hold . I think stocks like infineon is extremely interesting from connectivity perspective. Going back to the idea of autonomous driving, roughly 40 of sales are going into selfdriving cars, active safety features. Going back to the idea of roughly how 250 of sensor content could be rising to 2,500 of sensor content in a car. Theyre positively exposed. If you look at stocks like nvidia, they have schematic boxes. The most dramatic play is games for millennium population. 50 of millenniums have played 10,000 hours of video games before the age of 221. My gosh. Its the number one hobby for male and females and their bread and butter. They have moved into Super Computers for autonomous driving. The 10,000, anything do you for 10,000 hours you become good at. Moza mozart, bill gates, now you will be a good gamer. When you look at nvidia, up 250 year to date, some may say thats as good as it gets. You think it has more room to run . Absolutely. Theyre creating new end markets for themselves. I dont think the markets are fully pricing in the potential within autonomous driving and vr yet. What about apple . We cant talk about tech and not mention apple what happens for apples fortunes . I would be interested to see what they do with regards to augmented reality. It is my opinion that ar and vr will drive forward the fourth computing revolution. They have made more than ten acquisitions within a vr ar space, but we have yet to see anything formally introduced. You can see it all in their local, small sort of Computer Tech press where these acquisitions have been noted around apple. Absolutely. Thank you very much for coming in. Interesting. We love all this stuff about what will happen in the future. Thank you very much. Coming up, a false security scare at trump tower. Well tell you more about that. And of course well cover many other issues here on street signs. Keep your emails coming through. You can find us all on twitter. Well see you after the break. Good morning. Welcome back. Youre still watching street signs. Im louisa bojesen. Im karen tso. Im nancy hungerford. The nasdaq hitting another record high among thin trade. The rally helped along by amazon which ships its 1 billionth item this holiday season. And in europe, basic resource stocks dominate the gainers. The big ones, btn and Anglo American leading the way. Slipping down the property ladder. A profit warning sends bovis home shares deep into the red as it downgrades house sales forecasts. Good morning. Welcome to street signs. A bit of a mixed session, still in thin holiday trading period. We do have the uk market joining the rest of europe after the long christmas period. The ftse 100 outperforming, higher by 0. 3 . A lot of gains tied to the basic resource sector, miners leading the charge higher. Dax flat, barely in positive territory. French cac 40 slipping into negative territory, and the italian ftse mib off by a quarter percent. Traders continue to watch the dollar, the euro lower against the greenback. The dollar moving higher against the japanese yen, 0. 18 . Sterling just off against the dollar by 0. 2 . A couple stories to watch from asia. The chairman of the third Worlds Largest pension fund has been placed under emergency arrest in s. He was arrested monday under suspicions of abuse of power. This comes amid a Major Political scandal unfolding in south korea which led to a vote in parliament which resulted in favor of beijing has launched a strongly worded defense of the one china principle. During a regular press briefing, a Chinese Government spokesperson said his country would never permit Taiwan Independence forces to split taiwan from china in any way or in any name. The spokesman also warned that supporters of hong kong independence were destined to fail. His comments came hours after the chinese navy had an Aircraft Carrier 90 nautical miles from taiwans coast. The lobby of trump tower in new york city was evacuated late tuesday afternoon due to a security scare. A suspicious bag triggered the panic. A Senior Police official says that it later turned out to be filled with toys. The new York Police Department tweeted that the package was examined by the nypd bomb squad and was deemed to be a safe unattended bag. President elect trump was not there at time. He remains at his maralago estate in florida ed lawrence joins us live out of washington. Weve had the security scare, trump tweeting that the Consumer Confidence high is down to him. Hes taking credit for the Consumer Confidence, for spending over the holidays, taking credit for a lot. What started as a difference of opinion here as israel is now turning into an online feud between president elect trump and president obama. President elect trump has been out of site over the holidays but visible on twitter. Is he directly going after the current president saying or tweeting out that president obama campaigned hard but lost. Folks say donald trump wants to unify the country, but democrats are saying his actions are showing otherwise and they point to the fact that he inserted himself into the u. S. Decision to abstain during the u. N. Security council vote over israeli settlements. Democrats say that the president elect needs to wait his turn to be president and push his policies. Wait for him to be sworn in. This is a growing divide in what was a smooth transition which is now turning into a little bit of a rocky relationship. Ed, on that point, john kerry is due to set out his framework, the u. S. Framework for the palestinian israeli possible agreement on peace. There is this sense that the white house is now racing to try to keep this Peace Process together before the Trump Administration comes in. Theres a growing divide between israel and the United States under the Bush Administration what john kerry is expected to do is justify why the United States abstained from this and also lay out a case saying that the u. S. Had nothing to do with this resolution. Benjamin netanyahu saying yesterday that the u. S. Was behind the resolution that condemned the israeli settlements. Secretary of state john kerry will say thats not true and that the best road to peace is a two state solution. And he will lay out the framework saying these israeli settlements threaten that two state solution by taking more land. Ed, thank you very much. Ed lawrence joining us live from washington. And you can also head to our website to find out how the trump factor could determine how emerging markets perform in 2017. Thats all on cnbc. Com. Shinzo abe made history yesterday when he became japans first serving Prime Minister to visit pearl harbor alongside the u. S. President. We have this report on the diplomatic significance of the trip. Reporter a silent moment unimaginable 75 years ago. The Prime Minister of japan paying his respects at pearl harbor on the uss arizona, above where hundreds of sailors and marines are entombed below. Was a place which brought utter silence. Reporter japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe visiting the battlefield where over 2,400 americans died. The first japanese leader to visit the memorial. Today, abe stopping short of making an apology. Translator i offer my sincere and everlasting condolences. It is here that we remember that even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward. Reporter al rodriguez was stationed at pearl harbor when the bombs started falling. You could see the planes up above with the red circle on the bottom. We knew it was the enemy, it was japanese. Reporter he thinks the time has come for a visit like this, even as his own emotions are still raw. I get very emotional. Reporter invited to be part of the ceremony today, he never thought hed see a time when these two leaders would step foot on the battlefield where so much blood had been shed. Earlier this year, obama became the first sitting american president to visit hiroshima, where the u. S. Dropped the first of two atomic bombs in 1945. Todays visit, cementing a partnership between two countries who were once enemies and now allies. She was force of her own. Actress Carrie Fisher has died at age 60. Nbcs harry smith looks back at her life and career. Reporter in star wars, Carrie Fisher was going to save her people from the evil darth vader. What the hell are you doing somebody needs to save our skins. Star wars is not just a film franchise, it is perhaps the film franchise. She was the dominant force of those first few movies. Afraid i was going to leave without giving you a goodbye kiss . Reporter when word came last friday that she suffered a heart attack on a flight from london to los angeles, it stunned the world. But then news today of her death. On twitter, star wars costar mark hamill said, no words, devastated. Harrison ford in a statement said, carrie was funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life bravely. We will all miss her. Fishers mother thanked all who embraced the gifts and talents of her beloved and amazing daughter. Carrie fisher was a child of hollywood megastars, Debbie Reynolds and eddie fisher. Think of eddie as brad pitt, debbie as jennifer aniston, and elizabeth as angelina jolie. Reporter shampoo with Warren Beatty was her first film, followed by star wars when she was 19. During filming, she had an affair with costar harrison ford, and later would write about her insecurity and abuse of drugs, in the bestseller postcards from the edge. Fisher, who also struggled with mental illness, was wickedly funny and was unafraid of sharing her lifes travails and triumphs. I make very difficult situations in my life funny as quickly as possible. Reporter fisher appeared in a number of tv shows, from sex and the city to the big bang theory. And had memorable roles in when harry met sally hes never gonna leave her. Of course, he isnt. Youre right, youre right. I know youre right. Reporter and as John Belushis torchcarrying girlfriend in the blues brothers. Without screen credit, she was the script doctor for a number of films, and returned to the Star Wars Franchise in 2015. She had reportedly just finished filming her latest scenes for the next star wars film. Made famous for playing a princess, it will be the person, not the part, who will be remembered best. May the force be with you. Reporter harry smith, nbc news, new york. Good morning. Welcome back to street signs. Lets give you an update on the miners. Theyve been on the move in an otherwise quiet trading day. Thats boosting the uk main market here, outperforming the broader european sectors. Miners higher in the range of 3 to 4 . Taking the cue from higher metal prices. Weve seen an uptick in gold miners this tracks a story we saw in the asian sessions where miners led on the australian market. Were also seeing some strength in oil and gas in an otherwise quiet day. We did see that uptick in wti overnight by 1. 7 . Wti and brent slightly higher this morning as well. Wonder what resources could do for the ftse . Could it move the needle back to record levels for the uk market . In the past, anything that has to do with basic resources moves the ftse, because its so heavily weighted. Could just be the trend into yearend. Speaking of commodities, lets talk more about energy. Venezuela will cut 95,000 Barrels Per Day of oil output from the 1st of january as part of the opec and nonopec agreement. The country has been one of the most outspoken price hawks throughout the year as the government battles to recover from the price slump. We spoke to the Venezuelan Oil minister last month and asked him how important it was to have russia on board. I was talking to the minister, everybody was in talk with him during that conversation. I asked if they will be with us. Oil prices have risen about 20 after the vienna meeting. After the summit, the Khalid Khalid al falih said he was happy with the deal. It will be well for the market, a number of nonopec countries will contribute about 600,000 barrels of production reduction in 2017. You are worried about nonopec not participating . No. No. We already agreed with a number of them, specific numbers. We will leave it for the 9th. And the target, as i mentioned, is 600,000. As we tick down to the start of this producer deal coming into force, we are Holding Around the high end of the range on brent. To me, what was interesting is to look at the levels that Venezuelas Oil minister is hoping for, 60 to 70 on the price of brent. At the low end about 5 more than where we were trading. At the high end, 15. You can ask the question s this going to be forthcoming for the producers in 2017 . Will there be a rebalancing that will make many of those happy that they signed up for a deal or great disappointment that it wont come through the system quit enough . That Oil Producers stateside will get back into the game and suppress further price gains . Also what will it do to demand as well and demand from emerging markets. You had this mass demand from emerging markets in 2016. There is the argument that there may be less demand from emerging market countries, like china. If chinese demand slows down due to opec moves, opec and nonopec moves tsh moves, it could have a knock on impact. In the u. S. , the eia stocks were higher than many thought. If the prices stay elevated you wonder what kind of supply response well get there. We had the Nigerian Oil Minister before christmas sitting in that chair, he was pointing to the action of those u. S. Producers, something that the opec producers were nervous about. I think its going to be crucial. Its just a sixmonth deal. Six months can fly very, very quickly. And whether you can have a market that can move quickly to trim supplies in that time frame to make those producers satisfy, to continue on with the production agreement is the question. Because dont forget in the past you had other agreements that followed the initial agreement. Whether thats the case this time around is key for 2017. They have left the door hoop to extend it if need be. The Nigerian Oil Minister was not concerned about cheating, people not complying with the agreement. He seemed to say that wouldnt be a problem this time around. Because they are thinking theyll stick to the agreement, but the other point is he wanted to participate in the oil cut. But they were hampered by some events unfolding on the ground in nigeria. What happens over the course of 2017 when those three pep shuns to the deal, do they come back into the mix, are they also forced to stop producing at the same levels . Remember when oil was driving the markets years ago before the financial crisis . We literally would see if the price of oil went up, you would see a direct market reaction. Were not quite seeing that at the moment, right . Frnlg with trump we have beenn away from that. Also things like inflation. We were talking about whether or not inflation is upon us or not. Im argue its not upon us. It will take a long time before we see inflation close to 2 . Were still at 0. 4 in europe. If the price of oil were to move markedly higher, that inflation forecast must move higher. Mario draghi has been dealing with the second round effects of low oil price for a couple years now. So there must be second round effects at some point kicking in for inflation in europe in 2017. A lot of rules are being thrown out the window here. Looking at what metal prices are doing today, the miners, at a time when the dollar is so strong. Its the trump factor. It is. It is. Speaking of trump, things in the states, u. S. Futures now setting ourselves up for trade today. Still 4 1 2 hours away. So, early days. But we like to be on top of things. You have nasdaq, s p 500, the dow futures all pointing to slightly higher start for this afternoon. I do think thats surprising. It almost is a contrarian trade to go short this market at this point. I dont think anybody wants to do that going into yearend. We had someone calling the top of the market. I was surprised who would dare take money and profits now and not wait it is a thin market. It is. Is the 20,000 level given . Not far off. I think well hit it by yearend. Watching the data still to see whether this is a real rally unfolding. The u. S. Confidence board says the Consumer Confidence rose to 113. 7 this month, the highest reading since august of 2001. Amazon shares moved higher after the online retailer said it shipped over 1 billion items worldwide this christmas calling 2016 the best ever holiday season. Home assistant amazon echo and the smaller edition, the echo dot were the best selling items. Morningstar estimates that sales of the devices were between 4 million and 5 million devices. As far as data, it was the 19th of december that was the busiest shopping day. Over 72 of customers shopped via smartphones. As sales increase, retailers are left with holiday hangover of more requests for refunds as Morgan Brennan investigates. The rise of Online Shopping has led to what shipping firms now called second part of peak season. The he return season. Most of our shopping this year was done online but we came into new york today, just walked around a little bit and returned some items but also maybe buy some additional items. Im back here to return a coat i bought last friday and hoping to pick up another coat that he likes this time. Retailers and shippers have their work cut out for them. Unwanted gifts can make up a third of online sales. Companies must find ways to handle those shipments. The trend has made reverse logistics firms that collect process and refund process sought after. The reason fedex bought another company. Ups alone expects to ship 6 million packages back to Retailers Next week. Its still a small fraction of the overall peak season volume which hit record levels but its growing at a double digit rate compared to last year. With four full shopping days left in 2016 and Consumer Confidence at 15year highs, retailers are also ramping up efforts to get people through their doors with after christmas sales. Since consumers tend to spend more once theyre there. Mastercard says total Holiday Spending excluding autos and gas is up 4 from november 1st to december 24th versus last year. The high end of many forecasts. Total holiday ecommerce spending surged 19 . Most important thing is to appreciate everybody spends across the board. There wasnt one sector of people that didnt spend, it really was everybody feeling confident and actually spending a bit more than they were spending last year. But its all about getting post Holiday Shoppers into stores this week and returns will be especially important. If retailers can get consumers to do that in person, it will drive foot traffic and set the stage for a more Profitable Exchange and quite possibly more sales. Morgan brennan, cnbc business news, new york city. Lets look at the broader retail sector. You have different performance across this sector by stocks up huge double digit amounts, others barely ahead. Others in negative territory. The retail basket in europe is trending lower for the year. You see this huge gyration in the middle of the year, that was the brexit impact. Its telling you how political events can move the needle on the overall sector, which is curious. Every time you have a retail conversation we talk specifically about disruption to the sector. Also the point they cant just blame the macro factors. You cant say sales were bad because of brexit or the weather because its down to the individual efforts when it comes to cutting costs and moving online. You have to wonder how much further retailers can go. We had solid employment. Thats been one of the Things Holding up the consumer relatively solid employment. We krecovered a lot since the consumer crisis. Time and time again analysts talk about how Consumer Spending is holding up these retailers. The question i have around retailer, its been brought forward. You had a change in the types of holidays, types of days that people spend, the black friday and cybermonday event has been huge. But also this view of inflation coming down the track. I would rather be buying my items now and not paying much more for them in 2017. Do you actually think about that in your daytoday decisionmaking . If its a big ticket item and you think it might be more expensive in 2017, absolutely. Particularly if its marked down over sale time. You press that buy button. If i need something, i need it. Every time, if i wait, i never get around to it, i forget. It doesnt happen. Yeah. Its hard when you see those 60 off signs, they draw you in. Those big figures. Thats all for todays show. Tomorr coming up next, Worldwide Exchange. Good morning. The santa claus rally, stocks trading at alltime highs. The dow continues its steady climb to 20,000. Trump tweets again. Well tell you what the president elect has to say this time about Consumer Confidence and his election win. And ringing up retail. The nations stores give us a snapshot of the american consumer. Its wednesday, december 28, 2016, Worldwide Exchange begins right now. Good morning. Welcome to Worldwide Exchange on cnbc. Im sara