Crude continues to fall. Some americans can watch for 2. 50 a gallon gas. Can halliburton defend its oil business . Retail sales better than expected. Nordstrom earnings beat. A number of downgrades to contend with this morning. A Richard Bransonbacked ipo at the nasdaq, Virgin America. Well have the first trade and interview with the ceo coming up. Oil the big story, below 74. Baker hughes confirming it is in preliminary merger talks with halliburton. The journal story said motivations behind the talks were unclear. I think we know what these boards are thinking. Justice department is very good when it comes to business to consumer. Theyll block a telco deal. Justice department has been tone deaf when it comes to the oil patch. They allowed Enterprise Partners to become a gigantic, basically own the natural gas liquids market. This would be farce if they let this deal through. The way you get halliburton to give you good prices to pit it against baker hughes. If at t were to merge with sprint and raise prices, it is ridiculous. Our antitrust division may not understand how this works. And may not understand the overlap. Its entirely possible they just dont get it. And this goes through. Thats why i go back to enterprise. They let enterprise buy everybody and never said a thing. Still, even the combined company would be far smaller than schlumberger. They have certain sets of skills you use. In terms of the comical nature of this, halliburton has been innovating. Baker hughes says its innovating, too. Mostly to stay one step ahead of baker hughes. This is boeing and airbus getting together. Its the oil patch. The guys from washington dont follow it that closely. Do you think it has big obstacles . Only if they are as stupid as i fear they might be in antitrust. I dont use that word stupid lightly. This is lawyers blessed the talks. They think they can get away with it. Its ridiculous. Maybe you can. This is not telco. It doesnt affect you. If it affects the consumer, the antitrust department is all over it. This is a Second Derivative of the companies. Im sure they are saying we can get away with this, we can raise prices. Every oil company is hated in this country anyway. Will you give me a break . Its comical, but it could happen. Now, if we have an antitrust department that said lets talk to all the customers and see whats going on here, this would never have gotten to this point. A lot of the lawyers must think its okay. I was going to say its an enigma, but its a farce. You have been consistent oils direction would be down. Yes. Lets go the other way. This has to happen. A fabulous conference had a Conference Call yesterday. Do the Oil Companies everyone should listen to that Conference Call. The number 60 was said in that call. Though were talking 75 below, people are going to say we have to scale back. There was a moment in the Conference Call. They said dividends. People are panicking. There is a sense of panic among everyone in the oil world. This deal will say maybe weatherford will get a bid that would pass muster. The fact no one else said this morning this deal is ridiculous shows me how desperate Everyone Wants to have this deal occur. To stop the slide. The slide. The slide is just huge. At a certain point we are going to scale back. We havent scaled back a lot because of technology. It lowered the price to 40. Its about maybe not doing a well you were going to do, right . Yes. Thats really the issue. Some of these wells like eagle ford make a fortune. The issue had been storage. When the price of oil was 89, suki owns a Brilliant Company and said its going to 60s. Another said its going to stop in the 80s. Suki was so bearish. He is a visionary. No one thought it would go there. On the consumer front, people are talking 2. 80. 2. 50 in a big number of markets. You sit down with ceos. I sat down with the ceo of popeyes. She is a great operator. She said what is driving Comparable Store sales other than the terrific beer can chicken, gasoline. A little bit more money in the pocket. This is an untold story. Lets be marxian. We are wealthier than the average people, we dont feel it. When you talk to people who actually for a living have to drive 60 miles. They cant believe that they have this spare change. Its a big rebate from opec and some Oil Companies and doing remarkable things. Today was the first day the times said it. Wow what is this going to do to anadarko . They are going to do fine. How about america . On that front, lower gas prices giving consumers more purchasing power last month. Retail sales rebounded in october. Up by better than expected 0. 3 . Take out gas purchases, sales rose 0. 5 after falling in september. Nordstrom, better than expected results. Comps up 3. 9 in the period. We got downgrades on half a dozen names in retail. I wanted to buy every one of those, tjx. Not abercrombie and fitch. They have to leave the office. I would tell you the nordstrom call they are so good. Nordstrom is so good. They talked about their opening in calgary, which i thought was funny. First store in canada. They had great comps there. Target opened 125 stores in one year. Its a 900 million loss. Nordstrom does everything right. They opened a couple of stores. By the way, in terms of the way they handled their Conference Call and how openhanded they play. First thing, they had too much inventory at the rack. The outlook was terrific. If you want to sell nordstrom, i want to buy nordstrom. They didnt give themselves credit for omni channel where they spent a couple of billion dollars to have top notch technology. This is a fantastic company. You mentioned abercrombie and fitch. Credit suisse cuts it to neutral. Target goes from 53 to 28. Abercrombie has stuff overseas. They are talking about dramatically cheaper prices. The one thing i dont buy about this, the kids who shop there arent as price competitive. They dont pit aeropostal versus abercrombie. The numbers in the basket of these deep value discount eers they are extraordinary. This is one more reason to sell amf. The guy who runs amf is on the wall of shame. Feels like the babe ruth of the hall of shame. An original inductee. Right in the thick of things. Bingo. Bmo cuts walmart to underperform. They had a hold on it for the whole run. Sorry, guys. You missed the big one. Now you are going to try to get involved and make a statement . I reiterate, i thought walmart was good. I got a lot of blow back jim cramer on twitter. Most people wish i would go away. Not anywhere where you could see me. There was negativity that i thought walmart might be getting better. Im going to respond, go to some. Actually visit, recognize that the Smaller Stores are good, but mainly whats happened, walmart has gotten the product people want. Its better. Walmart is not as bad as it used to be, which is enough to move the stock. Its a town square. Theres a lot of village idiots on twitter. A couple of valuations. Stern cuts nike to neutral. Average price target is 96. 70. There are a lot of stocks. I saw this in the 90s when you didnt see it since the 90s. Stocks gallop here. You look at 3m. Analysts are going to fight it. Theyve never seen anything like it. Analysts tend to be much younger. They never see it when you see nike go from 40 to 80 in a straight line. We are in that kind of market. They are not used to a bull market. This is the old i used to joke about it. Stocks 90 go to 120. There is no rigor to that analysis other than people are paying more and more to be in winners. This is the apple issue. If you dont own apple at the end of the year, people say ive got to take my money away from you. That was the Biggest Company in the universe and you missed a 40 rally . Nike is a loved company. Put up good numbers. Bf is the same way. When it gets cold, north face. Which it is. Its making its way to where a lot of americans live. Sell nike, sell walmart. Buyers are going to be all over these names. Got a lot more to cover this morning. Another setback for hertz which lost 1 4 of its market value. Well get you details next. Richard bransons Virgin America going public. Stay tuned for a live interview with the ceo david cush. We are halfway through q4. It is by far the best quarter of the year for the dow. People have been fighting this. When the fed stops buying bonds. A lot more in a minute. Go ahead and put your bag right here. Have a nice flight traveling can feel like one big mystery. Youre never quite sure what is coming your way. But when youve got an entire company who knows that the most ontime flights are nothing if we cant get your things there too. Its no wonder more People Choose delta than any other airline. Hertz announcing it is restating its 2012 and 2013 Quarterly Financial statements amid an accounting review. It will need to make material adjustments and the prior numbers should no longer be relied upon. The Company Announced it would restate 2011 financial statements. The press release is titled hertz announces new u. S. Rental car fleet strategy. Has nothing to do with the news. I heard over and over again, i always think accounting irregularity equals sell. I have been getting comfort from people that these irregularities were small. There is no comfort. When you see accounting regularities, anybody at home, your company has that, just go. Pricing is very good. Avis is doing well. I made that same argument in the mid 20s, when they kicked out the ceo, everything would be fine. He said he wanted to spend more time with the family. Family is so important. It is just amazing how bad this one is. Its terrible. The positive elements of the market do not offset whats going on here. Avis has come down a lot. Id rather buy avis. They are kicking butt. Hertz is in disarray. There is a core business there, no doubt about it. These are hedge fund favorites. If youre a hedge fund, look at avis with 65 , hertz down 7 . Hertz has to try harder. Ford yesterday was up 3 . Any idea . Is this an f150 play . There were numbers out of europe. I dont know. China has been playing with the numbers. I think the f150 will be a big hit. The problem with the f150 its not a gas guzzler at a time when gasoline doesnt cost that much. Something to keep our eye on. There are a lot of companies betting on higher gasoline and are doing things to be able to really convince the consumer its the right thing. The Natural Gas Company were. There is a percentage of this company heated by oil. Even in new york city. New england. Its going to be tougher to lean the payback wont be as easy to switch. Like watching dow chemical. Dan lobe has a new funny video that is a spoof of dow. I think its a spoof of itself. Its not exactly the great movie quality we do at cnbc. 80 of dows business is not related to oil. Thats something put into place. Lobe, this is third point they make it very personal, very quickly. They put up two people. They have one with steve miller. And a guy from foster wheeler, hired guns to get on that board. Lobe wants to split into good company, bad company. I happen to be fond of what hes done. What makes me fond of liveress, chemical average is 9. 8 . Hes beaten everybody. Five years, 1. 45. Before we kick the bum out, lets look at his numbers. Hes made the playoffs. Its not like playoffs. Hes made the playoffs. Something big at the nasdaq today. Simon hobbs has more on that. Good morning. Its a big day for the nasdaq here. Mainly because Virgin America, the ninth Biggest Airline in this country is ipoing. They priced above the middle of the range last night ranging 300 million. Valuing under 1 billion. Many questions to ask the ceo later on david cush. Business week asked if it had too many thrills to be a good investment. David cush will join us on a first on cnbc interview. Nasdaq unveiling a new television studio. This is above the one which fast money comes from every day. Importantly behind me, youll see they introduced a Human Element. This they tell me is the Market Intelligence desk where they are monitoring all nasdaq trades. At the end of that desk is an ipo execution officer. A Human Element they tell me has always been there would you see more obviously at the new york stock exchange. They want to make it more obvious to people. As we track through the history of ipos. The other thing is a great view of times square here. Let me show you that before i send it back to you guys at the nyse. Great morning here in new york. This is the view you get from just outside the window here. The new studio of the Nasdaq Market site. Back to you. Very nice. Jealous. A lot more lunch options over there. Go to hard rock after the show. Very true. When we come back, cramers mad dash. Well count down to the opening bell. Later, raise your glass. Wine spectator magazine will reveal its number one wine of 2014. Take a look at futures. S ps up 200 points now from the october 15th low. More squawk on the street straight ahead. There was no question she was the one. She reminds you every day. But your erectile dysfunctionthat could be a question of blood flow. Cialis for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moment is right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. 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These are two fabulous companies. Okay . Really well run, great discounters. Precisely the kinds of companies i want to buy when gasoline goes to 2. 50. I think these are places to go rather than sell. They are both too well run to dish. Ross had a big move. Be careful selling these. These are excellent companies. Estimates too high. Valuation too high. No. Not after walmart. You could argue maybe tjx isnt going to get the inventory because theyve come in with cash buyer inventory. These are wellrun companies. I think they go higher. Irwin simon was on our show last week from hain. Maybe the two or fiveyear chart is one of the best looking charts. He always predicted to me one day walmart would become the big gorilla. Walmart is saying to hain, you could argue this is an irwin view. High, guys, here are three aisles. Fill them. That is crazy. This is the natural and organic theme. You want to get this is what General Mills should have bought. They get it for 8 billion. Walmarts push was so really emphasized in the prerecorded comments. All you could think was irwin is going to coin money. Hes got stuff in every aisle. He built a Great American food company and has business in europe. He is probably the most forwardlooking executive in the food industry. Wouldnt you have been tempted to take some off here or here . Not with irwin. Hes a killer. He exists to compete. Hes amazing. You think the market can sustain more . You like united natural food, too. Irwin simon, when that stock was hit i think barrons hit it a couple of times. If you have any guts, come on the show. Are you kidding me . Id be thrilled to. This is a great buying opportunity. I just believe when you look at the kelloggs and look at General Mills, campbell soup, all they can do is buy irwin simon out. He is building the great Worldwide Food company. Hes terrific. Opening bell a few minutes away. Theres confidence. 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How much better to just have them merge like all the airlines were allowed to merge . All the prices go up. Its great for shareholders. There is that problem with users, but hey Justice Department. Halliburton doesnt have to spend all this money to compete in those areas.