Transcripts For CNBC Worldwide Exchange 20141219

5 after the swiss pharma giant reveals two studies aimed at alzheimers and Breast Cancer have yielded disappointing results. And president obama signing a new russian sanctions bill, but stops with corporate sanctions. Basf calls off a deal with gazprom. Announcer youre watching Worldwide Exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And its 9 00 a. M. Here in london. Lets take a look at the europe 600 heat map. Extending the rally that we have seen over the past couple of days. Yesterday, the best oneday gain for european stocks in three years. A lot of that has to do with whats happening in Global Markets. In fact, yesterday the dow surging over 400 points, the best oneday gain for the dow since november 2011. Well get to that in a second. Lets focus on whats happening today in europe. Diving into the individual markets, the ftse 100 up about 0. 8 . The xetra dax up 0. 53 , 52 points. 9,863. The german Consumer Sentiment number rising to its highest level in eight years. France, right now up 29 points. Well be joined by stephane to look at some of the top stories there. But italy is not following the Broader Markets that were seeing right now. Italy trading down around 41 points in todays trade. Currencies, a big discussion for markets right now, given the moves that weve been seeing. The russian ruble, well get to that in a second. First, lets start with the euro, which has been weakening against the u. S. Dollar. In terms of Broader Market pictures, the euro is trading down around 2. 5 against the u. S. Dollar. So far this year, the expectation is mario draghi will unveil bond buying. In terms of other currencies in our focus, the u. S. Versus the ruble has been in focus. We havent seen the u. S. Dollar weaken against the russian ruble. Earlier this week, the russian ruble hit a low. Well discuss president putins News Conference yesterday in the second hour. Atos up 6. 89 after agreeing to buy in paris. Atos will enter the five of the largest i. T. Companies in the world. It will increase its business in the United States, which is crucial because its by far the largest i. T. Services market in the world. Almost 50 of the Global Market. And it will get a significant client with clients like dow chemical. Atos agreed to pay a bit more than 1 billion for this acquisition. It hopes to close the deal the Second Quarter of next year and it will be earnings per share buy at 10 from next year. That is the good news from a market point of view and thats the reason why its a top gainer this morning in paris. Stephane, thank you very much. Well stick with some of the other top movers in todays trade. Moving to the down side in paris, Air France Klm. Klm has issued its third profit warning since july. Stephane, tell us whats happening here. A couple of reasons for this profit warning, the third is a weak demand for a france klm. The second is the cost of the from september. The pilots went on strike to protest the low cost units from asia. Air france estimated the cost of the strike at 460 million euros. At the end of the day, its going to be higher than that, mainly because of the cost of the strike. The third reason is the hedging policy which blocked Air France Klm from benefiting from the recent decline in oil prices. Last but not least, some new financial regulations affecting the cost of the staff at klm. As a result, air france is looking at operating profit of 1. 6 to 11. 6 billion euros for this year. That was before the two other profit warnings in july and october. As a result, air france is going to increase its Cost Investment brand. Which which could include a delay or calculation from orders. Stephane, thank you so much. Air france right now down about 6 . Another story to tell you, the long running battle for club med heating up. Chinas botan has raised its offer for the group to 24. 9 a share. When can we expect the stock to resume trade, stephane . Tell us the overall story here. We dont know when the story is going to end. The tie skoon has been competing for the control of club medicine for a year and a half. Club med is a very well known brand in france. It operates 66 holiday resorts in the world. The company is unprofitable, but because of this takeover battle, the share price is up 42 since the beginning of this year. So there is a lot of speculation. Stephane, have you ever been on a club med holiday . I have to ask you. To be honest, no, i dont really like organized. What about you . I have not, but i have been to the bahamas and a number of other destinations where you always see club med. Perhaps theyre targeting people like you now. Thank you so much for that report. A lot of movement in that in paris or france, i should say. Roche shares are taking a hit after the swiss pharma giant revealed two studies revealed at Breast Cancer and alzheimers has yielded disappointing results. Now back to russia, russias micex is flat after rallying 4. 5 yesterday. On the bags opon the back of co from president putin. Global managers are holding against the u. S. Dollar thanks to government measures defend the currency, this following a turbulent week of the currency which was given lower on the back of crudes free fall. In washington, u. S. President barack obama signed into a law on the new russian sanctions bill. But he stopped short of applying further restrictions to the embattled economy. In a at the same time, russia said it will continue to work with its ally toes calibrate its response to russia over the continued crisis in ukraine. The European Council president has been vocal. Some leaders are struggling to get behind the threat of further sanctions. Italian Prime Minister renzi said europe could gain nothing from russias economic difficulties. Haddy gamble joins us now from brussels. Its interesting, they were making sure they didnt crow too loudly about the sanctions so far. But we heard one message from them overnight as they gathered here in brussels. That was that yes, nations are doing the trick, but at the same point, we need to keep the pressure on. Take a listen to donald. I would to approach the line with our ambitious and potential. We must go beyond being reactive. We must regain our selfprovidence and realize our own strength. We also heard from David Cameron, as well. And the message from David Cameron was keep the pressure on. On the viemths issue of russia and ukraine, we also had a very good discussion and unanimous agreement. I also want to mention this summit was supposed to be two days of european leaders, but they managed to condense et al. Into one evening. Were wondering now if that isnt just donald coming in and saying were going to keep things tight and make some real discussions now that im running the eu council. We are seeing what could be massive protests here in brussels today. An Umbrella Group of protesters called d12901920 have gathered, theyve put tractors in the street. Theyre saying save our milk. We know theyre coming out against b this transatlantic trade treaty. Well have to wait and see if this gets tricky today. It certainly was tricky coming in. Yes, absolutely, hadley, please keep us updated on what youre hearing in brussels. Right now, lets talk about the broader implications of a potential sanctions in russia. Thank you so much for joining us. Were going to focus on the Market Reaction weve been seeing today as weve been telling you the micex has been trading slightly higher in todays trade after a gain of around 4. 5 on the back of what russian president putin had to say. A quick check on european equities right now, pretty much all the indices trading higher, except italy. The ftse 100 as i was telling you at the top of the show, up about 0. 7 . Uk retail sales yesterday did come in higher than expected thanks to american style black friday. So maybe the adoption of that u. S. Phenomenon has helped uk retail sales. But lets get back to the top story, as i was just telling you. Thank you so much for joining us. Weve been talking about the broader implications of a potential slowdown in russia and what that means for europe. Do you think investors are overly concerned about what a slow down means for europe . Russia matters. We learned in the late 1990, that indeed a major factor in about three quarters of economic setbacks for core europe, especially germany. So that in a way might happen again. On the mitigating side, we already now had against russias war in ukraine the significant russian impact on core europe. So basically, i dont think it would get worse, but a major russian crisis might do in an extreme case is delay somewhat the recovery which seems to be shaping up in germany and other parts of core europe. But for that, it would have to get really rough. Chances are that this is a bit of a more isolated event. The signs, it will be a bit more on the context of oil prices. We have to balance this russia against the boost on low oil prices and netnet, the two things go together. Soviet states like lithuania and latvia rely heavily on russia and the imf pointing out that ukraine, moldova, some of the baltics exceed 5 of their respective gdp. Yes, thats true. But these countries are comparably small in terms of their economic size. That support would be forthcoming. Relative to european gdp. Once again, germany is the big economy that has been hit by russia already. Every financial crisis weve had so far typically starts with the banking sector. Italy and france, some of the banks have their capital tied up in russia. Societe generale, has about 60 of its units tied up in russia. Are these banks at risk given the money they have tied up in the country there are significant measures in europe to strengthen banks. If things get rough, we might have to do more. But with the stress test behind us, we have the to deal with these issues. So i would say europe is very quick to deal with the fallout from russia and thanks to cheap oil, over the last few weeks, its getting worse. Although we did see a selloff yesterday in the price of markets. Which is expert news for all consumers in europe. Good news before its bad news. Stim stick with us. Wupt to talk more about markets with you. In the meantime, stephane has kaud up with jeanclaude trichet. Listen in. Its certainly something which is extremely brave. Not only because we have a european risk with ukraine and what has happened in ukraine and still happen, but also because now we have the price of oil which has gone down very, very strongly and, of course, adding up the sanctions that already exist is creating additional problems for the russian economies. It is certainly one of the problems that we have to deal with, including germany and all the European Union and we hope very much that we will find out where it is as rapidly as possible to stabilize the situation both from sanctions and because of the posture in geopolitics by year by russia. So it seems to me theres very, very bottom. On top of that, of course, we have to cope with the price of oil which creates problems for the Oil Producers and gas producers, which is a problem, of course. But all taken into account, of course, lower price of oil is expansionary. And for the Global Economy as a whole, there is an element of expansion which is welcome, i have to say, in terms of global growth. And well be getting you more of that interview with the ecb president. But it is a season to get merry. Less than one week till christmas, so lets get into the spirit and get you some of the drinks ideas, some of the top drinks ideas this Holiday Season with dustin mcmillan. A pleasure to have you for the hour. Thank you very much. Lets make a drink. Whats the first thing under make at a Holiday Party. Everyone just arrived. You dont want to get too crazy. When someone shows up to your house, you need a bit of bubbly. Like i said, its early, its the last friday before christmas, im sure everyone has had a lot of drinks already and this could get you in the mood for some more. Basically, ive got some english wine. Its champagne from france, but they feel a little different. Is that supposed to be a dry champagne or basically, its elevation. Its a bit dry but sweet. What were going to do is were going to jazz it up a little bit. Ive got some cherries which are soaked in are those easy to find in the grocery . Variations of this, yes, but these ones are very specific. Theyre soaked in which means water ripe. Okay. Hopefully thats what it will bring. All you do is get this. Its kind of like appear English Version of cheerio. All you do is put that in there and top it off with some wine. Oh, wow, that looks beautiful. So festive. Like a bright red. Dustin mcmillan, he is with us for the hour. This is the drink to start with. Love it. Ill try it later. And more coming up on Worldwide Exchange on the holidays and, of course, whats happening in Global Markets, thats coming up next. Thats great. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. China has revised higher its 2013 review. Analysts see little impact on growth this year. Were now joined by sri jegarajah. Sri. Thats right, seema. This is the outright size of the economy, not the growth rate. So revised up in 2013 by 3. 4 . 9. 5 trillion. This is to better reflect the contribution from the services industry. It will have a knock on effect in gdp in 2014. But one thing is very clear. When you look at the macro deteriorating picture in china, domestic demand remains quite sluggish. That is one of the ideas thats been front running the day. All that weve seep over the past several months in the shanghai composite which has been on a tear, very much at risk on the day because of the upbeat gains that we saw overnight on wall street. It was 15 months broadly for the asian markets. Thats where we stand. Back to you now. And lets talk more about the markets. We have been in rally mode over the past few days. Holder, love this research. You spent a lot of time on this. This is a big book. Yes. Once a year, we do a big piece, we lean back and look at problem in europe. How is the periphery doing . The periphery is doing very well. Spain, portugal, ireland, greece. Basically all the countries we had to support in money basically out of the woods. The trend is clearly up and the rising economies are growing. They just need to to stay the course. Of course, italy and france still have serious work to do. Is that overly optimistic . Political uncertainty is a lot of reasons these markets have been trading in a volatile manner. Specifically greece. You have to distinguish between the economics and the politics. The adjustment programs, harsh as they were, are working. They are starting to deliver the results. Whether the political situation will continue to support that is a very big question. For the other countries, im fairley optimistic that the risk is away the gains that theyre starting to see in terms of unemployment coming down, but the risk of them throwing that away is not that high. I guess the question is, then, can we see a change in our improvement in Economic Growth for these peripheral countries when theyre dealing with so much uncertainty when it comes to politics . Can the politics itself stop economic progress . That is a very good question. And we do face the risk that the greek upswing may now be interrupted amid new political uncertainty. And if greece were to go for reform after the next official early elections, then greece might give up all the gains. It is a risk, but the more likely scenario is the periphery they support and like germany ten years ago start to enjoy the positive rewards of its reform efforts. And your research looks at leaders and laggers. Seems youre expecting an improvement in the peripheral countries here in europe, but what about the laggers . Which ones will weigh on Investor Sentiment . The obvious one is france. France is not a candidate for financial crisis, but france is a candidate for continued growth and continued problems in the labor markets. Italy might be on the mend if its current labor market reform gets implemented did fall early next year when the italian labor markets, one or two years from now moves up. Thank you for bringing your research to us, chief economist at berenberg bank. S p taking aim at several italian banks. Find out more after this break. Cute little guy, huh . This guy could take down your entire company. Stay with me. On thursday a hamster video goes online. On friday it goes viral a network choking phenomenon. Why do you care . Hes on the same cloud as your business. The more hits he gets, the slower your business may get. Do you want to share your cloud with a hamster . Today theres a new way to work. And its made with ibm. Another positive day for european markets. France, a number of corporate stories there stealing the headlines. Air france is sharply lower after another profit warning. Shares in club med to open in 90 minutes after chinas italian tycoon with a 1. 2 billion bid. Regulators set a january 7th deadline for a counteroffer. And shares in roche falling after two studies aimed at fighting Breast Cancer and alzheimers have disappointing results. And lets take a look at european markets and how theyre fairing at this hour. As we were telling you before, we were seeing gains across the board despite a little bit of underperformance in italy. It has moved higher in the past 20 memberships. The xetra dax is in focus after we got another positive read on german sentiment. Ride now, trading up about 0. 7 at 9,877. Still below the 10,000 mark, but it did hit about 15 days ago. Oil has been a big part of this sorry. We have been seeing oil shares rebound over the past couple of days. Right now, lets take a look at how oil prices are trading. Brent crude trading above 60 a barrel. Light crude at 55. 15, up 1. 9 . As we were telling you, lets talk more about the oil trade as well as what it means for global xhkts. Paul sedgwick joins us now. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. Thank you very much. Really interesting to see the move in oil. The interday action was up about 2 , but then in the last hour of european trade, it started to sell off. What do you think was the reason for that . I dont know the specific reason, but i think it is after such a large correction in such a short space of time, there is obviously going to be a time where markets want to try and stabilize to find the level to stabilize around. Theres a lot of unalternativety about the sharp fall in any asset price, particularly Something Like the oil prying is going to have a knock on effect which weve seen. Hopefully once the oil price does find a level and keep can start to reevaluate, rebudget to things with a lower oil price, then maybe some of the benefits of the Global Economy people are talking about, that people will tart to focus on those more than the shortterm negative impact its had on assets in general. But equities are sponsored to the recent rebound in the price of oil. In fact, energy is the best performing sector on the s p so far this week. Do you think its time to start evaluating opportunities in the sector . Valuations have come down. I think it definitely is the time to have a look at the oil sector. You dont think its too early, though . I dont know whether its too early. You need to see the oil price stabilize. I think it could fall as low as 40 a barrel. But i think that and it could settle back up to 80 to 90 a barrel. So theyre probably in the middle of the range at the moment. And this could get a bit more bullish. But you have to look at the oil sector. Some of the big caps like Royal Dutch Shell and exxon and total in france obviously have pretty supportive dividend yields. That has to be attractive. And for the longer term investors, these countries provide solid investment. And taking a step back and looking at broader european markets, yesterday, the best oneday gain in thee years. How much does that have to do with the price of oil or is it just the positive sentiment out of the u. S. With the dow trading, dovish statements from janet yellen, or is there in the story here . No. We do tend to take the lead from the u. S. Were coming to the end of the year. If you sort of think about what has been happening over the last week or so, you had three major event, the asset prices, the statement coming out from the fed, you had the potential for what was going on in russia. I think there was a lot of derisking on trading dead and that went into it. Which probably meant that which is part of the fall that we saw last week. And then you saw a relief rally now into the yearend of people with like asset prices. There shouldnt be much resistance into the yearend. But do the fundamentals back up the moves were seeing . In the u. S. , gdp above 3 . Data so far looking good in the u. S. But europe, were seeing sluggish growth. This is a very good point. Fund managers were very long upper row, despite some of the observations that you made. For example, valuations are not rerating in europe. It doesnt look particularly positive and there is the threat of deflation. There is obviously quite a bit of speculation. That is obviously what a lot of people are positioning for and hoping for. The russian impact over the last few weeks would be another source of concern for the eurozone economy in general. The ecb rally, then. Very good. Thank you so much for coming into the studio. Appreciate it. As weve been telling you, stephane caught up with former ecb president jeanclaude trichet and asked whether he expected the ecb to launch full blown quantitative easing. I have full confidence in the governing california of the ecb. Do you think the european economy would respond, as well, to the u. S. Economy, for instance . In my own understanding, we should not the impact for a very simple reason. The ecb has already done a lot, which is presently under in my opinion by the global observers, even by the Global Markets because the ecb has invented the concept of liquidity insurance. All commercial banks in europe have access to all the liquidity they desire. That could be 1 trillion euros, 2 trillion euros more than what they are asking today. Because they have the ability to do that. This is ignored by the average Global Market participants. At the same time, the omt is a liquidity insurance which is all governments if you happen to be in a very difficult situation, the liquidity of your own treasuries is at stake and where you have a very abnormal situation. Adjustment and continuelty, you could have this insurance that the ecb will be. Great interview by our stephane pedrazzi. We want to show you the italian banked banks. The agent lowered its longterm rating on unicredit which has exposure to russia, as i was just telling you. Now, banca pop milano has a stable outlook. And we continue to monitor the impact of russias slow down on multi nationals. Gazprom and basf have called off a combining. You can see both of those Companies Trading down in todays trade. Bp could be forced to write down assets over its stake in rosneft. According to a number of Analyst Reports combined by reuters. Carlos is taking a more optimistic view on russia. The ceo of Renault Nissan says his companys alliance is left affected by the ruble than other car companies. And theback of japan says it will maintain its current outlook regarding inflation. Lets get more from tokyo life with that story. Thank you, seema. It professes to continue its moderate recovery, has raised its views on Industrial Investment and industrial product. Would the bank be pushed to revise its inflation target during the income fiscal year . Tumbling oil prices are putting downward pressure on the countrys ppi. Oil prices were at 80 to 85 a barrel. And its cpi forecast was 1. 7 . The bank said today the forecast remains unchanged despite a further drop in Oil Prices Since then. According to some estimates, Lower Oil Prices could push down cpi by a further 30 basis points. Cheap oil is beneficial for the company and will ultimately lift the ppi. Many experts say the boj is likely to trace pressure to implement further easing in the latter half of 2015. Thats all from the nikkei. Back to you, seema. Sony shares closed in the red after the Japanese Firm canceled the release of the firm the interview and continues to deal with the fallout from the cyber attack. Pete williams has the detalz. Security analysts say even though north korea has a force of nearly 6,000 people assigned to do cyber attacks, its previous attempts have been limited. Now they say the nature of the attacks, who was targeted, suggested the North Koreans were behind the attack, they had help. Now all of a sudden, theyve done something quite sophisticated abruptly out of nowhere. How did they acquire that capabili capability . Even so, u. S. Officials say theyve found no definitive sign that sony insiders were involved. This attack may have begun months ago and if it was launched by north korea, how to response . The Obama Administration says the attackers may have wanted a reaction. Sophisticated attackers are often seeking to provoke a response from the United States of america. Responding in kind with a cyber attack might not be effective because north korea doesnt have much of a foot print. North korea already suffers major Power Outages on a daily basis. And a former federal crimes Prosecutor Says mounting aattack over a movie looks weak. If this is north korea, it looks silly that they would engage in an act of war because they dont like a movie. Pete williams, nbc news, washington. And tonight is reportedly the most popular night for Office Christmas parties. If you have your party tonight, have no fear. Lets bring in dustin mcmillan. This is a Business News channel, dustin, if you havent noticed already and there are a lot of consumers who will be on a budget. Help us understand, give us a good drink for those on a budget and who want to have a good time tonight. Go to the martini. You can make it at home. We use vodka. If youre lactose intolerant, you can still make this. They make cheese and they make vodka. Im going to do a straight up martini. 75 mils is the Standard Measure for a martini. So two shots . A shot 1 2. When you have put this in here. You have this product, chill it and its unbelievable. Were going to keep it in the festive mood, as well. So instead of your typical olive garnish, were going to use a bit of rosemary. Does that work well with vodka . This particular vodka, i think it works fantastic. It kind of makes it look cool. That is chilled. Ooh, that looks fantastic. Cheep. Clean, pure, and its fragrant. You just kind of walk around the room like that and pop it in. I love it. Thats our first drink, a martini made of vodka that comes from a cows milk. Now if you want to shake it up a bit, make it look more festive im going to put you to work here, as well. Okay. What is that . Eggnog. I have separated the egg whites and egg yoke. Im going to give this to you. If you want to start picking this up im a horrible cook, but i would try. Were going to teach you. So shes whipping the egg yoke. Ive already done the egg whites. How many eggs are in there . Four eggs. In here, i have my secret concoction. Tell us. A side of brady, its a rum, and its like a sweet sherry. So all these things together work. What exactly is sherry . Its like a wine, more or less. We want anyone to have a good time. That looks perfect. So im going to whisk that together. I need to add my milk and my double cream, as well. Milk, double cream, eggs. Its one of the things after having this, youll need to go to the gym. If you want something full, this is the perfect drink. Perfect. So whip that together. Im going to add my egg egg yoke and my sugar in there. Wow, this is like a meal. This is a meal. Its great. You can kind of put as much as you want there. Ive got my christmas cracker and some nutmeg. Nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, milk. A lot of booze and eggs. So we have that together, mix it up. Oh, avoid. Its like a pudding. Its like a pudding. I bet you could bake this in the oven if you wanted to, as well. It does have eggs in it. This is your eggnog . This is it. Love it. Pour this in here. And were going to try these during the break and let you know how they went with dustin. Wow, that is beautiful. We have to show that get this on camera. Look at that. A nice yellow undertone. And done. Amazing. Wonderful. Thank you so much, dustin. Beautiful. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. So all morning on wts Worldwide Exchange, weve been giving you some ideas of the cocktails you can indulge in this Holiday Season, but what drinks should you be moving your portfolio with . Trevor, a pleasure to have you. Morning. Weve been experimenting, learning more about some of the popular cocktails this Holiday Season. From an investment point of view, where is the opportunity . Its been a miserable year for many companies. Thief suffered a lot from the businesses. I think that gives you a bit of opportunity with some of these companies. As a many would, i prefer vodka over whiskey, but apparently whiskey has seen a he are viefl. Weve seen a big shift in momentum. Vodka is not declining, just a rate. Is that high end customers . No. Its more the mid range and the so lime jack daniels tennessee honey has become a huge drink in the u. S. And favorite shot at the moment is a whiskey based liquor with a sharper flavor in the u. S. I was reading in your research that among the vodka business, flavored vodka is doing well. Is that mostly demand from women . The momentum if you like, all those flavors have moved on from the classic lemon lime. We have things like cream, cookie dough, gummy bear vodka. Do you think consumers are now more Health Conscious trying to figure out what is the best alcohol they can drink to limit the intake of calories . The biggest source of calories is now the alcohol. You have seen brands, like there was a flavor skinny, stephanie frankel, its proven to be a sad staying ground. Dont they say the Beverage Industry is recession proof, people drink during good and bad times . People tend to drink. In the good times, they trade up and in the bad times they trade down. Do you think consumers prerchss change depending on how the economy is doing . Its hard to say, really. Like you were saying with flavored vodkas and all that stuff. You can buy berries and whatever the season and do it at home. Anything you really want, to be honest. And who is the prime consumer of flavored vodka . I thought usually women prefer flavored vodka over men. Typically, yes. Trevor, we have some selections for you. Im thirsty. So we have a hicks fix, which is an english wine in a cherry odivie. This is supposed to be a popular drink this season. Let me know what you think. Wonderful. And you like your martinis. I like my vodka martinis. Its sharper. And this is obviously the perfect time to drink. Its almost 10 00 a. M. Im glad youre starting early here. In asia, its time to drink and some people are still waking up. This will almost be an additive with the next garnish. Just give it all to our beverage analyst. Trevor, what do you think of what is happening in the drink space right now in terms of preference of whiskey over vodka . Are you seeing that, as well . To be honest, i dont see preference. I think people are taking more of a risk, theyre being more venturus. Theyre drinking a lot more cost instead of experience. I think people are just enjoying that. What is a classic drink to order when youre at a bar in london . Oh, a great italian old school drink, its gim, compari . Your favorite drink . I was drinking negronis last night. I think you should try the eggnog. This is great. Very good. As these gentlemen enjoy this be drinks on this friday morning, were going to leave it there. Doing research here at our studio and dustin mcmillan, a pleasure having you on. Thank you, very, for your time. Still to come on the show, u. S. Markets have been on a tear over the last two days. Can you still find some value . Find out why our next guest says get bullish on technology. Thats coming up. Its 10 00 a. M. In lobbed. 5 00 a. M. On the east coast. Welcome to cnbc. Here are your headlines around the world. Better late than never, the santa claus rally looking to help futures move higher following the best twoday gain in years. Oil pushing higher, crude slumping about 5 on the week. And xerox offers its ito unit to atos sending the french firm to the top of the stoxx 600. Shares of nike jump iing. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And it was a spectacular run for the u. S. Markets in yesterdays trade. The first 400 point gain for the dow since november 2011. And futures indicating a higher move so the rally could expand in todays trade. The Dow Jones Industrial indicating a 100 market gain. S p up 15. Energy has been playing a big role in this comeback that weve been seeing in u. S. Markets. In fact, take a look at the gains that we did see in yesterdays trade. The Dow Jones Industrial gaining, as i was just telling you, better than 400 points. We havent seen this type of move since november 20111. It really started on wednesday after we did hear from janet yellen of the fed providing a more dovish statement around when Interest Rates will raise. The s p 500 gaining about 48 points. It wasnt just energy that played a big role in the rally. Technology, the best performing sector in yesterdays trade. How are european markets fairing right now . Europe will see its best oneday gain in three years. Right now, we are seeing gains across europe. The ftse 1100 up about 0. 7 . The real focus or driver, i should say, has been germany. Let me get you the data. German Consumer Sentiment rising to its highest level in eight years. That has been sending investors back into european equities. European markets hit a multi year high on december 15th of this year. Italy, interestingly enough not joining in on todays trade. But lets get so what markets have been watching, not just about the global indices, but volatility has been one to watch right now or yesterday losing about 14 in yesterdays trade. The vision liming about 29 for its biggest twoday drop this year. A very different story earlier this week and we were seeing a rise in volatility due to what was happening in russia, also concerned about a slowdown in china. It seems like volatility or the concerns around where this market is headed as subsided, at least for now were still looking at the vix traded at around 17. More or less higher than we saw a couple of weeks ago, but the low, its historical average. Lets talk with an expert to tell us more about what we can expect in the last two weeks of trade. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Good morning. Thank you. So an incredible run for wall street over the past two to three days. Can this market continue to move higher as we end 2015 . I think we do. I mean, as you know, were in a strong seasonal period right now. The sell off earlier in the month was more surprising for me. I still wasnt quite sure why falling oil was a negative for the market. To me, it was more of a net positive. Given the strong seasonals, i think money will continue to flow back into the market. Anybody that was taking the other side on the volatility, i think theyre set to reverse that trade. I think we will be back near the highs as we get into the early part of the year. It will be quiet as we get into the early part of the year. Feg back to the last ten years or so, its pretty hard to find a second half of december that hasnt drifted higher into the end of the year. What was interesting about yesterdays trade is that u. S. Equities did go higher despite that move in oil. Oil sprars were up about 2 and then they dropped about 3 . You know what was behind the move in oil . Are we now seeing equities decouple from the price of oil . I think so, a little bit. To me, this rally is turning into more of a confidence that the underlying fundamentals of the u. S. Economy are pretty solely. I think thats what started with the fed on wednesday, which was essentially that vote of confidence that they can start to move Interest Rates because these other commodity fears not having a big direct impact. I think oil people are trying to play for a bottom and youre getting some Short Covering there. Until oil prices show a sustainelble floor, i think its going to continue to be volatile there. Other areas of the market can decouple and disconnect even with crude being negative. And lets talk about russia. That was a focal point earlier this week. The free fall we saw this week hitting a low against the dollar. Do you think those are impacting russia on the multi nationals and focusing more on the dovish statement coming from janet yellen . I think so. The volatility from russia is going to come and go. Certainly that situation has not changed all that much. But i do think, again, if you step back and look at the impact on the u. S. Fundamentals, it hasnt had much of a big impact. I think the feds vote of confidence is what spurred the market higher here. So its going to be about currency markets, crude, credit, contagion, those four cs. Theyre going to be here with us for a little while, but i dont think its going to have any big impact on underlying equities. And tell us the two sectors that could lead markets higher then going from here. So we like the offensive cyclical areas. You know, one is technology would be one of our favorites. Consumer discretionary would be another one that we like a lot. I think thats an obvious play on lower commodity prices. Better for the, you know, u. S. Consumer. And we like health care, as well. But its been a bit of a bull market leader. The dividend yield is also attractive given the low rate environment we are currently in. Thank you for your time. And lets get you a rundown of what to watch this trading day. It may be friday, but there is still something to watch out for. Chicagos Charles Evans and richmonds Jeffrey Lacker will be speaking today. Earnings, blackberry reporting results before the opening bell. That will prove to be interesting. Top stories at this hour, nikes profit rose 27 . Revenue, 15 beating forecasts. Up 7 , including currency changes. Nike is seeing growth in western europe and emerging markets such as brazil and mexico. The company says part of the slowdown is due to when demand surged ahead of the world cup. Niceky right now is down in frankfurt. It has been an outperformer over the past three months gaining about 22 . Another stock that has been in focus is sony. Sony shares down after canceling the premier of the film the interview. Pete williams has the details. Security analysts say even though north korea has a force of nearly 6,000 people assigned to do cyber attacks, its previous attempts have been primitive. Now they say who is targeted, the flashy claims of credit and the dumping of emails suggested if the North Koreans were behind the attack, they had help. Now all of a sudden, theyve done something quite sophisticated abruptly out of nowhere. How did they suddenly acquire that capable . Its hard to imagine how they could do it without outside help. Even so, u. S. Officials say they found no evidence that sony insiders are involved. If it wasnt launched by north korea, how to respond . The Obama Administration says the attackers may be itching for a reaction. When they carry out actions like this sophisticated attackers are often seeking to provote a response from the United States of america. Responding in kind with a cyber attack might not be effective because north korea doesnt have much of a cyber footprint. There is no Banking Structure in north korea. So it wouldnt do any good to go after those. North korea suffers major pour outages on a daily basis. If this really is north korea, it is silly that they would engage in almost an act of war because they dont like a movie. Definitive word on the governments conclusion about the source of the attack may come tomorrow. And coming up on Worldwide Exchange, var why you leaders are at the eu summit, but what really goes down behind closed doors in brussels . We get a tour, coming up. [ breathing deeply ] [ inhales deeply ] [ sighs ] [ inhales ] [ male announcer ] at cvs health, we took a deep breath. [ inhales, exhales ] [ male announcer ] and made the decision to quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. Now we invite smokers to quit, too, with our comprehensive program. We just want to help everyone, everywhere, breathe a little easier. Introducing cvs health. Because health is everything. Here are your headlines. U. S. Futures signaling the santa rally is here to stay. Oil driving higher after yesterdays selloff. Crude still down more than 5 on the week. Xerox seeking a deal to sell its i. T. Unit to atos. As we were just telling you, shares in atos selling its shares after agreeing to buy xeroxs outsourcing unit. Thank you so much for joining us. Yes, hello. And please tell us about this deal, what kind of opportunity it does provide atos and your company. Well, you know, atos and xerox have been partners for more than five years. Xerox providing services to atos and atos providing i. T. Services to zerox. Now we are starting a collaboration between the two companies geared towards transformation and innovation. How big do you think the Global Outsourcing market really is . Its one of the reasons we are making this move in the u. S. We are going to triple our size and build a strong outsourcing platform. We will make 1 billion u. S. On the soil and being able to cab temperature the growth of the outsourcing market, particularly in cloud services. How much of a premium are you paying for this unit . The price tag is quite a lot. Yeah, its a bill 50. Its actually a of three times the ability of 2014. And when could we see this deal on your bottom line in the future . In near 2015 after we will close the transaction, which is planned somewhere in q2, 2015. We expect further deals in the next year . Well, were going first to make this one a true success and then, yeah, stay tuned. Stay tuned. Okay. Well leave it there, michelalain proch. Thank you for telling us about this opportunity. Thank you so much. Now, lets get back to some u. S. News. U. S. President barack obama has signed a new russian sanctions bill into law. This comes as the italian Prime Minister renzi told leaders that the block could gain nothing from russias economic difficulties. Joining us live is cnbcs hadley gamble. Hey, seema. I want to update ow some protests weve seen outside the commission buildings. They managed to wrap it all up last late nooft. But they managed to avoid a big protest. Essentially theyve come out today in the pouring rain discussing the weather that were having here in brussels today, theyre protesting saying the government isnt doing enough. But were wondering if theyre a bit confuses. Just to get you an insiders take on what happens here in brussels, just give us the american spin. Take a listen. This is the shot youre used to seeing from brussels. But what about all the politicking that takes place behind the scenes . Im hadley gamble and this is your brussels debrief. Ahh, the European Union. Who could be forgiven for not thinking not too much gets done, at least not quickly here. Were talking 28 member states, multiple meetings a year, hundreds of people on staff. Endless haranging over details and an International Media circus with all the trimmings. First up, its the all important rope line where the whos who of europe takes the carpet and even the most experienced journalists get a cheat sheet. Peter, you covered the eu religiously for the fp. What is the secret to surviving this summit . Thats a good question. Make sure you balance for every glass of alcohol a glass of coffee. I need an extra cup of coffee to make sure i can stay up the whole time. It can get tedious. Talk to me about tweeting. Youre a man who sweets. You hang around here for hours and what ends up in your story is occasionally a few hundred words. What are you going to have to communicate all this information . I have no other outlet except for twitter or my wife and my wife is sick of me, so i think twitter is the outlet ill be using. I have to ask. Ive been to brussels now five times, five different events, and never once have i seen the sun shining. This time of the year is the weather which i call belgium. It is always like this. There is a week in august that occasionally the sun comes out for one or two weeks in august. But no one is here. I was gone for that week. And no visit to brussels would be complete without a top in the press bar for that odd beer, a great cup of coffee or the infamous yellow cake. I mentioned that yellow cake. Its everywhere when you come to cover these brussels summits. And it reminds me if you covered the iraq war, you remember the long conversations we would have about yellow cake and quite frankly, it does Something Nuclear to your system. That looks delicious. Please bring back some for us, hadley. Well leave it there. Hadley gamble, thanks so much. The ecb is looking at some way toes make some of the eurozone countries bear the burden of any new Stimulus Program according to an exclusive reuters report breaking in the last few minutes. Officials could ask Central Banks to set aside extra money to cover potential losses. Well keep you updated on that story. Still to come on the show, lawmakers are tackling the problem of too bill to fail in the aftermath of the financial crisis, but what about too big to jail . We discuss with the author of that book, coming up next. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. The fed is delaying the socalled volcker rule. T an offshoot designed to restrict banks from engaging activities that could hurt commerce federally insured deposits. There have been allegations of misconduct in the wake of the crisis. But has the legal system kept pace with the environment . We are now joined by brandon garrett, professor of law at the university of virginia and the author of too big to jail. Thank you for joining us on the phone. Good morning. So one take away is that large corporations, those executives at the helm who are perhaps breaking the law are not being held accountable. Can you tell us how you came to that conclusion . You cant literally put a company in jail, so no bank was asked to plead guilty. No bank was convicted in dick aids. The banks have received these deals. And from your reserp, is this happening only in the u. S. Or do you think its happening globally in europe, as well . Well, the u. S. Approach has taken off to some degree. No country has a rule for corporate liability. That is as strict as the rule in the u. S. In the u. S. , if a single employee commits a crime, the company is criminally liable. Some of the Largest Companies in the world have been prosecuted. Google within aig, very large companies. The biggest foreign bribery case was the siemens case. In response, some companies are changing their corporate crimes. In the uk, you now have preferred prosecution agreements. Theres consideration of corporate liability in germany right now. Over decades, more Companies Adopt the antitrust rules and were starting to see that in other areas. Were going to leave it there. Thank you for your time. And as we head to break, lets take a look at u. S. Futures right now. The Dow Jones Industrial up about 96 points. So come off the highs and looking at premarket trade. Yesterday, the best twoday gain for the dow and the s p 500 in over three years. Still to come on the show, blackberry has overcome a deal to here back investors. Welcome to Worldwide Exchange. Thank you for joining us this friday morning. Im seema mody. Better late than never, the santa claus rally appears. Oil pushing higher following yesterdays selloff. Xerox jau loads its outsourcing unit to atos for just over 1 billion. And shares of nike slump as the athletic shoemaker slumps after a slowdown in orders from emerging markets. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And if youre just tuning in, thank you for joining us here on the show. Here is a look at how markets are fairing ahead of the u. S. Open. Right now, higher across the board. Remember, yesterday, the dow experiencing its best twoday rally since january of 2013. The catalyst, the fed, saying it would take a patient approach towards raiding Interest Rates. That propels markets higher. We did see the first 400 point gain for the dow since november 2011. A remarkable rally in u. S. Markets. Now, taking a look at european markets, european markets continue to rally. A piece of data to consider, german Consumer Sentiment riding to its highest level in eight years. And taeg a look at european markets, germany is one of the outperformers. The ftse 100 up about 38 points. Technology is one of the best performer sectors in todays trade. Atos buying the outsourcing arm unit of xerox for over 1 billion. But a tech deal driving tech shares higher in todays trade. What about commodities . Oil and stocks are decoupling for the first time in a while. But today, a rebound for wti. Crude is trading at 54. 89. Up just about 1. 2 in todays trade. Following the central bank this week, turning our attention to the ecb decision in january, stephane caught up with former ecb president John Claude Trichet and asked whether he expected full blown quantitative easing. Listen in. It is obvious that as long as we have a very, very low level of inflation, and, of course, this low level of inflation will certainly be do on energy in general. So there we have the threat of Inflation Expectations medium term being progressively and that would be, of course, grave. So that is reflected os a permanent basis on what could be done to be more accommodating and to avoid this situation to be perfectly legitimate. Of course, at the moment we are speaking, they have decided to purchase as quickly as possible covered bonds, abs. They could embark on purchase of treasuries, on the whiff lent of treasuries, possibility of purchasing bonds by national, government, all this is on the table. And, again, all this is legitimate provided the threat of Inflation Expectation is great and immediate. And it is not a substitute to what the government has to do, what the parliament has to do and what the private sector has to do. Do you think the european economy would respond to qe as well as the u. S. Economy, for instance . My open understanding, we should not overaffect the impact of qe for the a very simple reason. They are presently underassessed, in my opinion, by the global observers because the ecb had invented the except of liquidity insurance. All commercial banks in europe have access to all the liquidity they desire. And that could be 1 trillion euros, 2 trillion euros more than what they are asking today. They have the collateral to do that. This is ignored by the average Global Marketplace. At the same time, the omt is a liquidity insurance, which is all government, if you happen to be in a very difficult situation where the liquidity of your own treasury is at stake and provided you have that. On adjustment and conditionality, you can have this insurance that the ecb will be there. All right. Moving on from the ecb to tech, blackberry reporting Quarterly Earnings today at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Analysts are forecasting 6 cents a share versus 71 cents a year ago. Revenue is expected so slump as the number of subscribers continue to fall. Investors seem to be betting on a comeback, as well. Lets talk more about the smartphone wars. Nehal, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. The smartphone battles, blackberry back in january of 2009 had around half the Global Smartphone market share. Yeah, i dont think so. Lisp, i was the biggest blackberry fan on earth. I had literally every blackberry made, piles in my apartment about 20 high. They have to get rid of the operating system, do what microsoft did, leverage maybe and reside and roll out the devices. When they try to combine the software with the hardware, its not as effective with the competition. Despite that, it does have some loyal fans. Kim kardashian saying she is a fan of the blackberry. And there is nothing like it as far as security. But its very hard for it to grow outside of right now a niche loyal circle. But well see. I think they have to make some strategic changes. Looking at the Stock Performance and earnings, it seems like facebook so far this year is winning the battle. On the screen, up about 44 this year versus twitter, which is down about 43 . What do you think is the big opportunity here for twitter in 2015 . Can it make a comeback . I think so. I think twitter is dramatically undervalued right now. Facebook and twitter are apples and oranges. Facebook is a social network. Twitter is an information network. And i think that just learning how to value information, there is millions, hundreds of millions of users on twitter that receive information without ever logging in. We see it in our tickers on television, we see it everywhere. How did we get our news in the past month . We got it from swit twitter. I think its still early. We have to figure out how to value the company correctly. But theyre not down and out, by any means. What are some of other areas gaining popularity . For consumers, it might be a time of almost too much saturation right now. We have facebook, pintrest, instagram, snapchat, twitter and theres almost no more time or bandwidth for the consumer to have another consumer app. However, the enterprise equivocally within mobile is growing very quickly. So leveraging a lot of these apps and technologies now to make the enterprise more efficient and the enterprise more productive, i think thats going to be a stre strong theme for 2015. And weve been seeing these make the abscission to grow up their portfolio to buy them before they become too big and take market share from them, from their existing business. Tonight, by the way, is the most popular night for christmas parties. We want to know, what will you be drinking . A spiced hot chocolate . What will be yours tonight . Get in touch with us by email, worldwide cnbc. Com or tweet us, cnbcwex. My personal handle on the bottom of the screen. What will you be drinking tonight . Are you going to a Holiday Party . You know, im still, unfortunately, hung over from the Holiday Party we had monday night. So im not drinking tonight. Thank you for telling us that. By the way, another story thats been getting a lot of attraction online, cnbc. Com, find out what venues have been especially popular with the hipsters. Theres something for everyone from cafes that only sell cereals to pirate ships. What do you think are some of the hangouts in new york city . Theyre great. I used to be a hipster. Now i kind of took a shower and got dressed up for this mornings session. But i can definitely identify. I think its great. Well leave it there, founding general partner at nax general partners. Thank you for getting up early with us. Were going to stick with tech. Uber is suspending services in portland, oregon, less than two weeks after launching without approval. They will Halt Operations for three months to work out its differences with the city. Port launch sought a restraining order. They will make discussions on permits, insurance, and other issues. Nike can he rose in revenues beating estimates, but future orders rose at the slowest pace in a year. Up 7 including currency changes. Nike is seeing slowing growth. The company says part of the slowdown is due to tough comparison toes last year when demand spurred ahead of the world cup. Taking a look at shares, down about 3 in after hours. Right now, trading down about 0. 6 in frankfurt. Another big story that weve been bringing you is in the tech space, xerox is selling its i. T. Outsourcing business to frances itos for backside 1 billion. This allows xerox to focus more on business output, printing as personal computing shifts more to smartphones and tablets. For atos, the deal triples its presence in the u. S. , its largest market. Taking a loot a at how shares are responding, atos, up 5. 5 . Coming up on Worldwide Exchange, 2014 has been a banner year for ipos. With the final u. S. Deal coming to market today, we look back at the stellar staff and get you a perspective on if it will continue in 2015. Stick around. The final u. S. Ipo of the year goes into the books today, capping off what has been a tremendous 12 months of new offerings. Landon dowdy is back at cnbc headquarters with the details. Landon. Seema, thats right. Good morning. What a year it has been for ipos. Theyre put ix is the last ipo for this year and it begins trading on the nasdaq today. The biotech firm, which is working on new cancer treatments, price is offering at 24 a share and that is above the expected range which was this week due to demand. At that level, even before it begins trading, juno would have a higher market cap than 80 of the 117 companies in the nasdaq biotech index. A record 71 Biotech Companies have gone public in 2014 is according to Renaissance Capital, raising nearly 5 billion. Thats double the volume and activity from 2013. The sector accounts for about a quarter of u. S. Listed ipos this year. Shares have received a warm welcome for investors. Kite pharma is up about 0. 17 for its overall shares. Companies have listed in the u. S. This year, raising an estimated 95 billion. That makes 2014 the best year for ipos by the number of offerings since 2000. The u. S. Also leads the global rankings, accounting for more than a third of all listings. Tech has made up more than 40 of the total proceeds raised this year thanks mostly to alibabas monster in september. Allowing insiders to sell about 8 million shares. And Renaissance Capital says thats really not that big of a deal, as its less than 1 of the total outstanding shares. The true test is yet to come. The next mockup period comes on march 18th when 17 of outstanding shares can be sold. Its the first chance for many of alibabas key directors to sell. Happy friday. Back to you. Same to you, landon. Thank you so much. Alibaba has been the biggest story this year, the biggest ipo boosting sentiment around china and the chinese internet sector. Landon dowdy, thank you so much. Here are your headlines. The u. S. Futures signaling the santa claus rally is here to stay. Stockses had the best day of the year as volatility eases. Crude still down more than 5 on the week. And xerox inking a billion dollar deal to sell its outsourcing company to atos. Welcome back. Lets take a look at european markets. The xetra dax initially trading firmly in the green. The cac 40 down 11 and the ftse mib down about 200 points. So perhaps investors coming in, booking profits after what has been a stellar rally for european equities. There is a bright spot, though. The ftse 100 trading up around 13 points. Uk retail sales came in at a tenyear high yesterday thanks to u. S. Style black friday sales, providing a big boost to uk retail sales. But a mixed session so far for european markets. What does that mean for u. S. Futures which, of course, are in focus after that stellar rally in the u. S. . The first 400point gain for the dow since november 2011 and also the best twoday gain for the dow and the s p 500 in over three years. Thats pretty remarkable to see that type of response from markets in response, of course, to janet yellen and her dovish statement on wednesday. Right now, the dow indicating a move higher by around 71 points. S p 500 up about 11 and the nasdaq seeing a move up by around 18 points. Keep in mind, the nasdaq now less than 300 points away from breaking 5,000 or a level it has not broke b since march of 2000. Thats where markets are looking at right now. Lets get you a run down of what to watch this trading day. Theres no Major Economic data out, but a pair of fed officials are speaking. Chicagos Charles Evans and rich mondays Jeffrey Lacker. In terms of earnings, blackberry as weve been telling you reports earnings before the opening bell. We also hear from car max, carnival and paychex. To discuss more about markets and what to expect today is ben lichtenstein, president of tradersaudio. Com. Ben, really remarkable to see the moves in equity markets over the past couple of days and energy, in fact, best performing sector so far this week. Do you think theres still opportunity to get into this sector . Well, i think there is, especially if we continue to see crude at least stabilize or see some upside activity, which at some point were going to. I think theres a lot of bearishtype sentiment out there in terms of the crude oil still. But how low is crude going to go . We have these kind of cycles, if you will, and it seems right now with the upper extreme being 120, 130, 135 area, the lower extreme being this 50 to 75 area right now. I think theres a lot of people surprised to see that 55, 57 area. But certainly once we saw that breach of the 100 level, it just continued. There was very good Energy Associated with it, and, you know, thats what brought stocks down for the most part over the last couple of weeks ahead of the rally in reaction to yellens system as you mentioned. But yes, remarkable rally. I think it goes without saying its kind of right along there with some of the other rallies that weve seen off the mid october lows. If you remember, again, this year, we saw one off on the august lows of this year and if you look back at 2014, we had i think it was a spike low in february and then a spike low in april, as well. So, you know, all of these dips have been bought, theres no question. And the joke still conditions down here. The only reason to sell this market is if you dont like money. If oil prices do, in fact, continue to move to the down side, despite today rebounding up about 1 for brent crude, do you think u. S. Markets could see further volatility . Well, i think theres a lot of momentum right now to the upside. I think that slowing a bit, if you will, as weve seen at least in the overnight session, you mentioned european markets are coming off just a little bit. Were seeing a little bit more two sides in this, if you will. Yesterday we saw the volatility index come way off the levels this week, around the 22 area. So i do think as we head into the holiday session, theres a lot of factors at play, if you will, that could take away volatility right now. For example, right now in the futures contracts in the s ps, were dealing with the rollover right now where you have the march contract, which is the front month. December goes off the board today. So that takes a little bit of energy away from the markets and obviously we have the u. S. Tol holidays coming up in the next week. So yeah, theres a lot of potential component toes zap that volatility, if you will. Wide range trades, to say the least. Whats been interesting is that as the market rallies, we see the volatility index come off. But if you look at a day like yesterday and tuesday, weve been seeing 50 handle ranges in the s p. Thats extremely volatile, even if its to the upside, if you will. Its just that it tends to ease concerns in that fear index. The upside tends to take that volatility out of the market. But certainly, we still continue to see the wide range trade associated with it. Volatility plunging about 29 over the past two days. The biggest twoday drop this year, were going to leave it there. Ben lichtenstein, traders audios. Com, thank you for your perspective. European markets are moving lower. Options expiring. That might be one of the reasons were seeing european shares move to the downside. Yet again, u. S. Futures indicating a higher move after the dow saw its best twoday gain in over three years. That does it for us on Worldwide Exchange. Thank you for joining us. Thanks. Cut it out. See you tomorrow. Good morning. What a ride. The dow posting its biggest twoday point gain. Its been more than six years. Buckle up, todays expiration of futures and options could bring even more volatility. And it says woosh nike shares under pressure after they point to slowing growth. Where . In europe and emerging markets. And can carl icahn, offering invest i investing. But not everyone is happy about it. Good morning, it is friday, december 19th and squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen. Andrew is off today. A Technology Giant starting a project aimed at letting drivers enjoy all the bells and is whistles of the internet. Here is one right now. Plugging in your smartphone, well have the details on that story in just a bit. But first, our top headlines of the day. A rally on wall street. And we mean rally. Joe, when you said swoosh, i wasnt sure if you were talking about the s p or nike. It doesnt look like this rally is over at this point. Right