along with other white house staffers so this is a relatively large group for this meeting you remember, last week they tried to have this meeting and the democrats didn't slow up we saw that visual of the president with the empty chairs on either side of him waiting for chuck and nancy, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, to attend the meeting they never came. today they'll be here. we should see all these chairs filled today what they're going to discuss, though, is a mystery we've seen a dampening of the tone going into this meeting both sides know there's a lot at stake here in terms of a potential government shutdown as early as tomorrow if they don't get a continuing resolution to kick the can down the road another two weeks in terms of government spending. so sarah huckabee sanders just briefed the press within the past hour or so, and laid out sort of her expectations from the white house perspective of what we'll see in the meeting. here's what she said >> in terms of the government shutdown, look, we expect a clean cr to pass with democrat support, so we hope will happen, fu funding the government, particularly our military, our veterans affairs, are always important, but particularly now with so many threats that we face globally. this is certainly an important priority for the administration. we hope something that will be discussed and agreed to later today. >> reporter: so not a very p proprovocative statement from sarah huckabee sanders seem like they're trying to turn down the volume ahead of the meeting. we should see pictures on that as you just pointed out, bill, momentarily. we'll bring those to you when we have them. another thing to update you on, two white house officials told me the white house will be releasing its infrastructure plan in january. that will "tee up another legislative battle in '18. we have to get through the legislative battles of 2017 before we get to those, guys. in the next hour as eamon mentioned, we're expected to get a vote on the short-term measure to fund the government avoiding a government shutdown. kale ra tausche has the latest. >> reporter: republicans are going to try and avert a government shutdown this afternoon with the house as you mentioned voting in just an hour or so, the senate aides tell me could vote after that. they'll be voting to fund defense programs into the new year and everything else for the next two weeks as they try to tie up tax reform. paul ryan and mitch mcconnell have been meeting regularly with the freedom caucus that has been stomping their feet as this cr as we call it on capitol hill has been working its way through caucus mark meadows says he believes his group will provide enough votes for it to pass this afternoon but it's unclear exactly hoexac exactly how many it's also unclear what the longer term spending package looks like come december 22nd when the short-term package runs out. house conservatives want caps on nondefense spending. democrats want that to increase. and minority leader nancy pelosi this morning said she expects president trump today to make a counteroffer >> we were concerned when the president started pl eed mockine meeting and saying there would be no deal and all that, we thought, well, if you're not ready to talk, we're not ready to come. now he has made the overture for us to go hopefully that means he's more recepti receptive. i assume since he invited us, he'll have an offer to make. >> reporter: we will see whether that offer was, in fact, put on the table. worth noting, guys, as we await this vote, the house cans that this with just republican votes. the senate will need 60. back to you. >> all right, thank you very much, kayla. earlier today senate minority leader chuck schumer addressed a big concern he has with the tax bill and what companies could end up doing with the extra cash. >> t-mobile has announced a $1.5 billion in stock buybacks. mastercard, $4 billion bank of america, $5 billion. just this morning, three or more companies, three or four more companies announced hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of buybacks these companies, i would say to president trump, i would say to my republican colleagues, are not aflouncing nee announcing new investments in their workforce or wage increases like republicans promised they would. they're announcing stock repurchasing programs that benefit their wealthy investors. >> to discuss the latest on the tax bill and the potential sutdown situation, let's bring in jimmy from from the american enterprise institute, and mattie from the national taxpayers union. what do you say to what chuck schumer said there, do you think he's right the money won't be used for wage increases if and when it's brought back, or say, what if they do more buybacks or pay higher dividends that's not a bad thing, is it? >> look, we've got an economy where there's very little activity happening up until recently and should be looking at policy that encourages kbr sh not only in business profits but where they can invest and offers opportunity for more of that investment here at home. the question really for senator schumer, what is his alternative? he's continuing to promote the current code which keeps investment overseas and doesn't allow businesses to repatriate profits at pull. li if you listen to schumer, that money never comes back and we don't see benefit from it. >> jimmy, that's on the tax bill but talking about the possible shutdown shutdown handicap it for us do you think we're going to see a shutdown come saturday >> i don't think we're going to see a shutdown, but remember that pushes us to late december. and there's going to have to be another short-term resolution because they're not going to be ready probably by late december for a longer term budget deal. now we're talking 2018 i think it's important to remember that these government shutdowns, listen, there may be a political impact and there maw be a short-term economic impact. but really beyond that, these things are negligible as far as affecting the economy. again, heading to an election year, it looks bad if the public blames you for shutting down the government, but this is not going to -- this is not going to derail the economy >> no, it won't do that, but it comes at a critical time when they're trying to reconcile the two tax bills. so that gets in the way. that complicates things greatly, right? >> well, i think they would prefer to set this aside, not have a shutdown, have a couple continuing resolutions, back at it in january. and focus on getting this tax bill passed. because, listen, the tax bill, everything we've heard, like over the past few days, is moving a little bit further from passing it everything we've heard is making it more expensive and harder to pass, not really coming together we had a problem with the amt, now we're talking about raising the corporate rate from 20% to 22%. they still need to lock that thing down. >> mattie, you have any concerns about all of the above >> yeah. >> whether or not the taxes actually -- >> all of the above. >> going to pass or whether there's going be a shutdown? >> as always, i'm kind of the eternal optimist when you compare me to jimmy p. i think we're movinging in the right direction. the senate last night appointed conferees. there are a couple things that the senate when it was passing its bill added back in i think are of concern in particular putting the amt back thein there the question of whether or not s.a.l.t. language stays. in principle these bills remain pretty much the same, the fact it's going to make our businesses competitive again in particular by lowering the corporate tax rate, delivering a middle class tax cut are the two prerogatives i think the members of the conference here will be able to produce that in short order. >> naive question, mattie, okay, maybe a little bit disingenuous, what's with the december 22nd deadline, what's the big hurry to get this thing done >> here's the thing about shutdowns, why we're arguing about this, people might forget this is2011 budget control act, whether or not we allow relief in the spending caps implemented in that bill. conservatives should once again be spiking the football on this. the budget control act is what basically erased the increases in spending that obama, nancy pelosi, harry reid, put into law. so these are skon strant constrn spending conservatives long have been able to protect this has been an exercise we've now been engaged in since the bca sequester started kicking in in 2013. so i think there's a path forward for republicans to be able to pass this in the house, and send it over to the senate and have a bill that moves forward. i don't think that will be all here on christmas eve wondering whether or not santa's going to be delivering a government shutdown >> i'm looking for wood. let's knock somewhere. thank you. >> knock, knock, wood, yes jimmy p., mattie, good to have you. >> knock on my head. that's fine. let's go to our "closing bell" exchange, we're seeing another one of those days like yesterday, not much volatility, slightly lly higher for the ma averages joining our "closing bell" exchange, randy frederick, at post 9 and rick santelli joins us from chi-town market doesn't seem too be concerned about anything that's going on in washington right now. does that say to you they don't think there's going to be a shutdown, we will get this tax reform bill passed i mean -- >> that kind of seems it like -- >> thinks that far ahead sk >> the overall mentality for quite some time, the market doesn't react to much coming out of washington. like jimmy p. said before, when we talk about government shutdown, the market doesn't absorb that information, doesn't take it into consideration we have seen government shutdowns before in other administrations and the market brushes it off i don't think that's a priority here we continue to look at tax reform, how that's going to impact our markets and our economy. clearly fomc next week is something we've had this date on our calendar for quite some time we're finally getting there. >> randy, government shutdown is high drama for washington, but for wall street it doesn't seem -- if we lad one, would it be negative for equities >> i would be very surprised if it has in fact, you can look at all the shutdowns we've had since world war ii, the worst one resulted in a very small percentage downturn the last three the market went up the most recent one in 2013 was the biggest bullish market for during a shutdown ever so history doesn't guarantee the future, but it certainly lays a pretty good roadmap. >> maybe we should cheer one on, then. >> is that coincidence or is there a reason the market would go up during a shutdown? >> you know, i don't think most investors think the government accomplished a whole lot of anything, anyway shutting it down doesn't necessarily seem all that bad for investors. again, i'd be very surprised in a bull market, optimistic as most investors seem to be right now, if this shutdown would have an impact at all as far as tax reform goes, i don't think there's an enormous amount of urgency there. with the few exceptions of people who might want to get out of positions at the end of the year with lie bases before they fine forced in starting next year, all the impact doesn't kick in until next year. >> fifo being first in, first out. one of the provisions they're considering in the tax code. >> rick santelli, i can't imagine you disagree with the discussion that's been going on up here about if the government shut down, who would really care when it comes to the investing community? >> reporter: well, i mean, listens it listen, it's fun for the media, fun for the politicos. always stories about coupons not coming and defaults. i completely agree with our guests you know, it's a kabuki dance. everybody is really figuring it out. on the issue of the marketplace, it does have one little itty bitty effect sometimes, and it has, watch the one-month bill auctions. you know, there's a little volatility in that regard. i think that today's stock market actually made a difference in bond trading and it's going to be interesting to see how it pans out. earlier today, the close for the bunds continued to mark clo closed -- we saw the long end reverse a little bit as the stock markets regain their sea legs it's going to be interesting as we go into year end, who's going to win the battle of interest rates is it going to be the economy and stock's effects on the fixed income market and the yield curve or be overseas because it certainly looks like overseas rates are going to drift lower right into year end. i think that's fascinating then all bets are off at the beginning of next year, whether it's because of potential tax changes, or it's because of mario draghi and less qe that's going to be fascinating. one other thing, dollar index is crawling up here to an important level at 94, which would mean it's only down 6% on the year. >> yeah. here we've got 13:19 without mentioning the jobs report that comes out tomorrow once upon a time, that would be in the first 30 seconds of the show what are you guys expecting tomorrow >> expecting nothing right? i don't think it's going to really be outside the lines. i think that's when investors are looking for and the pattern we've seen over time from that point of view, it's not going to make an effect on the market >> i think that's probably true. imiean, weed ha elad a great wy jobs report claim. those four will feed into this one. odds are pretty good we're going to see a very good number. that's probably going to continue into the first part of next year. the labor market is in incredible shape. >> you know what i thought we were going to say -- >> i think we're going to see a big number. >> i thought you were going to say bitcoin. >> that's coming. >> don't worry. >> please, no. >> thank you, guys. >> no, no, i know. we'll get to the tulips later. thank you, all see you later. good to see you, randy, thanks for joining us today. >> good to see you. so 46 minutes left in the trading session here the dow was up i didn't realize it was up 120 i knew it was up 100 at one time we have come back from those highs. everybody is positive, though, right now. >> s&p is higher by almost six points. at&t in court today as the department of justice attempts to stop the country's number two wireless company's $85 billion purchase of time warner. up next a bull and a bear size up this deal and the telecom sector. visa has taken branding to a new level in its search to stand out in the retail and mobile payment space. ahead, you will hear literally what they came up with. >> i cannot wait. and we want to hear from you, you can reach out to the show on twitter, facebook, send n ma iyowau nt you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide is the monolithic view of emerging markets obsolete? 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[ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours. welcome back to the "closing bell." doesn't fell like it's been a volatile day but the dow had a range of 16 0 points right now we're higher by 64 points shares of lululemon higher today after the retail reported an earnings and revenue beat after the bell today company also announced a $200 million buyback. that stock is trading as you can see higher by more than 6.5%, gain of $4.57 a share. meantime at&t and the department of justice have been meeting today during a pretrial hearing in the antitrust suit over its pending time warner merger the judge hearing that case has just set a trial date of march 19th for next year. so not exactly the imminent trial date that randall stephenson was hoping for. they asked for february. >>. >> right they said on cnbc, randall stephenson said immediately and in court they asked for february the judge gave them march. yeah. meantime, telecom stocks are lower as you can see so far this year t-mobile is the exception, they're up almost 8%. >> joining us, craig moffitt who remains bullish on telecom, and jonathan from newstreet research who's a bit more cautious. >> thank you. >> is there any reason why you're paying attention to this case and what it means to the rest of the sector in terms of what you would buy or not buyjo? >> so i think you don't want to touch any of the wireless carriers with the exception of maybe t-mobile, t-mobile has benefit of being sort of the best house in the bad neighborhood in this environment, what you really want to own is the cable stocks and the driver there is, you know, i think people have been buying wireless stocks on the expectation that the tax plan is going to be really beneficial for these big taxpayers. what nobody has in their numbers for next year is the fact by this time next year the cable companies are going to take 3 million, 4 million ads a year in wireless -- >> taking customers from these wireless -- currently existing wireless companies and instead bringing them over as people who buy their wireless from their cable company is what you're saying >> that's exactly right. it's not in people's expectations. >> craig, why are you bullish? because the stocks have been down, more m&a's coming, what's your reasoning here? >> yeah, it's funny, for me to be on the bullish side for a change, because i've probably been the most bearish of the telecom analysts, but my sense is now is actually not the time to stay quite as bearish for telecom. in a funny way, blocking the sprint/t-mobile merger or the collapse of that merger attempt, in the near term will likely be a positive for the wireless industry >> all right we got to interrupt. sorry. >> to the white house. president trump as they get ready for the meeting with the congressional leadership >> and we appreciate it very much, and chuck, nancy, would you say anything chuck? >> well, we hope we can come to an agreement fu funding the government is extremely important. helping our soldiers is very important and helping average citizens is very important so we're here in the spirit of let's get it done. >> thank you, mr. president, for this opportunity we are here to make progress we have some important issues that we share with you you have described the opioid crisis in our country, we want to address that, help our veterans as c.h.i.p., children's health insurance. again, all things that have bipartisan support in the congress >> thank you, nancy, very much mitch? >> mr. president, we're leer to reach a bipartisan agreement, to finish out the year. and glad you invited us. happy to be here. >> thank you very much paul >> glad we're here to resume the conversations. >> mike, have anything >> one sentence. i'm just -- i'm grateful for the leaders of both political parties. this is a time of great opportunity in this country. we're seeing growth at home, but we have many challenges abroad many challenges facing the american people. and i'm more confident than ever, mr. president, with your leadership and with the good faith of all the people in this room that before this christmas, we'll produce real results for the american people that will make america stronger and more prospero prosperous. >> thank you very much i thought that with what's going on in the world, i would bring our great military genius/person along, and maybe general mattis could say a couple of words. >> i'm honored to be here with the leaders from the hill, sir, the number one priority for our country is to make certain we protect this constitution and our way of life and we've got great bipartisan support i'm confident we'll walk out of this with it >> i am, too thank you, all, very much. thank you. >> thanks, guys. >> thank you very much thank you. thank you. >> let's bring in eamon javers in here. the only thing missing was kumbaya there, eamon pretty -- pretty easy start to this meeting here. >> reporter: yeah, the political term for that, bill, is happy talk, right? that's what we heard from all the leaders there. they're not really going to show their hands here you saw nancy pelosi tick through a number of items that the she wanted to see negotiated you saw the vice president offering some fulsome praise of the president and his leadership you saw secretary mattis there weighing in at the most important duty of the military is to protect the constitution so everybody's sort of on message here at this opening of the meeting. now as soon as they get the cameras out of the room, the real haggling will start, and boy, that is the biggest poker game in the world. trillions of dollars on the line those people in the room will be negotiating all of that and we'll see if they get a deal remember, the funding deadline is tomorrow. they hope to kick the can down the road to the end of the year then resume this fight all over again. either before or just after christmastime. ultimately, to get a two-year spending deal. we'll see if they can get it. >> eamon, there are reports that the democrats were going to pursue some kind of resolution on daca in exchange for going along with the whole budget negotiation at this point and the funding bill the fact that neither nancy pelosi or chuck schumer mentioned it today, is that significant? that means they're not going to demand that or is that just them holding it close to the vest >> reporter: i think it is significant 37 i was listening, nancy pelosi was facing away from us there. i couldn't hear all the items she listed i did not hear her say daca as one of the items she was insisting on be in this bill maybe that indicates they're willing to put that fight off until the end of the year and not do it in this continuing resolution which just gets us a couple weeks' time or maybe that means and see if the leaders talk when they come out. sometimes they come out to the microphones if there's a positive outcome from the meeting. we'll watch for that puff of white smoke from above the white house, so to speak, otherwise we'll learn when they get back to the hill and it immediately leaks to the reporters up there. >> i didn't know the pope was at the white house. >> reporter: i'm mixing my metaphors today. >> he's the only one daca, the immigration program for the individuals who came to the united states. >> d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> children as undocumented -- yes. let's bring in back craig and jonathan i think we interrupted you at one point, said normally you're pretty bearish, not so much now. no, it was craig who said that craig. >> i was saying, i think that actually because sprint will be under real pressure now, having to spend more on its network, sprint's likely to be less p promotion promotional. that's going to help everybody you're likely to have the backdrop of a somewhat less hypercompetitive, hyperpromotional market for the time being and tax reform is a big thing for these companies in part especially for at&t, but also to some extent for verizon because as the market has become somewhat suspicious of their long-term abilities to sustain dividends, tax reform takes that off the table and really squarely addresses one of the most aggressive bear cases so i think you're likely to see some relief in these stocks i wouldn't be short the large cap telcos right now >> yeah, what about -- i was going to ask you, jonathan, about tax reform and the impact it would have, the companies notoriously have high tax rates. sprint is an exception that would benefit them, wouldn't it? >> tax reform no doubt would benefit these guys, bill that's well understood at this point. anyone -- >> you think it's in the stocks? >> look, when the tax bill goes through, maybe there's a little bit of incremental upside. what's not in the stocks is the impact on operating performance that a brand new very large, very well-funded set of competitors in the market is going to have. if sprint backs off, which i don't think they will in 2018, that will be completely swamped by comcast and charter being aggressive in this market for the first time ever. >> all right craig mofftitt, jonathan chapl n chaplin, thanks for your patience general electric shares higher after it revealed massive layoffs for one of its core divisions. when the layoffs will lit and what it means for the company coming up. first, we'll go live to california where wildfires have burned 80,000 acres and more damage is expected that's coming up rkets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65. having someone coach you through it is really the value of a financial advisor. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? 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(scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪ as we've all heard, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated there in southern california as those wildfires blaze across the region. aditi roy is there she has more on the damage and how these fires are affecting businesses in that area. aditi? >> reporter: hi, there, bill that's right we've driven around through a lot of neighborhoods and this is the one that we found that was most highly impacted you can see the winds kicking up my hair here they're very high at the moment. take a look at the line of fire trucks outside, and also the charred hillside, but the flames didn't stop there. take a look at this apartment building right next to me. absolutely devastated. we understand that there were dozens of units here but you can barely make anything out let's take a look from above from a chopper shot here this is one of the biggest of the handful of fires the thomas fire. it's 5% contained right now. and the smoke along the coast is what's really, really striking to us right now. the flames have been pushed by heavy wind gusts and that's the biggest challenge for firefighters right now 150 structures have been destroyed. between homes and businesses tens of thousands had to flee, not knowing whether they'd come back home again. we spent some time at a local shelter where not only are they housing about 200 people, but they've also taken in 150 horses and 200 dogs and cats. that's where we also met a woman named patricia, she mentioned terrifying moments when she and her boyfriend had to flee. >> it was absolutely surreal we -- there were fire trucks everywhere the ash was so thick and the fires were huge. they came over the mountain and people running everywhere. it was scary >> reporter: also want to point out to you guys how surgical these flames can be sometimes. take a look at that apartment complex up there on the hillside perfectly intact again, just downslope a little bit, we saw another apartment building that just didn't make it firefighters say sometimes there's no rhyme or reason when it comes to mother nature. speaking of mother nature, bill and kelly, those high wind gusts expected through saturday. so much more to come back to you guys >> i was just going to ask you about that, today was supposed to be the worst of it with the winds bhiping up maybe as high as 80 miles per hour has that happened? is it starting to die down here a little bit >> reporter: you know what, they are still really, really strong. >> yeah. >> reporter: in the morning, if you can see this, in the morning, they were -- seemed a little bit calmer this morning we thought, okay, maybe we've seen the worst of it it's definitely gusted back up again. even in the short few hours that we've been here. and we're actually getting soot and ash pummeled, we have to shield our eyes from it here in this neighborhood so it's pretty bad. >> yeah, we can hear it pummeling the mike thanks, aditi. >> reporter: thanks so much. >> time for a cnbc news update with sue herera. >> hello, michelle, hello, bill, here's what's happening at this hour fbi director christopher w rerks wray defending the integrity of his agents after president trump tweeted that the agency's reputations is in tatters. during a house hearing this morning. >> the fbi that i see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep americans safe from the next terrorist attack, gang violence, child predators, spies from russia, china, north korea, and iran saudi arabia's crown prince bin salman is a buyer of a painting by leonardo da vinci. the nominal winner of the auction turned out to be a proxy for prince bin salman. tennessee finally has a new football coach agreeing to terms with alabama defensive coordinator jeremy pruitt. his hiring comes six days after former tennessee football coach phil furmler was named at rhettrhet athletic director and put in charge of the coaching search. that's it for the news this hour back downtown to you guys, bill? >> sue, thank you very much. 25 minutes left in the trading session. the dow up we were up 120, down 40 at one point. steve grasso from stuart frankel joining me today we were talking to john earlier, doesn't seem to be too worried about a shutdown, about a jobs number, about fed raising rates. >> i think we've been fooled a bunch of times on the government shut shutdown, get locked in and sell the market ahead of it, you realize the market recovers. no one is thatcharlie brown and football >> exactly at the end of the day they're going to recover charlie brown will recover the football will be back in place. what we're looking at now is market is basically 1% off all-time highs why? amt, we chatted about it the other day when we did that bad abbott and costello skit you and i. amt, when that starts to come out, when mr. hatch says it's not going to be in the final tax reform bill, then the market says, okay, we have a little bit of clarity, let's run the market higher big tech can run a little higher >> easy for him to say. >> says here they want me to ask you about something called bitcoin. i'm not familiar with it what do you make of this today >> actually when you look at bitcoin, there's a lot of other plays that are off on the peripheral square, overstock, i'm long both of them. >> they hitched their wagons to bitco bitcoin. >> they have hitched their wagon. you know, you could see it with overstock, it's got an e-commerce business, it misses on earnings and the stock goes up 11% the day after because they mentioned bitcoin square mentions bitcoin and it was just doing it in passing day weren't really hitching their wagon. they were saying, hey, this is something we're going to do in the future and the stock runs up so you start to see these things get sold off once you see that it's going to trade bitcoin futures so if people think they can to it directly now, would be a more expansive audience that could trade bitcoin, you don't need these peripheral plays. remains to be seen how it all works out. i know you might be a little skeptical. >> you think >> judging by your reaction. >> i can't wait for the michael lewis book on this someday. >> it is amazing, scary. people making a ton of money, people i'm sure are losing a ton of money and it's not oiver yet. >> does not appear to be michelle >> thanks, guys. sage therapeutic stock skyrocketing today up 70% on word of a positive test result for a drug that reduces the symptoms of depression we'll have details ahead on that. plus the sound of money. that is the best way to describe visa's new branding strategy for customer payment literally, a story you have to hear we'll play you the sound next. for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. we are the driven... ♪ music plays throughout) the dedicated... the overachievers. we know our best investment is in ourselves. we don't take no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. okay so we all know everybody's getting into mobile payments right fonow. >> yep. >> okay? that includes visa so a group of visa employees got together and they figured, you know, when you make a payment on your favorite mobile device, it's got to make a sound to let you know that the payment went through. >> like when you send an e-mail and it goes whoosh. >> right it makes that sound. they needed a signature sound and for them, it -- they went through a whole bunch of different sounds has to be about a second long. and it has to be energetic, optimistic, and not overly intrusive. and this is what they came up with >> not bad. >> what do you think >> it has to be short. >> energetic -- energy, optimistic, and not overly intrusive. let's do it again. [ tone ] >> i think that's fine. >> do you feel satisfied that you made a payment then? >> yeah, yeah. >> it strikes me that it's short. i think of like -- >> it's got to be. >> when windows starts, there's that sound, an hbo program, there's that sound. >> i like the windows sound. it's a very calming thing. >> i like them, too. sounds matter, right >> yes. >> like, when the maserati starts it sounds great. right? audio is just as important as visual sometimes >> okay. we have a request here one more time. [ tone ] we just made three payments here on visa. good job, visa you get two thumbs up from michelle and bill here 19 seconds left -- 19 minutes left in the trading session here the dow is up 62 points as we head to the close. general electric is a company of certainly in transition and now more than 10,000 workers find themselves in it transition, themselves we'll have details on that coming up. scale, that is the word most bandied about in the potential disney/fox deal and that they need more of it. if bulking up is the future for media, ahead, we're going to look at what other media marriages might make sense ♪ the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. bacteria can multiply to high enough levels that even cooking it will not destroy all of them. it's definitely the most important thing in my business. how fresh is the fish? where it comes from? how it gets here. the more i know, the better. sometimes the product arrives and the cold chain has been interrupted, and we need to be able to identify where in the cold chain that occurred. we took our world class network and we developed devices to track environmental conditions. this device allows people to understand what's happening not only with the location of that asset, but also if it's too hot, if it's too cold, if it's been dropped... it's completely unique. we ship fish, beef, poultry, vaccines, insulin. this is about monitoring and protecting everything we ship. i catch all this amazing, beautiful fish and then once it's out of my hands, i have no control over what happens to it. if you have a sensor that can keep track of your product, it keeps everybody kind of honest that way. it's really all about the network. you are looking at trillions of transactions a year. not too many companies in the world can even scale to that type of volume. who knew a tiny sensor could help keep the food chain safe? food has to be fresh. it's that simple. similars of gener . shares of general electric higher gain of 8 cents. company announced it's cutting 12,000 jobs in its power business morgan brennan has the detail. morgan, this was supposed to be a great area of hope for this company. >> it was. what a difference a couple months has made. more layoffs general electric ceo john flannery tries to turn the struggling company around. this will reduce the power segment's head count by 12,000 or 18%, mostly overseas, over the next year and a half power is ge's biggest business, accounts for a third of sales, the most jobs and recently became a big source of pain. profit in the yun plunged last quarter and a key reason the 2018 earnings forecast was slashed in half. that downturn has been dramatic reversal from just earlier this year when ge believed the segment, which includes $10 billion of assets mainly coal-related, would power earnings growth. to be sure, g, e is not alone. rival, seamans, announced cutting nearly 7,000 jobs. if speaks to how quickly the world is shifting from traditional energy sources to renewable ones, creating competition, driving down pricing and threatening not just orders for companies like ge, for things like gas and coal-powered turbines, but future service revenues tied to those as well. so the question now, is it too little, too late ge doubled down on fossil fuels in recent years. it didn't really, according to analysts, invest meaningfully in renewable tech flannery has said he believes the mistakes that have been made are, quote, fixable, and that power could be turned around within the next one to two years. we will see. right now shares of general electric marginally higher >> that's interesting win you say they didn't invest meaningfully in renewable technology because wasn't there a big scandal several years ago about ge not paying any taxes and that had a lot to do with subsidies related to win power >> yes, so ge did have plans a couple of years ago to invest in more -- in more of these types of renewable technologies, and then eventually those plans were abandoned here in the u.s. and as i mentioned, they, you know, doubled down with alstom assets in the last couple of years, $10 million there. wa we've obviously seen the acquisitions that took place in recent years in oil and gas and spinning those off and merging those with baker hughes. so for ge right now -- >> i see, your point is when it came to renewables, they got out at exactly the wrong time as you can say about a lot of the other businesses. >> timing was everything. >> timing was bad on so many thanks, morgan. >> sure. 13 minutes before the bell the dow jones industrial average right now is higher by 54 points the s&p in positive territory as well this is my favorite story of the day. shares of sage therapeutics up more than 70% thanks to a new drug that has the potential to offer a brand of new treatment for depression we're talking possible remission for depression >> shareholders will be very thay,oo >>hat is for sure. have this story when we come back ♪fly me to the moon ♪ ♪and let me play amon-- (ding) (bell mnemonic) it's life insurance and wharetirement solutions toic? 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we'll size up the ndape stlascju ahead. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide like agriculture to feed the world. and energy to fuel its growth. real estate such as e-commerce warehouses. and private debt to finance transportation and infrastructure. building blocks of strategies to pursue consistent returns over time from over $120 billion dollars in real assets. partner with pgim. the global investment management businesses of prudential. what if we could keep more amof what we earn?d. trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. who could possibly be against that? well, the national debt is $20 trillion. as we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill? him. and her. and her. congress, we should grow the economy. not the debt. ♪ let'sfist word that comes to mind when you think of low-cost futures trading. was it happy? what about a dedicated service team with futures licensed specialists? and what about being able to react to the 24-hour futures market with integrated trading across web and mobile? still happy? good. then it's time for power e-trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. e-trade. the original place to invest online. coming up to the final three minutes of trade here with the dow up 61 points on the day and that's about half the gain we had at one time. the dow was up 129 points. i've got a four-day chart, so this is the dow this week so far. where we had volatility early in the week, we all remember, now things have started to settle down a little bit. this is another one of those days where you had a pretty good rally on the open this morning then we came back. we were down 39 points at one time as well today among the gainers and losers today, the biggest gainer by far, we just mentioned it, sage therapeutics with that anti-depression drug that has sailed through so far into the trials and shown great success for many of the patient there. duluth holdings is a casual apparel company and their earnings disappointed to say the least. that stock down 16% today. the story we're keeping to follow here, the 21st century fox talks with both disney and apparently with comcast as well. disney seems to have the inside track at this point, but 21st century fox shares continue higher, in fact, they have been the best performing stock in the nasdaq today, bob pisani, with that gain of almost 3% here. it would appear that disney has that inside track and as david faber was reporting yesterday, bob iger will probably stay around longer than anticipated if they get that deal done >> yeah, and i wonder if some of the fox people who might want a leadership position over at disney were necessarily terribly happy about him staying -- >> so we've heard. so we've heard. >> yes let's move on. here's what's interesting about today. remember we've been talking at how far this trade can go, this rotation trade going into things like retailers, for example, industrials, telecom or banks that would benefit from the tax cut. take a look at what's going on today, everything went up. transports went up the russell 2000 went up semiconductors that been been sell off a few days ago, up again. retail, that's back again. the s&p is back again. we basically had a nice little modest overall lift in the market down from where we were. this has been an interesting consolidation in the last few days the volatility has been much, much lower the rotation isn't as obvious. >> what are you hearing about the jobs number tomorrow morning and we do care >> well, the only question is whether we get a -- we've been looking for this -- >> would have to be a big outliers right >> it's the wages that will move things we've withbeen looking to get or 2% on an annual basis. it's been pretty modest so far again, that's the whole thing about looking for those productivity gains, elusive productivity gains i think there's an obvious reason it's about technology and it's very much there. we don't measure productivity very well. there's a subject for a different day. >> clearly the market is more concerned about fiscal policy than monetary policy right now we will have that jobs number for you tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern time on "squawk box. going out with a gain of about 57 points on the dow we have a few earnings to tell you about among other things and the latest out of washington coming up on the second hour of the "closing bell. wow. he hit that hard, didn't he? see him? welcome to the "closing bell," i'm michelle caruso-cabrera in for kelly evans. bill is going to rejoin us in a moment, how we're finishing the day on wall street dow jones industrial average in positive territory by 24 points. it had been up almost 40 points. the s&p 500, actually 24,212 a gain s&p higher by .30% at 2637. nasdaq higher. russell 2000 up .77% as we continue do see the small caps outperform perhaps in anticipation of the tax bill finally getting through congress bitcoin crossing 19,000 earlier today. we got a bull/bear debate on the cryptocurrency and whether it's in a bubble or if it's a buy and wildfires tearing across southern california, we're going to head tlhere live for the latest updates on the damage and how firefighter are battling the blaze just a little bit later. all right. once again, slow you what's going on with the markets. meantime, joining us on the panel, mike santoli. mike chael block. stephanie link is planning director at equity port tole you mana prt folio manager at tia investments. mike santoli, a sloppy couple days. >> it was. >> now a bit of a recovery son s >> felt like the 2017 stock market vix down below 10.5. tech outperforming basically your routine day for 2017 until recently. a weird little shakeout, rotation from winners into losers which also translates growth into value. now, it's been kind of a gentle getting its legs back under it type of move >> biggest winner in the dow, boeing biggest loser, procter & gamble. the s&p, the biggest winner, edward life sciences, biggest loser, h&r block h&r block said yesterday they do well when there's tax reform, the stock went up 8% the biggest gainer yesterday. >> right. >> today somebody reconsidered that i guess. >> there's always a false notion of simplification thereat never occurs h&r block wins either way. >> no relation >> yeah. >> i forgot about that show of hands. we got this five shot here, anybody buying bitcoin anybody? think it's a buy right now >> are you buying it >> am i ahead of the curve >> no? >> i have so many other things to buy >> yes, you do. >> i do. there's a lot of other things to choose from. >> like? >> well, let's just -- today was actually a bit of everything it was a growth and value day. right? it seemed to me today, we were still focused on macro and tax, but it also seemed like we were looking a little forward to what's next after tax. and there was some speculation that is it a trade nafta, is it infrastructure if you looked at the industrials and aggregates today, they did quite well in anticipation of kind of the next leg of this fiscal policy story, so, yeah, i'm all in on industrials. i still like financials. although i still think some of the staple stocks are kind of interesting, too, so there's a rot to choose from. >> mr. no relation to h&r block, what are you doing today is. >> what i'm doing, i'm in the growth bucket. were looking for value to break out. the fact it remains, even though we had a day or two where the tech stocks started rotating doing better than the suppose the stocks that would do better on taxes, over the twapast two weeks, stocks that would do better under a lower tax regime, industrials, financials, transports, small caps in general, the russell stocks that have outperformed. that trend continues what i'm doing there, i'm looking for signs of frothiness there, whether it's financials i think a lot of koi was drank at the goldman conference, in terms of how q4 is going to look ais i'm going to shoot against that. i'm still waiting for bargains on tech. as stephanie pointed out, sure, there's a lot of things to buy, not just things that are going to benefit from the tax plan if large cam tech is going to get beat up, i'm going to go in, swoop up, tell clients to buy the names when the opportunity arises we're going to be patient. >> all right long shopping list here. we're expecting a vote later this hour in congress to avoid a government shutdown. kayla tausche has the latest house goes first, right? >> reporter: they do, bill that's expected really in just about a half an hour, perhaps just a pretty l blittle bit aft. going to be a vote on a clean two-week continuing resolution that would avert a government shutdown and fund the government at current levels for two weeks ex-pe expiring on december 22nd the house needs 215 votes to pass this. the freedom caucus had been giving leadership a run for their money. we caught up with a few moments ago with the chair of the freedom caucus, mark meadows he says he expects the republicans to eke out this vote with the help of some but not all of the freedom caucus. >> i think we'll have 216, maybe 217 republican members to support this short-term continuing resolution. no more than that. but enough to make sure that it passes today and then once we hit that threshold, i believe a whole lot of democrats will come on board. i think leader pelosi is waiting to see if we can do this without democrat help and i can assure you that that's going to happen here in the next few hours we have enough to actually determine whether this passes or not today. >> reporter: what meadows is not optimistic about is what happens on december 22nd when this package expires. currently, gop leaders are working on a second short-term package that would fund the government through january, but fund defense programs through september. but, of course, that will need democratic support as well that's three days before christmas. and there will be quite a lot of pressure building up in the next two weeks' time. it's clear republicans want to get tax reform done so they are delaying this shutdown and this funding vote until then. but we'll see what happens just three days before christmas. guys, and we'll give you the count of this vote in the house when it hapspens a little later on. >> is all right. get back to us when that happens, kayla, thank you very much we had on two guests last hour that completely -- about any ha they said statistically, historically the market goes up. anybody here worried >> salutae . >> absolutely not. >> what about december 22nd? they want to get tax reform and the spending bill done on the same day. >> that could be -- >> that could bring in volatility for the market, right? >> it could. i still think that we're dealing with self-imposed deadlines for the tax vote it's not exactly like something falls apart if they don't get to the tax vote until the following week or something like that. so, look, i don't know, the vix used to kind of go up, a little clinching up after anxiety ahead of known events. doesn't seem to happen anymore. >> i don't see why we're focused on payday loan activity within congress, same time we have the senate republicans all high fiving each other they're going to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years with their tax bill. is this really relevant? i don't think so traders are not focused on this today. what mike said, you know, in terms of the tax bill taking a little longer, the fact the way republicans in my opinion rushed this bill through, take a few extra days, markets will breathe a sigh of relief get it done right in terms of amt and deductions and everything else, do it right. >> is that on your shopping list >> i mean, clearly tax is the most important thing at this point. that has got to get done and to the extent that we feel confident that that's going to get done, i think everything else kind of falls to the side does it create volatility? yes. is it more volatile than it would normally be the last couple of weeks in december? this has been a really busy last couple of weeks in general with this rotation that's happening >> right, right. >> i think you just have to -- yeah, my list is quite long, as is michael's, and, you know, you have to look forward to that kind of thing and just have the guts to step up and buy when you do see some bullbacks. >> let's see if lululemon is on that list. it closed liar today by about 7% following that stronger earnings report after the bell last night. stock helped other consumer discretionary stocks like nike, underarmour and foot locker to also close higher today. lululemon is up nearly 20% just this month >> well, nike's up 16% in just this month right? so in the last couple -- in the last four weeks. i think athleisure in general has been debated as to whether or not it has peaked out clearly it hasn't yowhen you sea 7% comp at rulu, 20% comp of women's pants at lulu. this is certainly where the growth is. i don't think it peaked out at all. you have to have the right product. if you have the right product, the buyers are going to come in. >> i mean, i've been impressed with lulu. interesting the whole category got a lift today seems to me lulu was distinguishing itself as a brand that had a core following, better distribution both online and in its stores. it was interesting, the street was skeptical. you saw today, there were a half dozen analysts had to come out, raise their price targets on lulu because they were defensive on it. >> doesn't make sense under armour has gone down 4% -- >> we've seen this happen before we mentioned under armour, left for dead everyone pounced all over lululemon. this happens in retail over and over again it's a very emotion l sector look at kors -- gets beaten up and left for dead -- >> retail is also getting caught up with the tax situation because they're the highest taxpayers. >> right. >> you have that as a backdrop as well. >> so bill's favorite topic. >> okay. >> bitcoin soaring above 19,000 for the first time today before falling back below 16,000. huge movele co cryptocurrency now up more than 1,500% since the beginning of this year. >> that's a lot of halves. >> for fraud or for real >> oh, i mean, i think it could be somewhere in between. i mean, i think -- >> doesn't have to be a fraud, it's a bubble. >> yes when you see this kind of -- first of all, the acceleration to the upside, then the massive intraday moves, it's reacting to only its own dynamics. all it measures is the enthusiasm of the people caught up in the craze for this phase of it right now. and i keep saying there's no right or wrong price >> there's going to be yuuse fo blockchain technology, use for bitcoin, given people use it as a means of value really believe that. means -- i'm not sure i want to be transacting a means of value that acts like this. i'm seeing some psychological belafr that i've seen before and read about before. and it worries me. >> does it -- does it suggest a pathology that we see at market peaks for the broader market i see a nod of your head up and down. >> i'm seeing a lot of it, behavior that we saw in 1999 into 2000, equivalent of the e-trade commercials, kid who wants to dance instead of play basketball put your money in the stock market because you're going be a millionaire that way i'm feeling that over and over again talking to people, reading -- >> bitcoin -- >> with regard to bitcoin or stocks general? >> in regard to bitcoin, not -- >> that's what i'm saying. >> is bitcoin a symbol of something bad to come for stocks >> not necessarily i think the one good thing that's happened this all year long we talked about if is tt ie rotation you lad technology get a little overheated then had the pullback and kind of the energy and financials industrials kind of lagged and people rotated into that if they want to go into bitcoin, that's fine. again, there are a lot of companies with earnings, good p/es, good valuations. you know, i mean -- >> somebody said today they're rotating out of gold into bitcoin. what do can you think? >> the sum of that is clearly happening. gold is down 16 bucks today. i mean, they obviously kind of somewhat conceptually behave in a similar way. >> yeah. hear them compared quite a bit. >> gold is another thing with no cash flows and no earnings and no real fundamentals aside -- >> yet people assign value to it, the value fluctuates over time over history. ear we go again. >> thank you, lady and gent gentlemen. >> thank you. >> good to see you both. thank you. >> tulip time. >> we know what he thinks. jpmorgan chase's jamie dimon no stranger to headlines and likery to make more in the next half an hour when he speaks at the wells fargo thought leadership conference. we'll get a preview and see some of the day's highlights next. plus as i mentioned earlier the deal between fox and disney reportedly is back on track, at least the talks are. her di up we'll look at what otmea deals may also be in the wings. stay tuned superstar investors leon cooperman and mark lazry were some of the names attending that wells fargo securities investment thought leadership to forrm forum in new york city that fit all on one marquee. scott wapner was there and joins us with the highlights >> reporter: it is a big marquee, would have to be one to get all the names on here. thank you. been a good day here the headline of all the investors i spoke to today is this rally isn't over. the only question remains how long are stocks going to continue to run? we did catch up with mark lazry, chairman and ceo of avenue capital. interestingly enough, he was on the network almost one year ago to the day the dow was at 20,000. he likened it then to a sugar high i said if it's a sugar high then, what would you call it now? we've gone up another ,04,000 points on the dow. the question is why? here's marc lasry's answer. >> part of it, all the news has been positive. take a look at the economy, the economy's doing well everybody is taking all that positive news and just is keeping -- continuing to buy equities so, look, i think it could continue for another six months or a year because everything's good. >> reporter: we also managed to catch up with lee cooperman today. he, of course, the chairman and the founder of omega advisers. he called the recent tech rotation, quote, healthy he has a very large position in google, it's his biggest he also has a position in facebook and a splamaller one i amazon and that's where the conversation really got interesting. mr. cooperman revealing a conversation he had with the president of the united states, donald trump, about amazon here's how that went >> amazon is a class company that is gaining strength, you know, they outexecuted everybody. the major risk to amazon, i guess i could say this, with ten other people at dinner, was hosted by the president in the white house mid-july, and twice he asked if i thought amazon was a monopoly >> the president asked you >> yeah, exactly i said, no, mr. president, i don't think it was, i think they outexecuted people, they've done a very good job. >> reporter: yeah, really interesting insight into that time that lee cooperman was at the white house, especially the fact the president asked him not once, twice, whether amazon was a monopoly lee cooperman telling us he quickly changed the subject. those were his words we guggenheim cio today, maybe all of the investors we spoke to seem to be a little cautious, however, he also said this rally is far from over take a listen. >> i know we've had quite a big run, but i think we probably have another 10% to 15% ahead of us next year the tax bill may give us a little more of a bump, but it's still, i think you can still get double-digit returns out of the stock market rrn. >> reporter: even so, scott told us he does see a recession coming in either late 2019 or the very first part of 2020. so we turn our attention now just a few moments now, a few moments from now, jamie dimon is going to be on the stage upstairs, going to be interviewed by mike mayo yes, we want his thoughts on the kpli, the tax bill, where he sees the banking industry and the global markets o' s over thx year or so i think bitcoin is going to be at the top of everyone's mind as well of course, how many thousands of points ago was it on bitcoin that jamie dimon called it a fraud? wonder what he thinks now. hopefully we'll find out when we hear from jamie dimon in just a short period of time michelle, bill >> all right, thanks very much, scott. >> i just think it's interesting that jamie dimon is speaking at a wells fargo conference what is that about >> that's true it's the investment institute side of wells fargo. >> yes, but still. >> not the -- >> it's mike mayo. >> -- the commercial banking -- >> scott, leon cooperman's comments about what the president asked about amazon i think were very, very interesting, and very telling. i really wonder if amazon tries to do any other kind of deal, especially in light of what we've screen wieen with time wad at&t if they aren't going to run into some kind of trouble. the deal they did with whole foods, it did get approved but the new guy in charge of the d oj, if amazon wants to do anything else, based on the conversation with cooperman, they're going to be in the crosshairs. >> reporter: yeah, it's a great question, michelle and who knows, and, you know, before donald trump swept into office, he had taken shots at jeff bezos on the campaign trail. >> yeah. >> we thought, okay, what does that mean for am sazon as a sto once donald trump got elected president? obviously, you know, what, amazon's shares are upyear to de it thahasn't hurt the company. however, when you heard the president raised that issue with an investor like leon cooperman, it certainly makes you wionder, get insight into the way he thinks avlt lee cooperman told him, too, he doesn't think it's a monopoly and that's before he changed the subject as fast as he could. >> all right, scott, thank you and we'll be listening for jamie dimon's comments coming up in a if u minutes thanks, see you later. a news alert on disney morgan brennan has the detail that's right disney board elected oracle co-ceo safra catz as investors effective february 1st right now sures of disney about flat back over to you. >> okay. new board members. maybe they're going to have to vote on a deal at some point. >> a new ceo down the roerd. >> right, right. coming up, dow 25,000. few people are talking about that bitcoin 19,000 that is the talk of the town as the cryptocurrency hit that number today before falling back to below 16,000. so what is behind the bitcoin buzz h that's coming up but first we'll go live back to southern california those wildfires continue to rage show no sign of endingny te soon the latest coming up (news anchor) downtown traffic is still bad. expect massive delays. (radio channel changing) (news anchor 2) all lanes on highway 50 remain closed at this hour. (news anchor 3) the stats are in and this city leads with some of the worst traffic, with the average driver sitting in gridlock the equivalent of three days a year. for every hour that you're idling in your car, you're sending about half a gallon of gasoline up in the air. that amounts, over the course of the week, to about 10 pounds of carbon dioxide. growth is good, but when it starts impacting our quality of air and quality of life, that's a problem. so forward-thinking cities like sacramento are investing in streets that are smarter and greener. the solution was right under our feet. asphalt. or to be more precise, intelligent asphalt. by embedding sensors into the pavement, as well as installing cameras on traffic lights, we will be able to study and analyze the flow of traffic. then, we will take all of that data and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that traffic flows easier and travel times are shorter. and sacramento is just the beginning. with advances in cameras, sensors, and network speeds, we have the ability to make cities smarter, and happier. what excites me about this technology is that we're using some of the most cutting-edge machine-learning, and ai, to help solve the most fundamental challenges that cities face around the world. who knew asphalt could help save the environment? (lani) and the possibilities are endless. wildfires continuing to rip through southern california including l.a. county. aditi roy is in ventura, california, with the latest. aditi? >> reporter: the winds are kicking up here, we were in a neighborhood that was heavily impai impa impacted, the flames tore through here we showed you an apartment building i want to show you a truck, ver unrecognizable the winds are very, very strong, what they're contending with right now. it this is the biggest fire, the one that tore through in all the wildfires we've seen in the area it's called the thomas fire. right now it's 5% contained. 150 structures throughout southern california have been impacted they've been destroyed tens of thousands had to flee their homes without whether knowing they'd come back to a home we talked to one woman who talked about those terrifying moments before she had to flee her home businesses have also had a formidable impact. the wildfires have caused crop damage we don't know how much damage there is, that obviously has to be quantified, but this area of ventura county is known for its citrus and avocado production. in the entertainment world, shooting on hbo's show "west world" was temporarily suspended. it resumed but it was suspended temporarily because of the threat of fire finally, fitch ratings last month came out with a report that said the insurance losses from california wildfires totaled $8 billion making it the costliest wildfire loss in u.s. history, and keep in mind, guys, that was last month before this whole series of wildfires and of course we're not out of the woods yet, with winds gusting up and they're expected to last through saturday back to you. >> quick question, aditi, before you go, i know they closed some of the major highways. parts of the 405 the 101. the ventura freeway there. are people trying to go to work or has life sort of come to a halt here. >> because even on the best of days, traffic is just horrible trying to get in and around southern california there. >> reporter: yeah. sure it's probably a mixed bag. i mean, we obviously spent a lot of time in ventura today life is pretty much at a standstill we're driving through downtown and things like that in l.a., it's probably a mixed bag. again, schools are out, too. public schools today and tomorrow that's probably having a big impact all those parents trying to scramble to find childcare for their kids as well so it just kind of depends, but no doubt it's affected commerce in this area in a big way. >> you bet aditi, thanks. aditi roy there in ventura, california time for a cnbc news update with sue herera. hey, sue. >> hello, bill, hi, michelle here's what's happening at this hour, everyone president trump welcoming a group of pearl harbor survivors to the white house to witness a ceremony declaring december 7th as national pearl harbor remembrance day. and he thanked the veterans for their service. >> today our entire nation pauses to remember pearl harbor and the brave warriors who on that day stood tall and fought for america. as i sign the proclamation taking this national pearl harbor remembrance day, i ask that god continue to bless and watch over each of you and very, very special people to our country. a federal judge sentencing larry nassar, former usa gymnastics team doctor, to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges that grew out of a sex abuse investigation. nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 100 gymnasts. the pittsburgh steelers announcing today that linebacker ryan shazier had surgery on his injured spine last night at the university of pittsburgh medical center he was injured monday night playing against the cincinnati bengals. we wish him a speedy recovery. that's the news update this hour i'm going to send it back to you, michelle. >> yeah, we sure do. thank you, sue. we got a news alert on united airlines. morgan brennan standing by with that detail. >> hey, michelle, that's right, united continental announcing a new $3 billion share repurchase program, amounts approximately 17% of the company's current market capitalization, based on the closing stock price as of today. the company is ex. ebl expected to complete its mostly authorized july 2016 repurchase program, expected by the end of december no expiration date on the new way. it's up 1.5% on the news back to you. >> you can see the intraday move. >> chuck schumer was itemizing the number of companies announcing the share buybacks and his premise is, gee, they're not creating jobs. >> not raising wages. >> united continental, obviously it's case by case. it's a pretty big chunk of united continental's market value. more than 20% if they get to the 3 billion of the stock prices. from an investor perspective, they don't want united to be investing in new capacity because their ceo recently said they're not going to cede market share. that's the balance, right? i mean, investors want to see use of capital and not go out and do a lot of hiring and spending. >> all right let's take a look at how we finished the day an wall street if you're just joining us here plus signs across the board. they were higher earlier pop the dow up 120-plus points at one time finished with a gain of 70 points s&p up seven nasdaq up 36 points. the best gainer percentage wise, throe, the small caps, the russing 2russ i russel 2000. let's get to other big stories today in our "rapid recap. >>. >> earnings just out from tiffany. the luxury goods retailer reporting profit of 80 cents a share, that was 4 cents above estimates. revenue was above forecasts. but comp store sales were unchanged. that was better than the decline of .2% than an ris alysts were anticipating. >> ge power will cut 12,000 jobs as restructuring workforce >> we tripled our business this year from last year. we're acquiring the largest number of new guests ever in any single quarter i mean, 21% of that acquisition is through males. >> today i am announcing that in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as a member of the united states senate >> bitcoin crossing the $14,000 mark that move comes less than 24 hours after it crossed the $12,000 mark. >> another record for bitcoin. the cryptocurrency surpassing $15,000 for the first time ever. >> on coinbase, it moved over the $16,000 mark, as a matter of fact, it's approaching the $17,000 mack >> now today it goes through $19,000 for the first time >> maybe it will go up even further. >> okay. let's talk about it, shall we? why not. price of bitcoin did soar today, crossed the $19,000 mark on coinbase one point before falling back. the cryptocurrency has had a 1,400% move so far this year, but it is the surge that we've seen in recent days that has even some believers concerned. >> richard johnson is one of those. we're also joined by bitcoin bear, dennis gartman from the gartman letter good to have you here. richard, let me start with you you're a believer but you're concerned. outline your case for me how you feel about bitcoin right now. >> i've. lo been looking at the market for three years. i'm generally considering myself a bitcoin fan and crypto bull. the action of the last two days has made my eyes water. >> why do you think it's happening? >> what's been contributing it to this recent run-up is the announcement by the cme, they're going to launch bitcoin futures. >> what will lap sundhappen sun night? some traders are saying they're licking their schopchops, can't to get to the futures exchange because they can short bitcoin. >> it's difficult to short a lot of the ekt changes are unregulated. would have to lend bitcoins to someone to do it nobody wants to do that. >> you saying it went up because the move legitimatizes it or people are buy it so they will be able too hedge eventually -- >> i'm saying the move has gone up because it legitimatizes it and hedge eventually -- >> i'm saying the move has gone up because it legitimatizes it and gives another avenue for traditional financial firms to get into the market. but you made a good point as well that it does have this other angle in it will allow people to take a short exposure in the very short term, this is a bullish signal for bitcoin. >> dennis, my friend, we often see eye to eye on things and we see eye to eye on this one this is a bubble no matter how you look at it certainly there are smart people like richard who are in the market, have been in the market, but there are also plenty of people who have no idea what bitcoin is and can't wait to buy some because they see the price going up here. classic bubble. >> it is a classic bubble. first of all, i'm not a bear on it i'ming ing agnostic to bitcoin,. if it wants to go to 25,000, wants to go to 5,000, so be it, i wish everybody good look and good fortune trading it. i'm greatly bullish on the blockchanbloc blockchain, itself is this nonsense what we're seeing in the past hours this is utter and complete nonsense i wish everybody good fortune but this looks so much like the tulip bulb craze of the 15th century in holland gone beyond that absurdity pick a number, pay your chances. what i do think will happen, however, with the advent of the futures market, it will tend to stabilize this, probably send prices lower it will takes o out some of the volatility but won't happen for a week or two. people will be frightened to sell it short because of the margin and possibilities of limit down/limit up activity you won't get a great moderation in price for the first two, three weeks. the futures will help moderate this market over the long term no question. >> richard, when bitcoin, when the craze first started, one of the philosophical underpinnings of it was that there's a controlled supply, only a certain amount, you know, central banks have been pr prophlogate, however i once there are going g thousands and thousands and thousands of cryptocurrencies, major organization, institution, can have their own blockchain, if you want to do business with company x, you're going to use their tokens, et cetera, et cetera it seems to me there's not a controlled amount of money supply, the money supply is actually quite endless when it comes to cryptoncurrencies, to me, seems dilutive to a bitcoin which will be one of thousands >> well, there are thousands -- over 1,000, at least, cryptocurrencies out there right now. not all of them are going to be winners. many of them will fail the winners are going to be the ones that generate the effect, get more people using them and have a use case. bitcoin is the original one. it has the broade esest adoptio far. that will be one of the winners. there are other ones out there and other cryptocurrencies out there that will also have some value. >> but the underlying promise i suggested is not incorrect that you can have all these cryptocurrencies which could be potentially dilutive to a bitco bitcoin? >> i don't know if i agree with that i think there's going to be a maximum of 21 million bitcoins the scarcity of bitcoins is what's contributing to the price, but these different crypto assets that are coming out are not all exactly the same bitcoin cash is one that forked off recently from bitcoin, has a different kind of technology it's using for faster processing time atherum uses a distributor computing power. there are different things different options. and some will be successful. more than one will be successful. >> i guess i wonder exactly how much economic activity has to be remade in this fashion to start to justify the valuations if it something like bitcoin, right, because otherwise we're going to be looking beack and saying remember the time we used an enormous amount of electrical power to create virtual money and flying chips around the world overnight so we could mine it so it's just seems as if there's a lot of mechanical issues with it that people say, why do i have to to this? >> we have an update goldman sachs said to decide to clear bitcoin futures confirmed by cnbc. so another firm is going to get into this, dennis. to help further legitimatize it. >> what do you think that will do >> what do you think is going to happen you said it will take a couple weeks to settle out. do you think we settle into some -- a commodity of some kind as i think the exchange is hoping >> i think that we shall, but i think it shall be a deplon stra demonstrably lower prices. michelle is absolutely right, the problem incumbent in bitcoin, it's an infinite supply of thousands upon thousandsbeli going to be dilutive bitcoin will be the stellar one, the wti or brent crude future of the cryptocurrency market. but given the fact that it's ostensibly an infinite supply, can is not be bullish for this in the long run. >> okay. >> gentle plen, thamen, thank yu two smart guys two different opinions on bitcoin. >> and for more on bitcoin, father of high-speed trading will be on "fast money" tonight to tell cnbc why he's going to offer bitcoin futures on his trading platform everybody's getting in on this. all right. we got an earnings alert on american outdoor brands. formerly known as smith & wesson morgan brennan has the numbers morgan >> it's a busy afternoon here, guys, i tell you what. shares of american outdoor brands have just begun trading again after being halted ahead of their earnings. now earnings wir better than expected the issue here is the current quarter guidance, q4 eps, was 7 to 10 cents adjusted per share by the company that's versus consensu estimates of 41 cents per share. also kuscurrent quarter revenueo $180 million lower than expe expectations as well james deb flrney, president ando saying our results for our second quarter were within guidance range, lower shipments for firearms business reflected a significant reduction in wholesale and retailer orders versus the prior year and goes on to say that when total revenue for the quarter facing a challenging comparison to last year when we believe strong consumer depland wmand was drivy personal safety concerns and increased firearm legislation. if you take a look at shares of american outdoor brands, formerly known as smith & wesson, they're down 14% in the aftermarket trade right now. back over to you. >> coming up against tough comps, right, mike >> that's the problem, yes. >> obviously pulled forward a lot of demand. the stock did have a good day black friday, there was a report that the back ground check volume was very high on black friday but seems like maybe it wasn't going to all be new business for the fourth quarter. >> how long we're going to have to say formerly known as smith & wesson disney is trading lower. 21st century fox pops after sources told cnbc those two companies are nearing a deal with comcast still in the mix there. also competing for those assets. where could the next big media m&a be that's coming up [vo] when it co, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. ronoh really?g's going on at schwab. thank you clients? well jd power did just rank them highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms... again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. why did you take credit card debt on? second kid. private school. medical bills. moving costs. solid ground. a personal loan from sofi is a smart way to consolidate credit card debt. certain borrowers cut their credit card interest rates 42% and increased credit scores 17 points on average. borrow up to $100,000 with low rates and no hidden fees. find your rate in just two minutes, and take on your debt at sofi.com. sources tell cnbc disney and 21st century fox are close to reaching a deal that could be announced as early as next week although the deal has yet to be confirmed. many are wondering which media companies might be the next to merge. >> joining us right now to talk about what could be the next media marriage, that's alan from rosenblatt securities. guess it depends on who needs what at this point, right? and also how much do you think regulatory issues are going to play into anybody's thinking about a possible merger down the road >> hi, bill. yes, clearly, regulatory is a big issue. what's really happening right now is the pace of tv change is accelerating and these companies are competing against the internet companies. we went from broadcast tv to cable cut tv now we're moving to internet tv. and the traditional media companies are losing subs quicker than they ever had before their advertising growth is slowing down they're competing against these internet giants so they have to consolidate. >> so we hear that -- >> assuming the -- >> we hear that disney and 21st -- the reason they're in talks is that everybody needs scale. so if, indeed, this deal happens, what -- let's play chess or checkers, move all the players around, what do you think happens in the future when it comes to consolidation? >> i think if fox ties up with, say, disney, i think the next company to be looked at would be cbs. really the last two remaining large entertainment conglomerates are cbs and viacom i think cbs would look at merging with either an internet company or potentially verizon may come in and try and match with at&t's trying to do with time warner and provide content in addition to voice video and data. >> you think the redstones and/or les moonves could allow that to happen >> i do. first of all, with the redstones, if you read sumner's autobiography, not that i'm recommending it, the first three words are "viacom is me. viacom is valely li lyreally lit him. cbs is a second company that came in. these companies are getting smaller and more marginalized. some people think they tried to recombine cbs and viacom i don't think that maximizes value for anyone including national amusement, sumner's private company. i think putting it together with a larger company, an internet company, or a phone company, makes a lot more economic sense for cbs. and -- >> yeah, i was going to say not to go too far down the line with what amazon might do in this area, simply because we just heard today that the president was asking leon cooperman, is amazon a monopoly? you no you're talking about them buying broadcast stations that would need all kinds of approval i wonder if amazon has to be careful in terms of how big its ambitions look in media. >> i don't know if the >> i think falling behind netflix, you want to jump-start it, owning the largest broadcast station, the most watched television network would make a lot of sense the other catalyst for this is the nfl. the nfl despite its problems is still the most watched tv and drives more advertising than any other product. the next nfl contract will probably be concluded around september of 2019. so if you want to have a deal in place before the bidding for that next contract takes place, you want to be thinking about the consolidation now. >> good thing to put on the calendar go got it thank you. >> i have it down in pencil. alan gould from rosenblatt securities, thanks for join sing us. we have another news alert guess wloho's back? >> i have a share buyback program, from anthem, the health care company saying its board has approved additional $5 billion to be bought back in stock right now. that is along with the current -- that brings the current total of the buyback program available for share repurchase up to about $7.3 billion. so shares are up fractionally right now in the after-hours trade. back over to you. >> chuck schumer is going to love that, bill. add it to the list >> yep nearly 50,000 americans died from an opioid overdose in 2016 according to the national centers for health statistics and one of the ways that addicts are paying for those drugs is having a big effect on some retailers. we'll explain. when we come back. there was an old woman who lived in a shoe. she had so many children she had to buy lots of groceries. while she was shopping for organic fruits and veggies, burglars broke into her shoe. they stole her kids' mountain bikes and tablets along with her new juice press. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. she got full replacement on the stolen goods and started a mountain bike juice delivery service. call geico and see how affordable homeowners insurance can be. [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours. welcome back the house is voting to is votin government shutdown. kayla tausche is tallying the yeas and nays. how does it look >> reporter: it looks good, bill republicans have secured the votes to pass this two-week funding bill to keep the government open. they got 235 votes in the yea company, 193 in the no column. the shutdown is averted for now, two weeks from tomorrow we will do this all over again back to you. >> oh, looking forward to that >> we've got the tax bill. i'm telling you, put that on your calendar. >> a week before christmas >> thank you very much, kayla. more than 2 million americans are addicted to opioids, according to the american society of addiction medicine coming up, how some addicts are using retailers' retn liesurpoci to fund their dependencies it's an incredible story, coming up noon? eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life. of emerging markets obsolete? at pgim, we see alpa in the trends, driving specific sectors of out performance. where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. a leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and e-commerce. trade and travel surge between emerging markets. everyday our 1,100 investment professionals around the world search out opportunities for alpha. partner with pgim, the global investment management businesses of prudential. next, we'll tell you how gift cards are being used in pa trto fund america's opioid crisis the incredible story, right after this break so don't move. the rhythm of the world. but to us, it's the pace of tomorrow. with ingenuity, technologies, and markets expertise we create the possible. and when you do that, you don't chase the pace of tomorrow. you set it. nasdaq. rewrite tomorrow. another day of work. why do you do it? it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ a cnbc investigation has revealed the shadowy method addicts use to fund their opioid dependency contessa brewer has the exclusive story. contessa >> reporter: inside some of the country's biggest retailers there's a shadowy world of commerce, crime, and drugs and at the center, gift cards. >> are gift cards currency you can use to pay for drugs >> yes >> yes >> most definitely >> reporter: by all appearances, these four women could be tidying up what looks like a college dorm room. but this is no university. it's rehab >> that worthlessness, that -- i mean, that guilt and shame that i feel every day that i chose drugs over my son. every day. there's no way to describe that to you no way >> reporter: and these women aren't students. they are patients. struggling with crippling addiction. >> i've definitely stolen. i have took advantage of people. >> reporter: they sat down with us at a drug treatment facility in jacksonville, florida 23-year-old christian's drug of choice oxycodone and heroin she's been arrested twice for fraud. >> i would leave things on the shelf, come back, go to customer service. >> reporter: some of the biggest national retailers are some of the biggest targets because of relaxed return policies. >> i would go to home depot, lowe's, walmart, stuff like that, take stuff, leave, go to another home depot, get it back and get a gift card. roars the cards often get sold to third parties, pawn shops, special retailers, making it easy to get cash online exchanges like rays and carpool buy and sell thousands of dollars worth of cards at a time >> as an addict doing this, you start -- like you learn this stuff. i don't remember exactly how i learned it i just learned it. >> the national retail federation estimates stores lose as much as $15 billion a year in return fraud retailers have begun changing their return policies. michelle, bill, home depot says it's trying to make it tougher to do by linking the store merchandise cards with the identity, you can only redeem it in stores, not online any longer they're hoping they'll see some improvement with those kind of return policy changes. >> that's incredible now i know what you were working on when you were going down there. an incredible story that you found, contessa. the return policies, they have been so relaxed because of competition. so if one retailer has to start tightening up a little bit, are all of them going to have to do the same thing, do you think >> reporter: so i reached out to homedepot, lowe's, target, walmart, on and on what we heard from every retailer is that they're trying to with their policies to track the big returns, you know, valuable returns, to crack down, to watch for people who might be problem returners, what they call bad actors. but lowe's so far has not tightened the policy the way that home depot has. >> great job, thank you, contessa contessa brewer there with the latest on that a quick clarification about something said earlier about ge's renewable business, the company says it's 25% of global hydropower installations that does it for "closing bell." the three of us will be back tomorrow should be an interesting day, we'll have the jobs number first thing tomorrow morning that's it for "closing bell. "fast money" begins momentarily. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square i'm melissa lee. tonight on "fast," boeing is the best performing stock this year. the ceo just told jim cramer how he is going to keep the momentum going. jim will be here live in just moments to tell us what he said. plus it's bitcoin mania today. the crypto currency has become a trading parody of crack busting. by the time i finish this sentence it could well be at 20,000 we know you love bitcoin

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