[inaudible conversations] thank you very much for being here and i particularly want to thank chairman barrasso because he allowed us to have the subcommittee hearing and for me to chai chair if this is a discn thats important to all of us that are here and so many of our colleagues. Information is power today, and we see it all over the globe when its used improperly it is used as a weapon. Democracy requires wellinformed electorate to function properly but to undermine the principle through socalled Disinformation Campaigns designed to mislead voters and in doing so delegitimize the democratic elections. Actors like russia systematically exploit the media and to distort the truth to an unsuspecting populace with regards to the coronavirus and this information is being spread is a high degree and anonymous and again if left unchecked it could be devastatingly effective. I established this organization it could help lead to the global disinformation effort and work with International P
Thats important to all of us that are here and so many of our colleagues. Information is power today, and we see it all over the globe when its used improperly it is used as a weapon. Democracy requires wellinformed electorate to function properly but to undermine the principle through socalled Disinformation Campaigns designed to mislead voters and in doing so delegitimize the democratic elections. Actors like russia systematically exploit the media and to distort the truth to an unsuspecting populace with regards to the coronavirus and this information is being spread is a high degree and anonymous and again if left unchecked it could be devastatingly effective. I established this organization it could help lead to the global disinformation effort and work with International Partners. The Bipartisan Legislation within the state department is now the law and to get it up and going we will hear more about that today but we are pleased that we are making progress. They lead, synchronize
Striking distance, stocks are on track for what would be well see, the first loss in four sessions, but really cant get much of anything out of the future moves right now plus, deal or no deal, tmobile sprint battle heads to court. 13 state attorneys general led by, of course, california and new york are seeking to block that merger. And it is an m a monday, we have two big premium deals in biotech, sanofi and merck. Im going to get to that jim does too stock picking so important there in terms of figuring out where those premiums are going to end up stocks overall set to look for a modest open this morning, this after fridays jobs report rally. That resulted in the s p erasing its losses for last week trade once again in focus here, heard jim talking about it on squawk box. The next round of u. S. Tariffs against chinese goods set to go into effect, this sunday so we are now counting down. And new data Shows Chinese exports to the u. S. Fell 23 in november i dont know how much more th
Maria joining the conversation, Dagen Mcdowell, former republican president ial candidate steve forbes. Im so happy that youre back, dagen. Dagen i was watching or trying to, i missed you immensely and i will leave it at that. Maria we will talk more about it. Maria steve, thank you so much for joining us, big day again. Consumer is still king. Maria we are wait on retail numbers, top story, markets hitting record high, futures on the way to another record at the start of trading, s p futures up 8 and nasdaq futures up 34 with a number of retailers to report quarterly earnings, home depot, kohls, tjmaxx among them. Lets get to home depot, Ashley Webster are the numbers. Ashley lets get right to it, home depot on the earnings per share coming at 2. 53 a share, that is one penny better than the estimate but revenue just a hair short, estimate for 27. 53 billion coming to 27. 2 billion, lets not forget home depot lowered guidance in last Earnings Report and reaffirming that, same store sa
Impeachment proceedings. It seems like morning, noon, and night the relentless effort to unseat the president of the United States is a toxic strain of potomac fever infecting capitol hill. Now if only congress would channel every waking minute to fix problems in the real world, wouldnt that be wonderful. Let me provide a reality check. For People Living in the real world, impeachment inquiry is not what keeps americans up at night. Its not what wakes up moms and dads worried sick about paying for their childs insulin. Its not what drains the pocketbooks of seniors and takes a big bite out of peoples paychecks. The issue that unites americans from maine to iowa to oregon is the high skyhigh prices that americans and the taxpaying public pay for are paying for prescription medicine. As chairman of the Senate Finance committee, i am working in a bipartisan way to fix whats broken in our drug supply chain. In february we called the heads of big pharma to testify before the finance committ