points. s&p up by 11 1.5 points and the nasdaq up 20 points. you add those two sessions together and you get more than 600 points. consecutive the 00-point gains for the dow, this only happened nine times in its entire history. granted, we're talking about points, not about percentages. look at that chart. this is something that is -- >> 17.778. >> we've got another 150 points. i don't know the -- i don't know the exact high. >> the trading sessions left before the end of the year. or no, that's just before christmas. >> 0.4% is what it was yesterday. you could say we were getting excited about 80 or 90-point gains. if they're two and three percentage point swings, then 400-point swings. like we said, to get two back to back days over 600 points or 700 points, you could probably find more. but on point, we've just gotten into this territory. >> major indexes have slashed losses by nearly two quarters. procter & gamble, oracle, target. >> the global markets taking a cue from wall street. they were catching up yesterday, catching up again today. stocks in asia extending a rally overnight. the nikkei in japan posted its best day in nearly seven weeks in early european trading. we'll see whether they're feeling good. not as much. they've had some snap back yesterday and they didn't really go down, i don't think the same we did. among the catalysts there, in addition to a u.s. bounce better than expected consumer data out of germany. and it's there. the only one up is the ftse. >> let's get to the bottom markets, oil prices. leading all the other markets around by the nose for a while at this point. they're up, but only by about 1%. if you take a look at where wti is, 64.66. lower prices than what we've been used to over the last several years. in the bond market, the ten-year note is yielding 2.13%. earlier this week, it was flirting with falling below 2% essentially. right now, 2.213%. check out currency markets. right now, looks like the dollar is up against the yen. it's up against the euro, too, which is at 1.2257. it is down against the ruble. and i suppose that's good news for anybody looking for more stability coming out of that. still, the ruble sitting at 60 to the dollar right now. gold prices? 1,197.$1,197.20 an ounce. >> among the other stories we're watching this morning, we've got some fed speak coming out of this case, chicago fed president charlie evans. and also lacker, his richmond counterpart, both set to give addresses today and in earnings news we're going to hear from blackberry and car max before the bell. in washington, president obama is set to depart for hawaii on a holiday break. first, though, he will hold a news conference at the white house. let's check out a few stocks to watch this morning, as well. nike posting better than expected quarterly result. futures, though, are at the slowest pace in years. and a double blow to roche this morning. the company is ending a late stage study of an experimental alzheimer's drug. a breast cancer drug failed to show a benefit of adding a drug to its treatment program. >> geoff cutmore joins us now from moscow. good day, geoff. >> yeah, hi, joe. what a roller coaster ride for the ruble. but finally the government seems to have got in front of the falling night for the ruble juggernaut to the downside, whatever you want to describe it as, after president putin said he thought the economy would start recovering in a couple of years, that the central bank would take more measures. we've seen today an expansion of the 30-day repo. they're going to give anybody who wants it about $5 billion worth of foreign currency. that should help ease liquidity concerns. we've seen the finance industry putting a bill to parliament for about a trillion rubles to the banking sector. that's about 16.5 billion at current rate. so we now see a much more aggressive reaction from the government to try to deal with this ruble downside. but i have to say, i think sentiment this friday remains relatively fragile on the economy. the trade is edgy. it would only take some more bad news in thin volume markets for us to see the ruble start to decline again. so i suspect they've got their fingers crossed in the kremlin today and they're hoping they'll at least get through to next year without any more pressure to the downside for the ruble. back to you guys. >> yep. >> you told us earlier this week that come friday you might try that russia vodka. have you gotten there yet? >> yeah, you know what? we've been working so hard here in moscow, i haven't got around to trying any. but i'm hoping my producer may have something for me when we finally wrap up here this friday. so we might have a go. the funny thing is, when you go into the stores, the guys running the stores are repricing the goods. >> so you've been there a week and we're supposed to believe you haven't had a single drink of vodka, cut more? seriously? >> nope, nope. what do you say, hope to die and all that. i haven't touched a dry and all that. >> you're a journalist. it's against the print guys that are well known for -- are tee totalers those guys that don't drink or -- we'll see how much of a tee totaler drunk. you're right, i can tell you, tv, i think you can write no matter how you look or feel or whatever. >> they make the transcription from print, they can tell you. >> you were drunk? >> no. >> joe, we'll meet up again at davos hopefully. and you know what davos is like. that's where the hard charging takes place. and you get that early morning davos brow for anybody who tunes in and watches "squawk box" or other programming on other channels, you'll notice that davos growl first thing in the morning. that's because i guess people are just indulging the corporate entertainment a little too heavily. >> we're saved by the time change there, joe. >> you don't know how -- you are, geoff, because one night over there, the russian federation has invited us to something, which we want to go, anyway, but the greatest guitar player jazz fusion guitar player in history is for some reason going to be playing. i saw him when i was i think a freshman in college, senior in high school or something, return to forever. and yea wait to go now and i'm going to have some of that russian vodka and maybe i'll try caviar because andrew says once you have it, you have it three meals a day. caviar. it's good. just like having a big thing of salt, isn't it? and you don't want to think about what it is. okay. thank you, cut more. he's going to get wasted later today. from what i could tell, friday and all the vodka over there, did it look like he was just sort of waiting, depriving himself? yeah. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas on wall street. we've been talking about the depressive dow stats. santa came calling the last couple of days. let's find out what investors can expect today and next year. here with us, james lou, from jpmorgan. on set, steven freedman, ubss wealth management research. let me start with you, steve. what was it the last two days, was it janet yellen, oil stabilizing or was it an oversold market just snapping back? >> you had a combination of those, right? yellen clearly -- all her commentary and the fomc statements were perceived as dovish in part because of the reduction in the inflation outlook. personally, i think that things were probably a bit more balanced. but in combination with an oversold market, i think that was enough to stabilize the whole situation. >> i didn't think yellen said anything surprising or new or actually it didn't strike me as particularly -- i don't know. it wasn't what i wanted to hear. patient with -- patient has been what they've been now for six -- i mean, i guess patient is more hawkish than they've been. >> you have to change the language. they can use some table time after ending qe, given that qe had already ended. we don't think the change in language was that significant. what is interesting is that basically in the fed conference said that the first rate hike may come as early as april when pushed to define what patience meant. >> nobody has changed their expectations. the main consensus was for june dollars next year. >> i think this is really just the qe side of what you said in combination with the rebound after an oversold market. >> okay. james, i'm almost ready to -- i don't know what we'll do between now and december 31st, but let's talk about 2015, assuming that not that much changes between now and then. we've had six years and a really good two years if you add them up. 2015, another good year or one where we sort of back and fill? >> yeah, i think with the u.s. equity markets, it will still be another good year. my one comment on the janet yellen statement is i don't think it was as dovish as we thought. i think there was some misjudging here by the markets. i do think that it is on the table and i think the final point is that does eventually need to raise rates. when the market movers and markets coming in strong. when you look at equity markets, other historical patterns, actually two quite well when rates rise if the economy is stronger. i don't think that's the case in europe and i don't think that is the case in america. china is a big question mark at this point. going into 2015 i still like the u.s. markets. >> i'd love to know about crude and i'd love to know about the ten year over the next 12 months. >> yeah. so for crude, i'm not ready to call a bottom on it, although the stability we've seen is rather good. you earlier mentioned the fact that the s&p was up 2.4% yesterday. so the energy sector is up 7% in the last three days. just a really spectacular rally. and i think the problem with crude is it is going to hit earnings and it is going to hit the economics of the u.s. longer term, lower energy prices are an upper and not a downer. it's just a question of timing. when you look at the ten year, it is going to stay relatively anchored because of global investor demand. especially if you continue to have deflation in europe. with the tightening, i expect the ten-year to start up slowly. >> on the ten-year, we're on the same page. clearly, you can see a massive adjustment because of yields. but in the context of the fed being about to normalize towards the middle of next year, we do think ten-year treasury yields closer to 2.8% in 12 months time than where we are now. >> i can remember for 25 years watching bonds and i don't ever remember saying that the german paper is the, you know, actually an anchor, something that totally will dictate where the ten had-year is. is that new? >> it's very unusual. we've seen something unusual happen this year with the -- >> is it the internet or something? what the hell is it? are we all the same now? maybe we should tear down all the -- it might be global citizenes and have one -- >> we should all join the euro. >> no. >> the main thing is, it's different than yield between those two markets. it's so extreme now that it almost forces some arbitrage. >> steve and james, thank you. you know the fist steps towards a global -- yeah, because i see they're trying to draft us. andrew and i are going to be co-hosts of the chairman of the -- i want her -- there's nothing i'd want more than for her to run. you know? >> i could understand your logic. >> but remember, alec baldwin said he moved to france or something if -- >> canada. ed. >> and we won't have to move to france. the opportunity and gdp and -- >> i'd stay. the rich cream coffee. >> and the red wine. >> thank you. when we come back this morning, carl icahn's move to save atlantic city and why some aren't happy about it. plus, google's next big project. why the tech giant wants to revolutionize how technology is used in your car. and michelle caruso cabrera will join us from cuba. >> this is the central bank of cuba. very little is known about it because cuba doesn't belong to the imf or any of the major institutions in the world. coming up on cnbc, we're going to talk about what it's going to take for cuba to re-enter the world's capital market. act i. scene 3. open port twenty-two-oh-one-seven on the firewall for customer db access. install version two-point-three of db connector and ensure verbose flag is set in case of problems. (clapping sound) isn't the cloud supposed to make business easier? get the one that can connect to the systems that you already have. today there's a new way to work. and it's made with ibm. i was thinking about htaking this speed test from comcast business. oh yeah? if they can't give us faster internet or save us money, they'll give us 150 bucks. sounds like a win win. guys! faster internet? i have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. does he even work here? don't listen to the naysayer. take the comcast business speed test. get faster speeds or more savings, or we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. welcome back to "squawk box." google is working on the tech innovation for your car. right now, google requires the phone to be built into a compatible car and a built in screen is used to access apps and streaming music and apps. google trying to dominate the market. also worth noting, the change could give google access to a valuable trove of data collected by a vehicle. hopefully they'll xwooind combine surfing the web with the cars that drive themselves. >> so -- >> even now. >> there's a few times where i'm going between radio station is and if you're going 80 where you're allowed -- >> germany? >> 65. seems like they don't necessarily pull you over at 79. >> no. i will say, though, this morning, i was reminded again how important it is to be paying attention. there was a jogger wearing black in the dark coming straight at me. i didn't see him until last minute. >> that wasn't your start. that will ruin your day, believe me. or a deer. >> put on some white clothes. >> and a lot of them have lights that blink and stuff or yellow sneakers. >> this guy was in all black. >> are you sure he was a jogger and not a burglary? >> he was running pretty fast. maybe. >> carry ago black screen tv? >> no. empty handed. the other question we're asking this morning is can carl icahn save atlantic city? paying $20 million to keep the trump taj mahal to be the fifth casino to close this year. his offer coming after the union, representing casino workers, claim icahn had gone back on his word by scrapping a more far reaching deal. atlantic city's fortune is fading fast with competition from neighboring states. if you have been down there, if you have seen how dark it's gotten and devastating it's been for the city, i think you would want any deal for anybody to come back in and save something. >> i agree. and did you see this? it was one of the papers. congress has to lift the embargo. >> we had a couple of guests on yesterday. >> really? how far does this go without congress? we have a historic week for u.s.-cuban relations. hillary clinton has been pushing this, too. michelle caruso cabrera has made her way to havanna. one of the guys on the nightly broadcasts, one of the major news, he got down there immediately and i was thinking, really? why didn't they use a green screen with some old cars and -- would it have mattered? would anyone have cared if he's delivering the news actually there or just with a green screen? >> you're speak to go someone who is standing in havanna. >> or so she says. >> i saw her in makeup this morning. it must be freezing. >> hello, joe and becky. welcome to cuba. welcome to the land of almost no internet. there are 11 million people on this island, but only 1 million computers, half a million internet connections. that's according to the government. roughly 3 million cell phones. as you can see, there's lots of new for telecom equipment which is part of the new rules revised by the obama administration, about being allowed to bring more of those to cuba if you are the u.s. company. it's also the land of euphemism. they've been doing some small, tiny free market reforms, but they don't call it that. they call it updating the socialist market. making socialism sustainable. things like shop owners, seam stresses, party plans. but they are not called owners or entrepreneurs. they were called -- [ foreign language ]. that means you can work for your own account rather than the government account. and because of that, it leads to all kinds of things that the outsiders seem incredibly strapg. like the central bank, what does the central bank here do? they one and it is quite mysterious, very difficult to get any information about it. we went over there yesterday. all the people i wanted to talk to they told me were out of town. but what do you do? what does this institution do? i was here one year ago along with about ten other financial journalists that had been invited by the cuban government, and they did give one news conference, the number two guy there spoke with us for a while. and he was deluged with questions like, do you have a monetary policy committee? how often does it mean? who is on it? what do you decide? the poor guy was -- i chased him down the hall. i had so many questions. have you ever met ben bernanke? do you have a degree in economics? all kinds of stuff. remember, cuba does not belong to the imf or to the world bank or any of the major international institutions. so they don't have to report all kinds of data, like the level of reserves, etcetera. now, come back to me on camera. the last time i was here, they did give me a couple of magazines published by the central bank and they do things like maintain the atms. and one of the new things they're doing, part of the reforms is about two years ago, they started giving out private loans. and during that news conference, the guy says things like, for the first time we're giving out loans base odd risk and ability to pay. we've had to come up with ways to assess collateral. think about this. this, at the time, would have 2012, 2013 they are doing these things. so they have so far to go here when it comes to upgrading this economy in so many ways. despite the pain and the infrastructure, the financial infrastructure, as well. >> wow. have you ridden around in a car that's more than 40 years old? >> oh, yeah, many times. not on this trip, i haven't had time. but yes. >> and they're everywhere. how do they get the parts? >> they're everywhere. by the way, the american cars are a toel testament to american manufacturing. they are still running. you talk to people here and they would have the american cars that are old rather than the more recently made russian cars. >> what was weird was before we got so nice and liked everyone b, they used to drive them to miami, which was weird, remember? >> yes. some were converted, absolutely, into ways to get to the united states, yes. >> we forget about that, but it's been a long, strange trip, the whole cuban -- it's amazing. >> and despite the announcement, yesterday nbc news sent a crew over to the office where cubans go to try to get visas to the united states, still lines there for people who are eager to will he have, joe. >> yeah. >> how many visas do they grant, michelle? >> that's a good question. in reverse, journalists getting into cuba has almost been ined credibly difficult. i asked for a visa for almost 10 years. you can almost only get in when the pope is coming. a year ago they invited ten journalists. but it's always been extraordinarily difficult, unbelievably bureaucratic. and it was always at the very last minute. >> when this announcement happened two days ago, i was in cuba by yesterday morning doing a live shot as 10:20 in the morning u.s. time. they said get on a plane. there will be a list at the airport. you can come on in. that is a dramatic change on the part of the cuban government. they're trying to open doors to international journalists. >> michelle, do you think it's been harder for you or easier with your cuban heritage in the past in terms of getting a visa and being allowed into the country? >> so in the past, if you had actually been born in cuba, you would have been able to get in. when we attempted to come a couple of years ago, they denied our photographer a visa at the last second because he was born in cuba. definitely that's been a difference. the other issue, to me, i think emotionally it's a little more difficult to see this is where my mother's family came from, and to see what i know was a wonderful, beautiful, very advanced place, very advanced technology until the revolution happened in 1959. and then i -- i tend to push back i think a little bit more. the last time i was here a year ago, we had some brutal interactions with the people, members of the government because i would ask things like to the minister of foreign direct investment, i would say what is the lev of foreign direct investment and what was it last year? and he would say i don't have those numbers. i would say sitd because you don't know them because there isn't any or is it because you don't want to tell me? i was surprised i was in this time around. i was told by my local crew that if i kept up what i was doing last time, i wouldn't get in. >> thank you so much. we will see you hopefully next week. coming up, six shopping days and counting until christmas. and the retailers are countsing on a big finish. the stakes of what's being called super saturday, next. first, a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models. [laughs] when we're having this much fun, why quit? and bounty has no quit in it either. watch how one sheet of bounty keeps working, while their two sheets, just quit. bounty, the no-quit picker-upper. good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky qui quick. andrew is off today. stephen colbert signing off from the colbert report for the last time. dozens of celebrities from the world of sports, science, politics and entertainment joining in a course of singing. tom brokaw, george lucas, katie couric and even big bird and cookie monster. and there, also, really? tom freedman. >> tom freedman. >> he will join us for an hour at 8:00 a.m. eastern. there he is. >> colbert, he will take over for cbs "the late show" host david letterman when he steps down in may. and -- well, actually, we don't -- anyway, good luck. after this morning, we are seeing green arrows this morning, not quite as strong as what we have seen. in the last few days, you can see oil prices. up by about 48 cents from wti to 54.59. the countdown to christmas has consumers scrambling for last-minute purchases. retailers rushing to the finish, the most important season of the year. strong. courtney reagan joins us from the l.l. bean factory in maine. courtney, i guess they have the advantage of being open 24 hours at their store in maine. yeah, exactly, becky. actually experiencing a problem that they call a very good problem. here at the l.l. bean factory is where the famous bean boot is produced. it's the product the company was founded on 1100 years ago. but demand is hotter than it's ever been, especially on college campuses. l.l. bean now projects it will sell about 450,000 of these boots this year. that's demand that far outstretches its original forecast. the company doubling manufacturing capacity, adding a third shift, increasing the number of bootmakers by 55%. however, there could be up to 26 weeks learning curve because part of these boots are still handmade. l.l. bean says the bean boot is gaining pore layerty gaining attention at new york's a february fashion week, trending on pintrest. in fact, isi's holiday team survey indicated l.l. bean was the number one brand that teens and young adults would like to own, three times as many as last year. l.l. bean has seen backlash prosecute, but never to this magnitude. they said some customers may want receive the boot until march, but they are willing to wait. >> i was trying to get them for my kids, too. they were sold out a long time ago with some of the ones i was trying to get ahold of. >> it's the new ugg, maybe it's so ugly that it's kind of cute. you see a lot of young women wearing their stretch pants and wearing their bean boots. >> courtney, thank you. joining us right now to help us handicap the high expectations for tomorrow's super saturday, dana telsey. she joins us right now with her preview. dana, we are just a few days away from christmas, but how can we shape up? do we know or does it entirely matter on what happens this weekend? >> i think these ten days are really important, december 15th through the 25th. where it's nearly 40% of holiday season sales. now that black friday isn't the real kickoff, guven the fact that stores are open on thursday, thanksgiving day, and the promotions begin in november, it takes away from the real kickoff. saturday is going to be key. it easily could be bigger than black friday. the sense of urgency is there and there's only a few more days, like you said, becky, until december 25th. >> dana, a lot of the anecdotalal evidence and a lot of the numbers that we've been getting back in, the surveys, the reads, have not been that strong. it's been surprising given where the economy is at this point. what do you think is really going on? >> i think what's happening is it's a good, but not great soap. what we've been seeing is apparel keeps being promoted aggressively. there is no real fashion issues out there. restaurants are doing well, travel is doing well, hotel res doing well. we just don't have the "it" items in discretionary goods to say here is what you need to buy today. and it's making the season not as exciting, even with lower gas prices that it's psychologically benefiting the lower end consumer. >> we've been trying to figure out how this has changed people's behavior. about seven years ago i did a story for the "wall street journal" saying wow, look at this novelty, you can do your entire holiday online if you choose to. that's what i did this year. i know some of them have online presences, but that has to dramatically change the way people behavior and the way we measure this type of shopping. >> it is. online basically offers you convenience, it offers you price comparison. as you said, many of the retailers have very well equipped online sights and online operations. they're merging with stores with order on line, pick up in store, reserve and pick up in store is there, too. and online sales are continue to go be up double digits while brick and mortar sales are certainly not trending at that pace. what you do have with bricks and mortar is you have the opportunity to feel in touch and almost 80% of the consumers who walk in the store these days walk in knowing what they want. and so the conversion may be higher, the trips may be less. they're still going, but there's work to do in order to offset that convenience of online. >> who would you you name as your big winner of the holiday season? who would you name as the big loser? >> i think certainly we're seeing limited be one of the big winners of the season. i think tiffany is a big winner of the season. i think on the department store side, we're still seeing macy's be effective in driving the holiday season out there. i think on the challenging part, i think it's the teen retailers that are continuing to have a tough time. arreropostale having a tough ti. athena stores are having a tough time and sears is having a tough time. >> dana, thanks for joining us. we'll talk to you again before we get down to the actual finish line. >> thank you. still ahead, uncle steve is in the house. the sopranos bobby bacala ready to talk about his business enterprise. then in the next hour, the hofmeister. with a guy named meister, how do you do meister? >> you separate it. >> okay. on energy prices. then at 8 opg o'clock eastern, tom freiedman. nothing happening globally. first a quick check on what's happening in european markets right now. will that be all, sir? thank you. ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. i order b14. i get b14. no surprises. buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster white knuckle thrill ride. you're promised one speed. but do you consistently get it? you do with comcast business. and often even more. it's reliable. just like kung pao fish. thank you, ping. reliably fast internet starts at $89.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. welcome back, everybody. take a look at what's been happening with u.s. equity b futures this morning. they are up after two strong days of gains. 400 points for the dow yesterday, 200 the day before. right now, dow futures indicated up. s&p up by about 10 points, nasdaq looks like it would open up by about 15 points. in europe this morning, in some of the early trade, you will see the dax is down and so is the cac. both down by 0.6%. the ftse in london up by about 0.3%. and in deal news, thai union frozen products is buying u.s. rival bumble bee seafood for 1.5 billion. the thai company is the world's billingest producer of canned tuna. the deal will need u.s. anti-trust clearance. how do we feel about this? >> i was just trying to figure that out. >> we lost the big bacon. >> bumble bee, that's been around forever. >> i like that song. >> you've heard that song, right? no? you know what i've always thought? >> what? >> that a mail company -- >> good-bye. >> and tuna male and grind him up and ready to go. like in the bass master. the dan aykroyd bass master. he used to put a fush into a blender, blend it and pour it out and drink it. >> mm-mmmm. delicious. coming up, he's best known as bobby bakala on "the sopranos." he's like a tycoon almost in the business world. acting and cooking and he's got a special on the cooking channel. he's going to join us on set next when "squawk box" comes right back. the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 even on the go. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open a schwab account, and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550 300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when a market move affects one of your positions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 schwab can help you decide what to do. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 with tools like free live-streaming cnbc tv tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that give you the latest financial news and trends. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and bubble charts and price charts that let you see exactly tdd# 1-800-345-2550 how market activity is affecting your positions. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when the time comes to decide whether to scale in tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or scale out you can make your move, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 wherever you are. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and start working on your next big idea. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ♪ open a schwab account and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550 300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-877-729-2379. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com/trading. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 schwab trading services. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 your go-to for trading know-how. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ♪ tdd# 1-800-345-2550 your go-to for trading know-how. once there was a girl who even in her laundry room. with downy unstopables for long-lasting scent. and infusions for softness. she created her own mix, match, magic. downy, wash in the wow. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable. the bass master is a really important tournament. speaking of -- this is good. steven schirripa? >> named for his role as bobby bakalari. in "the sopranos." he now has a line of italian specialties. joining us on the set is the aforementioned gentleman. good to welcome you back. you brought this and this is exciting. how long -- it's not been a year yet? about seven months. this is uncle steve's. i came on, i think we had like maybe 400, 500 stores. now we're at 1700 stores. >> no kidding. >> it's just taken off. people taste it, they love it. >> you know, we keep on growing and growing. >> you go as far west as texas. >> you go on our website, unclesteveny.com. >> and it's kind of exploding. you know, we're kind of running by the seat of our pants. i'm just a regular guy from brooklyn. and we mentioned last time. if y you were at a vegas hotel once. i think you need to go back to that. >> the entertainment there is hurting now. >> every vegas hotel, that's what i want to see when i walk in there. i'd go to that hotel because i know you book great entertainment. and people didn't know -- you weren't bobby then. >> no. i just -- i got the job. it was a great job. got to meet sinatra and sammy davis. >> no way. really? >> i met sinatra when i was 28 or 29 years old. 2:00 in the morning i get invited to his guy's birthday party who i knew. 78th birthday party. i call my wife. we weren't married then. i call her up 2:00 in the morning, get down here. sinatra comes in, bottle of jack daniels. not lying. drunk. wearing a members only jacket with frank on this thing. like no one knew who he was. frank. and don rickles was there. had dinner until about 4:00. then the end of the night the one guy i had to get the picture with and i got the one that i wanted. >> you still have that. >> you know, frank was feeling pretty good. >> when he got there. >> and continued. what stamina he had. >> i heard when he would perform, just the mannerisms -- >> he was great. we would go afterwards when i was done at work. i would go and sit. i must have watched him 40 times over the years, you know? just sit in the back and watch this guy who's incredible. even when he was reading from the teleprompter at the end, didn't matter. just lit up the whole place. >> i need to ask you quickly about something pertinent to the whole sony hacking deal and pulling the movie. and a lot of actors, artists, whatever have expressed a lot of outrage that it's almost like a free speech thing. >> i think so. who knows. they could hack again and any movie they want they can pull. this is ridiculous. i mean, to be intimidated and give in like this? i mean, do we really know? >> sony isn't a nation state deciding this. it's an independent business saying hey, we have lost on this front. >> they're going to lose a lot of money. i don't know if they really care. it's a bad debacle and everyone looks bad. you know? >> you've got a lot of experience with vegas. what do you think about what's happening in atlantic city right now. can that city be saved? >> i think it's terrible. i think it was kind of doomed. there was so much corruption at the beginning and they never fixed the city. they just built casinos. las vegas built a city. they had schools and a whole lot more to las vegas than just casinos. atlantic city didn't do that. i think if the right people come in and really care about atlantic city and not just gambling, i think it can. >> do you think that tony would have had a crew down there in atlantic city? was that too far from -- where was he -- he was in -- >> he was a philly guy. >> so there would be a philly -- >> i think it was mostly philly guys. >> so probably not then. you might have had troubles with those guys. >> from day won it was philly and maybe some new york. i don't know if that exists anymore. vegas, the mob is completely gone from there. after the '80s, the movie "casino," that was kind of the end of it. i think they've got to take care of the city. you're on the water. make it a city instead of just a slum with casinos. >> have you been approached by david chase about anything? it's impossible without gandolfini, i guess. >> last time i saw david was at jim's house. no i saw him at jim's funeral. but before that jim had a part two months before he passed away. but i haven't heard anything. maybe a prequel. baby sopranos, joe? >> before "breaking bad" and before any of those things, there was "sopranos." culturally it will never go away. >> i think that opened the doors now. movie stars want to be on tv. that never happened. years ago that was a no no. >> well, sunday night -- >> 9:30 eastern time. i've got a great new show. >> great. >> the cooking channel. my passion, food and family. >> you like food. >> look at me. put them together and i go to different families that have restaurants, they work together. >> thank you, steve. we're going to go hit our hard break and you're going to be doing this on your show some day, hitting commercials. thank you. when we come back we have the markets and tom friedman. hey what are you doing? i was thinking about taking this speed test from comcast business. oh yeah? if they can't give us faster internet or save us money, they'll give us 150 bucks. sounds like a win win. guys! faster internet? i have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. does he even work here? don't listen to the naysayer. take the comcast business speed test. get faster speeds or more savings, or we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. stocks coming off the best two-day period of the year. and the biggest single session gains since 2011. is the santa claus rally real or are we setting up far fall? oil drillers slowing or shutting down production as the price of crude falls. we'll get a live report from the basen in texas. we'll ask the ceo of buffalo wild wings if the falling gas prices is driving restaurant traffic. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. andrew is off today. futures continue to rebound from that mini-correction, whatever we had for that one week where we were down over 4%. and we're up the last two sessions after that 400-point gain, thest one in more than three years. marks of gain of more than 600 points for the last two sessions. that's only the ninth time in history that the index has had consecutive 200-point gains. we're talking about points, not percentage points. we are at much higher levels in the last ten years than we've been. so more -- you know, it's something. anyway, more on the wild ride with dominic chu in just a moment. among the events that traders will be watching today, we'll be hearing from fed officials. chicago fed president charlie evans and jeff lacquer both set to speak today. in washington president obama is set to depart for a holiday in hawaii. first, though, he'll be holding a news conference at the white house. and it is a quadruple witching friday. single stock options and futures, those contract expirations mean higher trading volume. it can mean higher volatility as well. and we have seen plenty of volatility just in these days leading up to it anyway. we do have results out from blackberry at the point. >> you're the one that's still got the blackberry. >> yeah. >> i'll try. >> here's the numbers i'm looking at. i have to say, they're pointing out being at non-gap profitability and positive cash flows. they're reporting earnings of one cent a share. the street was looking at a loss of five cents. i don't know if that's apples to apples. they're talking about how this is a key milestone with this positive cash flow. >> continue to anticipate break even or better cash flow from operations in 2015. but didn't they used to have net income the same of what their revenue in at this point? >> that's what i said. i still have a blackberry. this is a tough uphill road for them. >> it's a $5 billion market cap at $10 a share. that stock is still halted right now. we'll see what happens as people look through this and think about the prospects for the company. >> you remember what happened with apple. it got down to $9 billion at one point. there's always a potential, i guess, that this -- something could happen to blackberry again. i think it might be a case study for mba courses in the future just to look at how technology -- you can be a first to market and it doesn't guarantee you to be the market leader ten years from then. >> i still have a blackberry and an iphone. it's getting harder and harder to keep the blackberry. i bought an iphone myself. they keep suggesting that they swap this one out for an iphone because they don't want to maintain it anymore. this has been a corporate product. >> my wife has one. and she says people talk about her. she sees them, like, they whisper. and they say i sent you something, did you see it. she's like, not really. i have a blackberry. >> she doesn't have an iphone at all? >> no. we're saving up. >> christmas, joe. >> exactly. futures trading higher this morning after yesterday's rally. i bet you have one, rebecca patterson. >> i'm in the same place as -- >> i know you. because of your stupid thumbs. >> my stupid thumbs. i'm in the same boat. >> chief invest officer. treading on dangerous territory with any gender type things. but, i mean, if you have a person that maybe talks a lot to friends or something -- >> i have fast thumbs. i have really fast thumbs. i can -- >> okay. like i said -- i'll dictate now. and you can't imagine what it hears. >> yes i can. i sit next to you. >> i'm like no, you idiot. they put in other words. that's what you heard? anyway. steve wood is chief market strategist for north america at russell investments. and i would say you don't haveby blackberry. >> i do not and i'm not weighing in on the debate either. >> smart man. >> so i want to talk -- it's not too early to talk about next year, i don't think. and i always get scared of january. all the stocks that move up into the end of the year, it seems sometimes you reverse that stuff in january. we had one year, if you remember, where january started off horrible and the rest of the year was horrible after a great previous year. >> this year january when we got polar vortex was not very pretty. so yeah. i mean, people think seasonality and new inflowsi coming into th markets. but there's evidence, you can't count on that. you have to look at what's going on with the economy, what's going on with central banks and valuations. from that point of view, i still think we're going to have a good 2015. we're overweight equities, still focused on the u.s. still very long the dollar across portfolios. and we're going to stick with that as we get into next year. >> you care? >> i certainly care. >> you do? what do you think? >> we think that 2015 is probably going to be a high single digit to the u.s. we're not putting out a negative u.s. call, but valuations are stretched. valuations look more stretched after the last couple days than they did earlier in the week. so we're looking at pockets like europe bouncing off the bottom. the ecb has to get very, very busy very, very soon in a big way. that could create opportunities. more than anything it becomes a security selection rather than a broad market call. you've really got to roll up your sleeves. this is multi-asset strategy. it's going to be a name by name balance sheet. europe is one of the first places we're looking and global as well. >> if you were to, rebecca, try to figure things that were not anticipated, what kind -- it's impossible to do that, but you've talked about the dollar getting so strong that there's either some political backlash or that it hurts manufacturers. that's one thing. what else are we not thinking about for next year? >> yeah. i think the dollar will be good news until it's not. i'm keeping an eye how quickly that moves. that might make people nervous. another one we're keeping an eye on the negative side is going to be the british election next may. the polls are close right now. but if you end up getting more support for conservatives in the independence party, it could be a repeat of the scotland vote we had this year but on a much, much bigger scale. and that could be just a factor for uncertainty not only in the uk but against eu broadly. then on a positive note one thing i think is worth looking at is a public sector stimulus. local and state municipalities. hiring more, spending more to fix their infrastructure. the possibility we have a little more defense spending than expected especially with the terrorist threats around the world. and more public sector hiring broadly. that could be a lift for u.s. gdp that's not in the stock market right now. that could help equities. >> does any of this matter as much as the fed? >> i think the election that matters took place already. fed held an election end of october. they tapered quantitative easing. and they're just letting us plan it. this is a central bankers world. that's the dominant in 2015 and even beyond. i think that's the election that really matters. >> central banks, you're talking not just the u.s. >> not just the u.s. fed. now, we are the first out of emergency measures but the fed is not going to be slamming on the brakes any time soon. i think janet yellen will really talk this through. and japan is on a percentage basis, their quantitative easing is dwor dwarfing what we do in the u.s. sop what do you do when the central banks are conspireing to squeeze you out of assets? that's not going away any time soon. >> then you have emerging market debt. >> it gives you a yield. but if you're losing on the currency side, that might not be the best place to go. we saw recently with high yield given that energy has become a bigger part of high yield that you get nervousness around balance sheets, high yield may not be a great place to be. >> we don't see yet, but that's something we want to pay attention to is the stressor in credit space. >> i think increasingly consensus view we get quantitative easing from the ecb in january meeting. i think they probably should do that, but there's still a lot of opposition within the ecb whether that's the right path. and what if they do it but it's a small number? and it doesn't provide the boost that everyone's hoping for. that's something everyone needs to at least think about. >> and if they decide to quantitatively ease, what do they buy? then you realize how deep markets are to something more developed. >> there were stories just this morning talking about how many assets. and they're all going to go on holiday. they.net have time for this january meeting to figure what they're going to do. >> thank you both for joining us. all right. right now time to get to dominic chu who we've promoed a couple times. got a look at the market swings we've seen in the last few days. >> let's capitalize on the theems you guys were just talking about. and being able to play in a central bankers world. the dow's roller coaster ride over the last couple weeks shows you many of those themes together. we were at record highs just back in the beginning of december. and all of a sudden we dropped 890, almost 900 points here. leading charge to the downside here, goldman sachs, ibm, and visa all accounting for much larger losses from the points standpoint in the dow than any other companies here. those companies led us on the way down. very large and multinational like you guys were just talking about. if you look at where we were here, moving along to where we went to the upside. you see this massive move higher up by 700-some points. you look at that move higher and you see the names that were leading the advance to the upside here. you're talking the same types of names. goldman sachs, visa, also chevron. as you look for what's happening with this turnaround, it's important to see that these companies that are leading the advance to the upside are also the ones that got beaten down the most during this particular move down. when it comes to the dow at least, we're a couple hundred points away from those record highs again. united technologies worth pointing out that they have gained a steady 36 points for the dow during this entire move. the one company that hasn't experienced that volatility that we saw with other parts of the dow. >> all right. thanks, dom. see you. have a good weekend. we won't see you again on the show today, dom innic? >> maybe. you never know. >> all right. come up with something and we'll consider it. >> all right. >> sell us. >> yes. >> okay. when we come back this morning, the cyber attack on america. the former u.s. negotiator with north korea will join us. then coming up at 7:30, decision time for drillers. a live report from the permian basin in texas. then the ceo of buffalo wild wings on the recent strength in fast casual dining and whether falling gas prices means more traffic. also tom friedman tackles market reaction. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back. d motor trend's 2015 car of the year. so was the 100% electric e-golf, and the 45 highway mpg tdi clean diesel. and last but not least, the high performance gti. looks like we're gonna need a bigger podium. the volkswagen golf family. motor trend's 2015 "cars" of the year. the ultimate arena for business. hour after hour of diving deep, touching base, and putting ducks in rows. the only problem with conference calls: eventually they have to end. unless you have the comcast business voiceedge mobile app. it lets you switch seamlessly from your desk phone to your mobile with no interruptions. i've never felt so alive. get the future of phone and the phones are free. comcast business. built for business. now to the cyber attack on sony. the white house says this is a serious national security matter and it is weighing how to respond. but what could america do and is all this really happening being seth rogan and james franco's comedy? joining us is the special envoy for relations with north korea. mr. ambassador, with your experience with this rogue nation, do you think they are really behind what's happened? >> well, i do. all the indications point to north korea. whether we find out that they actually turned on the computer and organized this or they had somebody else do it for them, the content, the tone, and the rationale all point to north korea. as you know, north korea is a country that is a cultive personality. they had three leaders, grandfather, father, and now the son. for the north koreans any attack on the leadership is an attack on the credibility and sustainability of the regime. and it has to be met with some type of active response. so i do believe this is a north korean originated cyber attack on sony. >> the administration is saying we need a measured response and should be equal to the offense. what does that mean and what do you think the response should be? >> well, that's a little difficult. sony's already suffered millions and millions of dollars. and depending on the life of this film, could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. you cann't do a dollar for dollar appropriate response with north korea. the united states and united nations have applied sanctions against north korea over the years. and it has a minimal effect on the behavior of north korea. so for me one of the things you need to take a look at is their financial system. and perhaps an indirect approach as an example. north koreans have contracted an egyptian company to build their wireless network there. so if you take a look at putting some sanctions or some limits on those foreign companies dealing with north korea that provide a benefit, you may get north korea's attention. you may recall in 2005 the treasury department sanctioned a small bank out of macao, it had $25 million of north korean money, but they absolutely went ballistic over the freezing of the funds. it got their attention. it got them back to negotiating table. so we really do need to take a look at some out of the box -- >> how do you negotiate with essentially cyber terrorists and we can look at this i guess a little more lightly because it's a movie studio. we're really just talking about a lot of gossip and other entertaining things that have turned our attention, but if this was an attack on an american infrastructure company, let's say an energy company, let's say a bank, what would we do at that point? >> well, they're all very similar. these are interests in the united states. this is a core value for america. and that is freedom of expression, freedom of speech. we don't want them dictating what we can and cannot do. so it does require a u.s. government, national response. it's all very difficult. one of the things that we've had success in the past is a developing relationship with north korea where they found value in being on the good side of the united states. that's not the case now. it hasn't been for a number of years. so perhaps the best way to approach this is to look at how our government to government relations are working, see if we can't improve that to the point where we have some leverage over north korea's bad behavior. >> ambassador pritchard, thank you very much for joining us today. >> you're quite welcome. coming up, an update on the mayonnaise wars. i already talked about this. oh, tuna. maybe so. plus carl icahn bank rolling relief for atlantic city. and check out this chart. buffalo wild wings stock rising as crude falls. we'll ask the ceo how the big drop in gas prices has affected restaurant traffic. maybe positively. breath in... and... exhale... aflac! and a gentle wavelike motion... ahhh-ahhhhhh. liberate your spine... ahhh-ahhhhhh...aflac! and reach, toes blossoming... not that great at yoga. yeah, but when i slipped a disk he paid my claim in just four days. ahh! four days? yep. see why speed matters, at aflac.com. (shouting) location. here's the location that matters the most. here. or here. or here. it's wherever this is. to get customers to come here and stay here, you're going to need an app that connects to all your systems. so they can bank, shop, do what they need to do, and you gotta do it fast. before the competition does. it's tough out here; you better be on the right cloud. today there's a new way to work. and it's made with ibm. welcome back to "squawk box." the world's largest canned tuna producer thai union frozen products. do they make something on our shelves? >> i have never heard of them. >> okay. anyway, they are buying u.s. company bumblebee sea foods for $1.5 billion. the seller is private equity firm lion capital. >> and in a related story -- >> in a related story, unilever is dropping a lawsuit against just mayo. the lawsuit was filed earlier this year claiming that hamptons food was falsely advertising just mayo which doesn't contain eggs. what? they are withdrawing the suit to address labeling issues directly with industry groups and regulatory authorities. but -- >> you can't call yourself mayonnaise if you don't have eggs in it? >> it's mayo. it's eggs. isn't it? >> and vinegar too? >> i don't know. when's the last time you had high test mayo. >> what? >> not the mayo light? >> we don't even have it in the house. the real stuff you mean? no. >> we don't use that other stuff that's fake. >> i love miracle whip. but we don't have that in the house either. i grew up with that. >> yuck. but i'm talking light. i've got enough problems. right? >> we have no idea what real mayonnaise is. >> they did the tuna and then the mayo story. like peanut butter and jelly. synergy. >> there we go. we should talk more about carl icahn bailing out the trump taj mahal allegedly. it had been scheduled to shut down on saturday. in a letter to the ceo of trump entertainment, icahn wrote many people would still argue it would be a better financial decision for me to let the taj close and wait to see whether a global settlement can be reached. but i cannot be so callous as to let 3,000 hard working people lose their job. some of the union leadership has been upset because they say carl icahn has reneged on an earlier more broad reaching deal. but again, if you've been in atlanta city, if you've seen the drastic decline since just this summer, i think the idea of keeping any open a while longer is probably a good one for the people who are working there. when we come back this morning, how drillers are reacting to the drop in oil prices. brian sullivan joins us from the permian basin in texas. he's a traveling man. plus we'll talk to a former shell oil head. ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac. ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac. ♪ ♪ look here, daddy, i'm never coming back... ♪ discover the new spirit of cadillac and the best offers of the season. lease this 2015 standard collection ats for around $329 a month. welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. in our headlines on this friday morning, sony says that holiday sales of its playstation 4 gaming console in europe are strong. they're so robust that the company is in its own words, inventory challenged trying to keep up with demand. the treasury will sell its final shares. the shares are worth about $1.3 billion. and "the wall street journal" reports that metlife is considering a legal showdown with the u.s. government the firm is questioning regulators who gave the company a label of being systemically important. of course that means that metlife will be subject to tougher oversight. that's what they're considering fighting. oil drillers reacting to the drop in the price of crude. brian sullivan joining us from texas' permian basin. brian, the pain has to be almost palpable there at this point. >> yeah, it is. you can feel it, becky. good morning, by the way. unlike the playstation, the inventory is not challenged. you are starting to certainly feel it not only around here but also the stocks. look at some of the big permian players. those stocks down 50%, 40%, 20% in just the matter of one month. now were for the investors out there if you are thinking some of these are bargains, the biggest players in the permian basen are these. pioneer, xto. there are many mid-cap players out there. there are things we learned in the permian basis. watch capital spending budgets, guys. so many players have come out of their budgets for this year as to the palpable comment, becky. we are starting to see drilling rigs being stacked which is the industry term for being idled with crew or idled without crew. there is something very different between here and the bakken of north dakota where we were two weeks ago. because so many of the fields here what they call legacy fields, much older. they were bought at much lower prices. many more companies here can still be profitable at 55 1/2 barrels than in the bakken. that is an important distension. as we know, people have been selling off all the oil companies. the cost in the permian -- not always. there are some high-cost players here. but as a whole companies like chevron, they've been here since the 1930s. some of their capital costs are almost zero. all they have are operating costs. be careful if you're dumping the baby out with the bath oil. >> i like that. brian, we had herald hamm on. it must have been probably four weeks ago at this point. he said that this is not a situation where a lot of these wells will actually shut down. they might slow down with production, you might not see new production. but that was probably $10, $15 ago on the price of wti. i guess that whole story changes below a certain point. >> well, we're already starting to see a change. yesterday we were driving around, met some great people. but there are lots, fenced in lots with cranes, tractors, and drilling pipe. those are rigs and crew that have been idled. and the guy that took us around who's an independent oil producer said these lots were empty two months ago. in other words, everybody was out working. the fact there is now crew trucks and equipment in these lots, they have either not been sent out to drill a new rig or have been pulled off an existing rig. there's a term, guys, that you're going to have to learn in this business called stacking. basically that is the industry term for when they idle a rik. hot stack means it's ready to go at some point. warm stack means little crew, they can get it up and running in a couple weeks. cold stack means it's pretty much shut down. if you're looking at all the press releases from any oil company you might be invested in, watch for the terms warm stack, cold stack, hot stack nap will indicate how quickly the industry believes they're going to get back up and run ppg there are 27 fewer rigs this week than last week. it's important to know they were still up 117 year over year. so not nervous yet here, but you can sense a bit of a slowdown for the new rigs. the current rigs like the old girl behind us which has decided to stop working as soon as the camera rolled for some reason, they will continue to pump. hey, continue to pump. >> you're turning into obviously an expert on all this. my only thought was in all these other places that are having these boom times and these high-paying jobs, at least we're just talking about the worst case scenario being that some of the jobs maybe aren't added or maybe a couple of them are lost already. you saw that cuomo banned fracking in new york. i want you to see -- look at "the wall street journal" if you get a chance today, brian. i don't know if you can get it out there. the last paragraph is incredible. he didn't say that he actually made the decision, cuomo. he said, this isn't me. this is a self-executing between these two other guys that have something to do with it. i had nothing to do with it. and then cuomo said, i love that. i love it when this happens. and the last word of the piece is, and this fellow fancies himself a potential president. by saying this isn't my decision. and the whole thrust of the piece is new york is not going to get any of those jobs at this point. >> yeah. and you know, i'll tell you what. the people here -- it's my second trip here. these are fantastic people and they're proud of their industry. 27% of all drilling rigs in the world -- in the world -- are located in the permian basin which also stretched into eastern new mexico. we're pretty much close to new mexico where we are here. they're very proud of this life. they're proud of what they do. almost everybody i met last night is in the oil and gas industry. they're proud of what midland has become. it's got the highest average income of any zip code in the united states. not greenwich, connecticut, it's right here in midland, texas. entry level jobs are starting $15 an hour. we had lunch with the mayor yesterday. 29 languages are now spoken in the midland school district. people are not just coming from america. they're coming from all over the world to take advantage of this oil boom. >> all right, brian. we have another guest coming up and he may have a few comments on this too. i feel bad for -- honestly. i think -- well, whatever. thank you. more on the dramatic slide, we're joined by john hofmeister. he's the former president of shell oil. i love that that cuomo can make that decision but said it had nothing to do with him. beautiful. >> the people in new york state will be suffering as a consequence because this is a sound business. it is a needed business. i don't know why the governor gets the heat for his mansion, but it probably comes from fossil fuel if he doesn't want to drill it in new york state, maybe we should turn off the gas to his mansion. >> i like that. did you have any idea that what we've been doing in this country -- i guess you did better than i did. that it was going to pay off to this extent. $50 oil or $60 oil that we would be producing 9 million barrels or whatever it is. because i remember it so well, we had you on five years ago. everybody said no matter what we do in the u.s., we're not going to be able to satisfy our huge usage of hydrocarbons. we're going to have to always import so it doesn't help to open up more drilling areas. and here we are five years later, those people were completely wrong. >> well, we still do import oil, of course. what's really transformed the country in my opinion is natural gas. not only for current usage but we could convert -- and you know i've talked about this before -- convert billions of cubic feet of natural gas to transportation fuel which could be the end of oil imports. but we don't have any public policy leadership in this area, so frankly we're not making progress. you've had boone pickens on. he and i talk the same language when it comes to natural gas as a transportation fuel. and that, to me, is really the hope for america. which puts a really solid underlying foundation to both the u.s. oil patch and the u.s. gas patch for decades and decades to come. >> i think that the -- i agree. we've known about natural gas for years now, and boone's been on. we always wondered how can -- why the divergence? natural gas never traded at that level compared to crude. and we thought, well, natural gas is going to go right back up to where it's more appropriate. little did we know that maybe crude was going to come down and get closer to the equivalent of natural gas. but we knew about natural gas. this is what's been different in the past year or so, we have been producing a lot more oil. are we up? 50% in production or something? >> no. we're up a hundred percent from when i was shell oil president. we've gone from 5 million barrels a day to almost 10 million barrels a day. that's absolutely tremendous. and the industry did it largely on the technology. and i've said before these are technology companies more than they are energy companies. because it's the technology that has freed up the opportunity to produce more domestic energy. and all that money churns internally in the u.s. economy making us stronger, making us more capable of solving any kind of problem from energy security to national security. and, you know, we're temporarily facing some punitive price levels right now, but it won't last. it can't last. because the world is headed for a hundred million barrels a day of demand for oil. we're at 92 roughly today. and our surplus production is about a million and a half barrels a day. that's 1.5%. >> although we are making progress in using less in cars. i don't think anyone is going to immediately buy another big escalade or something like this. let me ask you a question while we have some time. i feel bad for the environmental lobby to some extent and i think we should conserve and i want clean air and clean water, obviously. but $55 oil, man, they're like, it's the worst thing that could happen to them for the migration to renewables. so as a consolation prize, they're now saying keystone doesn't make sense. and that's their -- at least it's going to take keystone off the table because there's no reason to do it anymore. i've seen that on politico, i've seen it all over the place. well, we don't even need it. does that make sense? >> it is utter nonsense, joe, to say keystone doesn't make sense. keystone is important for our children and our grandchildren. this president has an opportunity to protect the security of his grandchildren in the future with an investment in the keystone xl pipeline. rather than seeing that oil go to china, go to other parts of the world, why wouldn't we want the canadian oil to come to the united states? it is part of this north american market. we have a free trade agreement where we can use it. we can send a lot of manufactured goods back to canada. and it just makes utter nonsense in the scheme of things for the infrastructure president to deny infrastructure because it happens to be oil infrastructure. we need all the infrastructure we can build in this country. >> jobs. i know. >> and so we need to persist. >> we had a guy come in and -- forget which organization he's with. they all seem the same to me. he said total jobs from keystone, 35. >> that's nuts. that's absolutely nuts. >> i know. >> there's a whole infrastructure that is here. the whole supply chain. >> he said it on tv. i loved it. 35. >> it's all the refinery jobs in texas. >> those guys are going to be busy. those guys are going to be like one armed paper hangers, 35 of them on all the -- you know, running between things and fixing. you know, working seven days a week. anyway, we appreciate your time today. thank you. >> thank you. >> he didn't hold back very much. that tuna company in thailand owns chicken of the sea. >> oh, they do? >> yeah. so you think bumblebee and chicken. >> doesn't that become a monopoly at that point? >> somebody owned starkist. but the whole idea of chicken of the sea. they're not proud of being tuna? >> it used to be a hard sell in the midwest to get people to eat fish. >> so you had to say chicken of the sea? tuna's that bad? tuna's great. >> did you like it when you were a kid? >> i did. no, i guess not. >> i was like, we have to have tuna again. it's friday. >> i like it when it's white without the oil though. i don't like that gray stuff with the oil. >> and i like fresh tuna too. anyway, when we come back, we'll continue on this food discussion. buffalo wild wings serving up wings and profits into the college bowl season. the ceo sally smith will join us on the recent strength in fast casual dining. that climb in restaurant stocks coincides with the crude. we'll see how important it's been for her company. starts at 6:30 a.m. - on the nose. but for me, it starts with the opening bell. and the rush i get, lasts way more than an hour. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we've built powerful technology to alert you to your next opportunity. because at scottrade, our passion is to power yours. welcome back, everybody. low gas prices pumping cash into customers' pockets, buffalo wild wings is among the winners. it's up 23% in just the last three months. joining us now with more is sally smith, the president and ceo of buffalo wild wings. thanks for being here this morning. >> thanks, becky. it's always a pleasure. >> you know, we've made a lot of lower gas prices, what that might mean eventually to companies as consumers have a lot more discretionary cash. i just wonder if that's something that has shown up as far as you can tell at this point. does lower gas prices actually translate to more traffic in the stores? >> i think it probably does. it's hard for us to discern whether or not. we're very sports driven. so great matchups are the most important thing. like weather, gas is just one of the attributes that restaurants face. and certainly more disposal income can't be a bad thing. >> in terms of what you've also been on the lookout for, i know you recently raised prices at the restaurant because you were facing serious issues because of the commodities you rely on. what was it, chicken prices? >> there were two things -- two attributes that we really were facing. so we did take a 3% price increase in november. chicken wings we've seen has been escalating throughout 2014 and we expect the first half of 2015. the other thing is labor costs. certainly we're seeing increases in california, minnesota, washington, maryland. and so to cover both of those, we did take a slight price increase. >> let's talk about the price increase potentially because of the commodities prices. how come chicken wings are so much higher? >> you know, i think it is partly due to demand. the chickens are not raced for the wings but there's a demand for chicken breast. unfortunately there wasn't enough in production and we expect the poultry farms will be setting more eggs and thus more chickens. so we do expect some relief in the last half of 2015. >> we just had the omaha steaks ceo on last week who said it takes about 30 months to get more cows in production like that. what is the lead time for chickens? >> it takes about nine months for it to -- for any increase in production to actually be beneficial for restaurants, for grocery stores. >> i guess you have a pretty good idea about how the consumer's doing if you've been able to raise prices and it stuck. would you say you haven't had much pushback from customers? >> so far it has. it's still early. we're only about a month into it. comments from guests or traffic, we have not seen an effect. >> we also mention that the other increase that you've been dealing with is higher labor costs. is that because of minimum wage increases that have gone in in certain states and cities? >> it has. i think we identified in our third quarter conference call that the increase in minimum wage in minnesota and california will cost us about $2 million. and we're watching it. obviously other states are looking at it. it's one of the things that you have to deal with. and we'll use certainly look at hiring and, you know, the use of technology should help us keep our wage costs in line. it's -- the interesting thing about the restaurant industry is it's often many times a person's first job. and so we think we're in a great position to provide those skills. i like to say the industry trains america's workforce. we teach them to come to work on time, look presentable, and interact with the public. and our employees love the flexible schedules. we just need to be aware of the input costs and make sure that we don't price ourselves out of the market. and so we'll be looking at hiring really the best people. >> sally, it's the most wonderful time of the year, isn't it? >> it is the most wonderful time of the year. it's bowl season. >> i look at the bowls coming up and then i was thinking, you know, you care about this new playoff thing. and the four teams that are in it, it's like, i don't know. you could not have dreamt for a better four teams. i have no idea who to pick on either of the games. you know, i took off january 2nd. >> i saw. >> because i want to watch it. >> you know, you can i think until the bowl game kicks off you can enter our sweep stakes if you correctly pick all 39 games. if you correctly pick it, a million dollars will be in your pocket. and if you're the highest number of wins without picking all of them, it's still worth $10,000 to you. >> did you actually notice on sunday nights when nbc started doing that -- i bet you could go back and see a bump in sales on sunday nights, couldn't you? because of that game? >> you know, we're always looking for great matchups. we're looking for overtime as we go into the citrus bowl which buffalo wild wings is sponsoring this year. >> oh, you are. okay. >> yeah, we are. and looking forward to seeing two great teams. hopefully it'll go into overtime. >> we got to go, but then you've got basketball. ncaa right after that. >> yeah. it is the most wonderful time of the year. you're right. >> all right. okay. that's the song. >> never been a huge wings person and these smelled good so i took a little bite. they were the hot ones. i got to redo this. >> i hope you enjoy this one. >> thank you. >> i'm still looking for the genetically modified six-wing chicken. i don't know why you wouldn't do that. then you wouldn't have to have as many chickens. coming up, we're going to talk earnings next. take a look at some stocks to watch this morning. blackberry reporting quarterly results for the first time in nearly two years. the smartphone maker did miss on revenue though. and a mixed quarter from finish line. the company posting a loss. revenue and same-store sales topped estimates. the chain citing merchandise margin. i'm not laughing at that. are you okay? >> i am. >> your eyes are watering. >> i didn't even take a bite. i just licked my finger after touching it. >> can you do that again? >> no. would you? here. you're tougher than i am. >> i'm definitely tougher. >> are you sure you can handle that? >> yeah, i can. >> do it. >> i don't want to eat on air. >> lick your finger. you're a wuss you can't do it. >> doyle it during break. >> all right. russia's economy in crisis. north korean hacking we will tackle with columnist tom friedman. he's our guest for the next hour. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back. ? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. motor trend's 2015olf car of the year. so was the 100% electric e-golf, and the 45 highway mpg tdi clean diesel. and last but not least, the high performance gti. looks like we're gonna need a bigger podium. the volkswagen golf family. motor trend's 2015 "cars" of the year. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable. well, it looks like santa claus is on his way. >> i heard on the news that an airline pilot spotted santa's sled in from new york. >> you serious, clark? >> after the best two days of 2014, will investors make it three in a row and end the week on a positive note in the face of all these global issues? find out if it's still possible within the next two weeks. oil's slide, the falling ruble, and big stock swings. tom friedman is our special guest for the next hour. we'll talk l all the issues facing your money. the final weekend before santa arrives. >> okay, people. tomorrow morning 10:00 a.m., santa's coming to town. >> santa! oh, my god! santa here? i know him. >> and the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box." it's 8:00 on the east coast here on cnbc. we're first -- any hour -- in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. andrew ross sorkin is out today. after a week out someone from "the new york times," it just feels like we're not credible. >> it's not. >> so our guest host this hour, "new york times" columnist tom friedman who you saw on the colbert there. >> i was there for the good-bye. a lot of fun. >> and you have authored many books. including "beirut to jerusalem." we were talki ining earlier, ths going on in the world so we don't know what we'll talk about. we do have a lot to talk about. everywhere. we had 600 point os. the dow in two days. but let's get top stories from becky. >> on our watch list this morning, the stock reallily showing no signs of slowing down. check out the futures at this hour. the dow futures back up about 75 points above fair value. this coming after their gains the last two days. so take a look at what's happening with the s&p futures. right now they're up 12.5. nasdaq up by 20 points. oil prices rising from a near five and a half year low today. but they are still on track for a fourth straight week of declines. right now wti up by 1.3%. to just $54.85. ice sitting above $60 and $60.08. we'll get tom friedman's thoughts on the factors in a minute. only eight days left of business in 2014. we are getting ready to close one of the biggest years for ipos and the best since 2000. 2014 saw 275 public offerings and a total of proceeds of $85 billion. a quarter of that went to alibaba. dash away, dash away, dash away all. how was that? >> lousy. >> try it again. >> dash away, dash away, dash away all. >> better. >> super saturday traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year. and this year it is forecast to surpass even black friday. last-minute shopping also means last-minute shipping. u.p.s. is predicting monday will be its busiest day of the year. and we've got our fingers crossed for u.p.s. and the dow reporting a gain. over the last two days is the industrials have surged over 700 points. putting 18,000 back into reach. ed keon is managing director of qma. he joins us to give us a look back at how you think would fare for 2014. we got another mini break. but we made most of it back. >> you have to ask why did we go down that 4%? the major explanation seems to be the drop in oil prices. but the drop in oil price though it did increase uncertainty in some parts of the world is good for the united states, the japan, for india, for nooueurop. it's a positive thing for financial markets. i think the reversal we saw was waking up and realizing something good is happening here. >> yeah. i think we were also concerned about the ruble at that point which was indirectly related to what happened in oil. and also, you know, what some guy that's already seems kind of unhinged what he might do -- and we'll talk to tom friedman about that. whether it increases it or decreases it. i could see a case for pulling horns in a little. but people think he's got to do more. >> tom and i were talking about this in the green room. probably in the long run it makes russia less dangerous in the sense they have less resources but more predictable in the short run. but overall the overpoweringly positive effect of lower oil prices, i think offsets unless things really got out of control in ukraine and russia, the potential bad news from geopolitical risk. >> you've got to hand it to him, tom. if you had to look at a guns and butter, the worst case scenario, and asking an entire people to just hang in there while i spend money here instead of -- they have nothing there. where the ruble is, they make $5,000 a year and he's got a 90% approval rating. that's skillful. >> one of the things people are really underestimating, though, is -- i've heard a lot of people say we don't understand the russian people. we survived winters -- putin has built a middle class russia. there's a big middle class in moscow and leningrad. when these economic restrictions really start to pinch and hit their ability to travel, their ability to consume, i think you'll see a very different impact. i think people are really missing the middle class element. >> we'll have a big segment on russia with you in a moment. it got moved over because in this -- i don't know whether it's the internet. we were talking about it earlier. i don't know what made us -- certainly i hear our 10-year note, it just depends on what the germans, what theirs do. i don't remember ever being as interconnected as to what happened in germany affects us. >> i think the real connection is there's a tremendous global demand for secure income. and that has outstripped the supply. obviously the fed has been a big buyer of bonds. but the fact that qe ended and rates actually went down suggests there's still very strong fundamental demand. but obviously in germany and japan and elsewhere around the world. >> that in your view is income in a year? >> that's not much. but -- >> you get your money back. >> that's right. but from a stock perspective, basically the dividend yield on the s&p and the 10-year bond are on top of each other. so you get the appreciation potential of stocks for essentially for free. actually, i think in the next year we might get a little higher price earnings ratio and maybe a little bit lower growth. i think we might do roughly the same we did this year. let's say 10% or so. >> i do think we were in a transition. the bond market was telling us is we were in transition to a lower return environment. what we've seen in the last five years since the financial crisis is that the valuation of bonds have gone up quite a bit. but stocks are roughly the same. so i think you probably need to see a little bit higher valuation on stocks so that you get a more coherent relative return. >> so it doesn't look expensive to you? >> no, i think it may turn out to be a little bit more expensive because you need to have a stock and bond market that make sense relative to each other. the bad news part of that is in the long run, returns might be different from the average. i think stocks are going to continue to do quite well relative to bonds. >> all right. going to let you go. we're going to talk to tom for the rest of the hour. >> thank you. >> thank you. we were talking about oil prices. they're still hovering at multi-year lows. wti if you want to check this out again this morning, looks like it's below $60. just below $55 at $54.85. let's look at the impact falling crude oil prices are having here and around the world. our guest host for the hour is tom friedman. we have so many things to talk to you about. how does this change the middle east? how does this change russia, latin-america? what happens when you see prices drop so far so fast? >> let's first talk history. last time this happened, the soviet union collapsed. yasser arafat decided to negotiate with israel. so what we know from history is this will have huge geopolitical implications for countries and peoples dependent on oil. what have we seen already this week? cuba. that thing was long in the works. you can bet the fact that cuba gets a hundred thousand barrels of oil a day from venezuela. venezuela was signaling we can't afford this much longer. had to have factored into raul castro's decision. i think we're just at the beginning of what i think is going to be a -- if prices stay here where we see oil prices have, i think we're at the beginning of a huge shift in the tectonic geopolitical plates of the world. i think the next place to look for is iran and how they react to this. >> i mean, last time it was good things for the united states. >> yeah. >> it led to all good paths. does it do the same thing this time around? or is there instability? >> joe mentioned something i'm a big believer in. we live in a time where the world has never been more interconnected and interdependent. >> you've been talking about that for over a year. >> and as a result what happens when the world gets this interdependent, you get a little bit of a geopolitical inversion. so if greeks don't pay their taxes this month or if they decide to default, they elect this far left government, that will affect us. that will affect the people who watch this show. the other geopolitical inversion you get is that your rivals falling is as dangerous as your rivals rising. where we see massive instability in russia, that becomes as dangerous as if china gets another aircraft carrier. let them get two compared from going to 8% growth to 1% growth which would upset everyone at this table. >> as far as cuba, i don't know how to handicap this at this point. usa today, obama's power on cuba limited. congress has final say on whether to lift embargo. and then the last sentence, there's almost no chance that that will happen any time soon. >> you know, i think it's a little early to draw that conclusion, joe. peggy noonan had a great article about this. we know more trade, more openness, more financials dealing between countries is going to deal to more openness there. and at the same time you look at the polling, joe. it's interesting. two out of three cuban americans have supported this. >> they're younger. >> yeah. they're younger. obviously. so when that starts to flow through the politics, i think you could see some change there. a lot of districts, congressmen, that will get calls from companies saying we want to do business there. >> kudlow said that personal and overall freedom initially comes from trade and contact with the outside world. >> i think on balance it's true. some people say that didn't prove the case in china to which i'd say china is so much more open a country today than it was 20 years ago. i think the direction it's going in that same heading. so i think it would be a smart thing to do to go ahead with this. and i think you're going to see more flexibility. it just becomes more popular. >> recently in the middle east, any -- when you talk about how this affects russia. it's been so intractable there. pick your country in terms of where things seem even worse. really the other day, i think the president didn't say pakistani taliban because i don't think he wanted to say the word taliban. he just called them terrorists because we're exiting afghanistan. we don't know how that's going to play out. does any of what's happening with oil right now make anything better or worse with the troubles -- how many are there? six, seven, eight? >> at least. the biggest impact you're going to see early and the first place to watch is iran. and there have been some really interesting things going on there since we decided to postpone, you know, the end of the talks and given them nine more months to come to conclusion. rouhani who is the president and really wants this deal, they have a talk last week in which he said any time you get a small group that's well armed and has a lot of money and little oversight, you get corruption. and the next day the head of the revolutionary guards in iran came out, and said we checked. he wasn't talking about us. oh, really? i wonder who he was talking about. and so i think the next place to look, joe, is really iran. because these guys need $100 barrel oil to buy off the people. they have from the beginning. oil has been essential for that regime to stay in power. >> and the people have been sympathetic towards the united states too. >> that's right. it's a country that gravitates our way. and i think that's the next big shift. then you say what happens if that happens? well, that creates a huge shift in the middle east. because the saudis and the sunni arabs of the gulf had a relationship in that region. iran's like your big brother who walked out the door in 1979, slammed the door, he took our stereo, he took becky's bicycle and went away for 30 years. now i'm back. i'd like my bicycle back. i'd like my baseball back. you're sleeping in my bed. so the sunni arabs are freaked out at the idea the united states would again have a direct and maybe rather stable and empathetic relationship with iran again. so watch that play. i think in obama's heart, he would like to end two things. one is the isolation with cuba. and the other is the isolation with iran. which has deformed our politics. the question is entirely on what terms. >> you know, for 30 years i thought that the rest of the world is going to become more like us, more compassionate. more democracy and stuff. and a hundred kids have their heads cut off in -- >> yeah. the whole thing in pakistan -- >> you can't assume people are like us. >> not at all. we're dealing here with a part of the world that's in deep distress in basically responding to it. what you've seen the pakistan is the most isolated pockets. like waziristan. what's more scary is more in the interconnected world. the kind of threats they can pose to us. >> and we didn't used to get tweets from, you know -- you can probably go on facebook and find an isis site or something. it's right there. if you want to engage, they're right there. >> what's really cool about this world is that just one thing to follow up on joe, this is an amazing word for makers. you want to make something, have them on this show. you can start a company now, do anything with anyone joovernigh. when it's a great world for makers, it's a great world for breakers. because they use the same tools. >> look at north korea. >> that's the example. >> we thought it would break down their regime to v access. they used it against us. all right. we are going to talk more about russia again, obviously, because i think of all these things that influences our markets more. up next, blackberry getting hit hard in the premarket. you got a blackberry still? >> iphone. >> i have both. i have both. >> clinging to that thing. we take a look at that and other stocks to watch when we return. opinions. there's no shortage in this world. who do you trust? whose analysis is accurate? how do you make sense of it all? a simple, unbiased stock score consolidated from the opinions of independent analysts... is that too much to ask? nope. equity summary score, powered by starmine, will help you execute your ideas with speed and conviction. and it's only on fidelity.com. open an account and find more of the expertise you need to be a better investor. let's take a look at stocks to watch this morning. blackberry reporting quarterly results for the -- earnings for the first time in nearly two years. but the smartphone maker's revenue fell short. we'll see how that opens. down now about 6%. carmax shares getting a boost. the largest used car seller posting a 16% rise in revenue. the company saying that easier availability of credit boosted sales. and up next we're going to talk more about russia and vladimir putin. also ukraine. he talked frd three hours or something or so the day before. three hours. talk about that with tom friedman. plus we'll head to havana. "squawk box" will be right back. hey! i guess we're going to need a new santa ♪(the music builds to a climax.) more people are coming to audi than ever before. see why now is the best time. audi will cover your first month's payment on select models at the season of audi sales event. visit audioffers.com today. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2. at a special site for tv viewers; outside of the nasdaq, where we bring you live daily market updates. and today, we have a very special free gift for you. so many viewers e-mail us wanting to know our secrets on how we trade options. so we put our secrets into a new book. and if you're one of the first 250 people to call in right now and just cover shipping and handling, we'll send you a copy for free. look at the rate of return we've made on some of our recent options trades, versus what we would have made had we just bought the stock. there's no comparison. to make the best returns in today's market, you have to learn how to trade options. and our book will show you how to do it for free. jon has been trading options for more than 30 years. pete is one of the top 100 traders in the country. and our book will teach you how to trade options for free. so call now. [ male announcer ] call the number on your screen now for your free copy of jon and pete's new book. that's... (see the number on your screen) call now. oil causing a wild week in russia. let's jump into the situation there with columnist tom friedman. one thing that was pointed out, tom, when we were looking at the repercussions or the fallout from the ruble is that if it didn't infect all of asia or the emerging markets, it's a small economy. we think of russia as being a superpower because of the cold war. but it's not. it's like the eighth or ninth -- it's like this same size as the economy of france. the population is low. they're not adding to the population. it's not a huge player in the world economy. >> it's a third world country with 58,000 nuclear weapons, is really what it is in terms of economics. i believe this from the beginning. putin believes he hit a triple. gas was $100 a barrel and he thought he was a genius. could give a three-hour press conference. i felt from the beginning that putin is a towering fool. and that what he did in ukraine was incredibly reckless. >> we're not an a delay here. >> no, no, i realize that. >> okay. >> these are your thoughts. becky and i are sitting here -- >> i think he's going to pay. i think he's got a real problem right now. because if oil prices stay anywhere in the range they're at and the sanctions stay on, he's got a real problem. let's talk about ukraine for a second. first of all, on this show i've talked about it over the years. i was an opponent of nato expansion. because i believe there was no big problem in the world we could solve without the help of russia. all right? and i think in expanding nato at the time, putin could run against the west. you know, look at this people. they want to surround us. i believe it's not nato expansion. anyone who thinks nato is about to invade russia, raise your hand. if anyone thinks we're going to let russia into nato, please raise your hand. what he fears is ukraine would join the eu as poland did and have a successful economy, adopt eu standards, regulations, transparency. and it would stand in daily reputation to the program he's running. that's what it's all about for him. he's using the nato boogeyman. >> when your competitors fall, they're even more dangerous potentially than on the way up. so what happens? >> that's the 64,000 ruble question right now. so you see scenarios. maybe he'll take a bite out of estonia. maybe he'll try to destabilize one of the baltic states. that gives you a one-day sugar high. we're lining ourselves with russian speakers. but what does that get you? it'll get you more sanctions because the president now has the ability now to increase sanctions. the europeans, they're getting close to germany now. that's why he is in a difficult situation. everything he does is only going to make the ruble go lower and his own economic situation worse. >> all right. tom friedman is with us for the rest of the hour. obviously we've got more to talk about. when we come back, are the people in havana really celebrating what americans are calling a historic shift in u.s./cuban relations? we'll go to havana for a live report. plus former speaker of the house newt gingrich tweeted this. no one should kid themselves with the sony collapse, america has lost its first cyber war. this is a dangerous precedent. is he right? right now as we head to the break, look at the equity futures. indicated up for another 72 points for the dow. "squawk box" will be right back. the u.s. is embarking on the most massive overhaul of its relations really almost with any country but it's happening with cuba. in the last 50 years. chief national correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera joins us from havana, cuba, with the latest. you've always been indispensable and then we find out you're cuban and this whole thing happens. you're already our international correspondent and here you are. a story made for you, m.c. >> thank you, joe. yes, i'm cuban-american. my mother's cuban. my father's italian. yes, coming here is always quite emotional for me. i always like to show you the newspapers whenever i go to a foreign country. i'm showing you one that's two days old. but this is the only newspaper that i can ever find here. it's controlled by the government and the headline you'll see is they returned. so the lead story about this whole series of announcements was about the return of the three cuban spies being held in u.s. spriprisons. and this is focused on that. the bottom is a reference to the president -- the two presidents at the same time making the announcement. there is a lot of excitement among cubans here in cuba who are hoping this is going to lead to a better economy. things that are going to change such as greater remittances from exiles. and we sent a crew over to the intersection yesterday. we have what's called an intrasection. there are always hundreds and hundreds of cubans in line. you see them there. trying to get visas to go into the united states. about the same. we didn't necessarily see more compared after the announcement. we've spoken with some of them. students as well who tell us they are hoping that this leads to a better economy. and if it does, they might not actually want to leave. >> it's very complicated for me to work here because the only opportunities are here in havana. and i'm not from here. i'm from another province. and now if the economic situation gets better, we will have many more opportunities that we didn't have before. >> so the economy will likely get better because of these changes because it will allow for more dollars to come into cuba, but there's a lot of things that have to change in cuba as well before we see a huge improvement in this economy. socialism is very engrained here. >> do you think people there expect the change will be rapid and things will get incredibly better very quickly? >> yes. slowly but surely. it's tough to talk to cubans when you're a journalist because they know you're a journalist. you tell them i'm an american journalist. to get straight answers is difficult. i will say this. we interviewed some american tourists this morning who were here when the announcement happened. where they were hugging each other. and the american that we interviewed this morning said i very much get the impression that they think there's going to be rapid, rapid change. and i'm not sure they're going to be pleased with how it moves. i think they're going to end up being disappointed. because i go back to my original point. is the embargo a problem for the country? most certainly. but the greatest problem is the government control of this economy. >> michelle, i mean, it's cliched but it's like 90 miles away and hyme and roth had an idea. we don't need to have a whole new manufacturing sector down there. how long does it take to build a casino on a beautiful beach down there? the tourism possibilities could bring money and economy to that company within two years. >> oh, for sure. remember the casinos and hotels already exist. this didn't used to be a third world country. it was a first world country at one point until castro took over and started ruining everything. the way i've heard people talk about it, business people, think of it almost like a 51st state. 11 million people 90 miles away. the transport costs are almost nothing. right? we have a new market right away like paint and pepsi. they really need the paint. foreign direct investment coming into the country, we're going to pile in here and construct hotels and things like that, that you're going to have to wait and see. the cubans change the way they structure contracts so they can make money. right now it's a disincentive to invest. despite what you'll have everybody tell yous about how the europeans are flocking here. it's not true. >> i'd be long tourism and foreign investment if they -- how long can they keep it that way where it's a disincentive to invest? they'll change, michelle. right? >> right. right. i think, you know, the fall in the price of oil is crucial here, joe, to answering that question. because remember, they live on 100,000 barrels a day from venezuela and venezuela is descending into chaos. they need cash. right? they can't keep giving that away in terms of barther from caribbean islands and doctors from cuba. they're going to need the cash flow in order to maintain their economy. the cubans fear they power their grid here with oil. consider that. in the united states transportation, a vast majority of the world. here they've had to retrofit their grid to use it with petroleum. >> wow. michelle, thank you. again michelle caruso-cabrera live in havana. tom friedman is our guest host this morning as we look at the relationship between cuba and the united states. this could be a slow process. which way do you think it gets pushed or is it entirely dependent on how oil trades? >> it was a great report from michelle, but my favorite i thinks were the cars in the background. looks like a 1950 dodge. and the other was that young woman who said i can't get a job in havana. >> two years seems like a fast turnaround to us. not to that woman coming from the province. >> and this is huge pressure for her. when she gets in contact with her relatives, hey we can open up something together. business, hotel, whatever. restaurant. i just think we took the lid off something. we took the lid off a champagne bottle that's been shaken for 50 years. you don't want to get in the way of that cork. that's the way i would look at it. >> we don't have enough time really to get too much into it, but something stuck me you said about putin's fear of joining the eu. then i saw ukraine. then i saw the euro went by at 122, i saw. and i think about how many -- you know, we always say that people, they've predicted the last nine out of three recessions. but europe doesn't disappoint on slowdowns. is this -- the whole experiment really fast growing economies with the same currency and the same interest rates as peripherals where, you know, a 2% interest rate causes greece to -- it doesn't seem like a structure that necessarily works. and in recent elections, every single country had euro skeptics come in and say this just isn't happening for us. you're optimistic. you think it finally comes together. >> i was talking to someone the other day that europe had a choice. they could have integrated broadly, but shallow, or narrowly and deep. and they chose broad and deep basically. and it's proven it just hasn't worked. you can't expand the integration that way without having a can common fiscal policy and common governance. the thing about my own travel like in the coming year, i think one of the places i devote much more time to is europe and the rise of these populist, nationalist parties. major european towns where you have a huge immigrant populations that are not melting either. the combination of the two is going to make europe an interesting story this year. >> you mean that -- >> yeah. they're just -- >> and you add in a lot of the structural labor issues. all the stuff. it's hard to be really that bullish, but that's -- >> and the contrast with us continues where we continue to grow, move ahead, and they continue to languish. something's got to give there. >> they probably won't adopt the dollar, but that would be my suggestion. >> i think europe's going to be a big story for the coming year. we have much more to talk about. when we return, could the sony hack be a run for north korea's cyber army? and how should washington respond? sewny stock rising up 21% in two months. "squawk box" will be right back. [ male announcer ] your love for trading never stops. so if you get a trade idea about, say, organic food stocks, schwab can help. with a trading specialist just a tap away. what's on your mind, lisa? i'd like to talk about a trade idea. let's hear it. [ male announcer ] see how schwab can help light a way forward. so you can make your move, wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea. ♪ then boom... what happened? stress, fun, bad habits kids, now what? let's build a new, smarter bed using the dualair chambers to sense your movement, heartbeat, breathing. introducing the sleep number bed with sleepiq™ technology. it tracks your sleep and tells you how to adjust for a good, better and an awesome night. the difference? try adjusting up or down. you'll know cuz sleep iq™ tells you. give the gift of amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. find our best buy rated c2 queen mattress with sleepiq. know better sleep with sleep number. dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. welcome back. as we told you earlier, former speaker of the house newt gingrich says america has now lost its first cyber war. let's get reaction now from our guest host this hour, tom friedman. you know, people love to, you know, extrapolate, make a much bigger deal out of things. we in the media love to do that too. my point was if this is the worst that happens from a cyber war, if it's not the power grid going down or if it's not a bank that, i don't know, money disappears or something, i'll see this movie eventually. won't we? it'll be out. >> i mean, look. we know that the chinese have been engaged in a cyber war with us for some time. >> much more worse than this. >> unless you're amy pascal. >> my own feeling, joe, this was a really stupid movie. and i don't mean that's a reason not to do anything, but i think but making movies about the assassination of a world leader -- >> it's almost like a lenny bruce thing. >> i like what you guest said earlier. let's target for target. make it at the right level. if there are telecom companies, foreign companies that are going in there and approving their telecom system, sanction them. put them on a list. hit them where it hurts. in exactly the area that they've abused. i do agree i don't think we can just go. you know? and not do anything. but i think the right response is go after the very telecom capabilities that they manifest. >> what r they great hackers there or can anyone come in and do something a lot worse because our security is so bad? >> i think one of the interesting questions, joe, is pakistan helped them build their bomb. did pakistanis help them do this? a contract outside who knows what actually knows what goes on under the hood there. >> are you ever shocked when you hear that south korea continues to pursue unification at some point? that just seems so weird to me. >> unless you've got relatives on the other side. >> i know. but they don't seem very similar. >> i was sitting in the green room, what we should do is carpet bomb the north with cell phones with the south korean phone directory in it. you know? and just let everybody -- you know, with six hours of battery life and everybody just call your relatives. this one's on us. but i think one of the things that's hard for us to understand, this is their culture. this is a common nation. and people used to say about though chinese what we used to say about germany. and the koreans know that that they have a much more powerful neighbor to the north that historically they fought wars against. and that there is something deep and romantic in that culture about reunified their culture again and taking their place on the world stage. just as the germans did. >> something that surprises me the most, i read a lot of coverage out of the sony hack. that somebody from the state department was involved with seeing the movie ahead of time. that kind of shocked me. >> just read that this morning. i don't know where the bottom of that story is. >> i don't know if it's true or not. it's one of the millions of things out there. of all the things, that caught my attention more than anything. >> i agree with you. i'd like to know. >> and i guess you're right that it should be an appropriate response, maybe the suggestion that ed made earlier about going after the contractors so it makes it too expensive to ever do business with these guys is an appropriate way of doing that. do we do it loudly? do we say it from the white house? >> a virus into the iranian system and create a virus. maybe somebody does that covertly. i wouldn't put on a black tie if that happened. >> you're a foreign affairs columnist. in domestic affairs, do you think maybe we should just have four parties. you think, maybe? like a tea party. i'm alluding to elizabeth warren and the rise there. is it real? are there 6% of the country that love her and what do you think of her? >> i think it's very real. i do think we're -- >> you like her? >> i'm interested in what she has to say. i don't really endorse, you know, candidates one way or another. but she's reflecting something that is real and that is the concern about basically this -- the income gaps and that there is a big part of the middle class. >> but you saw the election. >> yeah. >> you think the answer if you were to advise the democratic party, you think the answer is to move further left and become more populist than where obama's already staked out a position given the results of the last election? to me it doesn't -- i don't think i'd be moving left after what the country told me after the last election. >> i don't know about the politics. i know this. to me the economy, education, energy. there's a few problems out there that to me are everything problems. i don't think there's some quick fix for the economy. >> what happened in the election, tom? i know everybody likes to say they threw out the incumbent party and that it was just -- that people were angry with government overall. you don't think there was any anger with obama's policies taking us too far left? >> i just don't know. as you said, i'm a foreign affairs columnist. i honestly just don't know. okay? i thought it was a pretty stupid election about not a lot, frankly. reminds me of the last presidential election. we had two guys running as i'm not mitt romney. obama ran as i'm not mitt romney. and mitt romney ran as i'm not mitt romney. this reminded me of a replay of that. i don't think we've had a serious election about issues. >> it was an also selection i think wasn't about bringing everyone together for a common cause. it was about dividing enough people to win a coalition victory. >> let me answer your question, what i really believe on this. i think we've had a five-part formula for success in this country that's gone by 200 years. one is educate our people up to and beyond the technology. when it was the cotton gin, universal primary. now it's got to be post secondary. it's have the world's best infrastructure. have the world's best immigration policies to attract both the high energy low tech and the really smart high iq risk takers at the other end. it's to have the most government funded research. to push out the boundaries of science and technology so our entrepreneurs can start these companies. and have the best regulations to prevent recklessness. >> we never get rid of any we have. >> so if you ask me what i think, what we should be talking about is nourishing all five of those pillars of our success. >> there's a recipe for success. we have tom friedman with us for the rest of the show. up next we'll also get jim cramer's take on the two-day stock rally. "squawk box" will be right back. take a deeeeep breath in... and... exhale... aflac! and a gentle wavelike motion... ahhh-ahhhhhh. liberate your spine... ahhh-ahhhhhh...aflac! and reach, toes blossoming... not that great at yoga. yeah, but when i slipped a disk he paid my claim in just four days. ahh! four days? yep. see why speed matters, at aflac.com. ♪ better watch out ♪ better not cry ♪ better not pout ♪ i'm telling you why ♪ santa claus is coming to town ♪ >> down to the new york stock exchange. jim cramer joins us. do you think we are in a period where we are back to 1707 or whatever, are we going to have a lot of sound and fury? are we eventually going to break out higher? >> i was gratified that a lot of the companies that had real bad currency hits, people are looking right through them saying let's not worry about them. red hat had a lot of currency. didn't matter. people just liked it. i see a couple of companies that obviously are going to really determine today's action like nike. i go back over nike. i want to buy that stock down here. the expectations were so high. my take is back, i think we're okay. we had such a big move. you know if we keep going higher, it's parabolic. that doesn't help anybody. i need it to stabilize here if you want to go higher in 2015. >> in 2015, it's historically the year after the mid terms, a third year or the second president, they are always good, aren't they? >> i think europe is going to determine a lot. our companies that do business in europe have to see europe come back. that helps china. otherwise we are going to continue to have this domestic rally. we need to get the yield curve down with little inflections. it's okay. we had a very, very big run. >> all right. jim, we had buffalo wild wings. great bowl season. >> sally is terrific. >> thanks, jim. >> thank you. >> when we come back, are you ready to ring in the new year? tom friedman on the stories and issues to watch in 2015. (vo) watching. waiting. for that moment, where right place meets right time. and when i find it- i go for it. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we give you the edge, with innovative charting and trading features, plus powerful mobile apps so you're always connected, wherever you are. because at scottrade, our passion is to power yours. let's get some of tom friedman's predictions for the new year. you talked about europe will be the place you are watching and spending a lot more time and attention. wales caught your attention? >> iran is going to be a big year for iran. there will be a earthquake in the middle east. i think in the coming year we are going to continue to see four words disappear from the english language. "average." there is a machine robot software or someone abroad who can do above average for every boss out there that is going to be a real challenge to the country. second is "privacy." forget about privacy. we'll see a year where privacy continues to disappear even more. i think joel will disagree, in a world of climate change, save what you are going to save now because later will be too late. lastly, local. nothing is local any more. everything you say and do immediately will be read in poland or in australia 30 minutes after it happens. in a world where those four words are disappearing, going to have a lot of social impact here. >> is there blowback on the privacy. do we care we've given away so much? >> i do. >> i wonder if that's because we're older. >> that is a good question. in a world where everyone's e-mail will be out there, what is going to happen? people are not going to speak. they are not going to stay stuff. it starts to inhibit conversation and creativity ultimately. i think what this whole sony thing is terrible because of the north korean dimension, but also terrible someone comes to cnbc tomorrow and takes a dump truck and dumps out every e-mail you have. i worry about that. what are the implications about that? >> i believe that happens every day. if i were to leave this job and go do something, i would probably work for water.org, a matt damon organization or maybe because how many kids don't have clean water or how many people don't. or attack particulate pollution in china like sulfur dioxide or love canal or true environmental problems. as far as chasing the co2 boogieman phantom panacea for all liberal causes including socialism and anti-globalization, it embodies everything. all in one ubiquitous molecule, that 0.4% of the atmosphere. >> you managed to talk until we had nine seconds left. tom, thank you. >> i'm an environmentalist. that's my point. >> that does it for us today. have a great weekend. see you on monday. good morning and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber along with jim cramer. carl has the day off. futures this morning. we are setting up for looks like a bit of a higher open yet again. after that very strong rally yesterday. crude oil, all about that really. yesterday was down while the market was up rather sharply. is there a look at crude now following along. and that ten-year note yield, yeah. not really where we started the

Related Keywords

Jerusalem , Israel General , Israel , Australia , Brooklyn , New York , United States , Minnesota , China , California , New Mexico , Russia , Washington , District Of Columbia , Connecticut , Ukraine , Midland School , India , Egypt , Havana , Ciudad De La Habana , Cuba , Poland , South Korea , New Market , Queensland , Chicago , Illinois , Greece , Miami , Florida , Moscow , Moskva , Canada , Japan , Germany , Texas , Afghanistan , Iran , Kremlin , London , City Of , United Kingdom , Pakistan , Waziristan , Pakistan General , Alibaba , Lorestan , Maine , Thailand , Estonia , Starmine , Saudi Arabia , Maryland , North Korea , Leningrad , Sankt Peterburg , North Dakota , France , Italy , Venezuela , Macao , Macau General , Macau , Hawaii , Italian , Americans , America , North Koreans , Germans , Scotland , Pakistani , Iranian , Cubans , British , Russian Federation , South Korean , American , Canadian , Chinese , Greeks , Russian , Egyptian , Thai , Saudis , North Korean , Soviet , German , Pakistanis , Cuban , Sammy Davis , Elizabeth Warren , Andrew Ross Sorkin , Vladimir Putin , Peggy Noonan , Sally Smith , Michelle Caruso Cabrera , Ben Bernanke , Stephen Colbert , Janet Yellen , Tom Brokaw George Lucas , Baltic States , Matt Damon , Rebecca Patterson , Tom Freedman , Newt Gingrich , Seth Rogan , James Lou , Dan Aykroyd , Alec Baldwin , Brian Sullivan , Amy Pascal , Dominic Chu , James Franco , Santa Claus , John Hofmeister , Jim Cramer , Lenny Bruce , Courtney Reagan , Jon Najarian , David Letterman , Raul Castro , David Faber , Jack Daniels , Katie Couric , Las Vegas , Steven Freedman , Herald Hamm , Taj Mahal , Charlie Evans , Boone Pickens , Yasser Arafat , Hillary Clinton , Tom Friedman ,