very, very famous legendary jazz club the blue note. usually room at the bar. there s always room at the bar. we ll see you in an hour for the closing bell. thanks so much. thanks, bob. speaking of the market shortened session one more hour. let s head over to maria at post 9. thanks, carl. hi everybody. welcome to the closing bell. i m maria bartiroma at the new york stock exchange. no, your watch is not wrong. the closing bell ringing three hours early today at 1:00 eastern for christmas eve. hi, bill. hey, maria. i m bill griffith here at cnbc world headquarters. a down day not terrible, light volume as you might imagine on this half day. the dow down about 40 points right now. 46-point decline at 13,144. all the other major averages lower as well. the nasdaq at this hour down about ten points at 3,011 and the s&p 500 down 4.25. certainly volume on the light side today. though we re facing light volume there is still money to be made in these markets. remembe
point of earnings season. a good start. earnings beat for microsoft, despite falling pc sales and once again, it s all about the cloud. amazon reports strong sales growth. who cares about margins. customers don t blink at a price hike for prime. drum beat of new services continues. analyst notes this morning are pressuring the stocks. starbucks up, earnings as analysts expected. exclusive with howard schultz ceo and chairman coming up, coffee, digital payments and why lunch is next. ford is slipping despite strong sales. profit did miss analyst estimates. ford s margins hit by higher production costs. shares are dropping. we ll hear from bob shanks. first up, microsoft did beat estimates by a nickel, fiscal had third-quarter profit of 68 cents a share. company was helped by momentum in cloud services as total commercial cloud revenue more than doubled in the period and last night during his first earnings call, nadella spoke about betting on the cloud. we will conti
here at this hour, by the way. we also have both covered with a live report from iraq and our pros weigh in on just what the fed may do this week. also, a very special and exclusive interview after the bell, traveler ceo jay fishman in a rare one-on-one. he is widely viewed as one of the most respected and effective ceos in the corporate world. fishman will weigh in on the state of his business, the overall economy and much, much more. you don t want to miss it. all right, we can t wait. in the markets right now, take a look at the dow. it is down about nine points. the situation in iraq is certainly weighing heavily on the minds of investors today. the fed meeting, which is looming, which begins tomorrow, is as well. the nasdaq holding on to a gain of just under four points. and the s&p 500, we can call that flat on the day. joining our closing bell exchange right now is rob stein of astor investment management, joe tanias, kim forrest of fort pitt capital group. wow,
washington. intelligence agencies are trying to identify possible targets for limited air strikes. it s not as easy as looking at an iphone video of a convoy and then immediately striking it. twisters struck a small town in central south dakota. homes and businesses were damaged and one person injured. meanwhile, the heat is on for two-thirds of the country. washington, d.c., had temperatures that climbed well into the 90s. they have been trapped underground 12 days. a southwest airlines flight was forced into an emergency landing after it struck a flock of birds shortly after takeoff. done! he s done it! clayton kershaw pitches a no-hitter. there s just so much going on i can t explain it. chile knocked off defending champ spain. before that match, chilean without tickets busted into the stadium. amazon introduced its own smartphone. after you hang up with someone, the phone suggests other people you might want to call. pick your booty up make your
we ll have them first with the best analysis you can find. that all starts after the bell. then after that in exactly two hours, president obama s exclusive interview with our steve leisman will air in its entirety right here on cnbc. steve will join us on the show beforehand to tell us some of the highlights. we do know the president wants to talk about tax inversions, letting it be known he will support legislation to stop companies reincorporated overseas to escape the 25% tax rate here in the u.s. we ll have much more as the president and steve leisman get into it over the economy. melissa lee and i will anchor a 5:00 special on that coming up. it is a bill sandwich tonight. lucky you. also it would be big ceo interviews just ahead. dunkin brands disappointed today. jetblue s dave barger will be here. you ll hear from both of these ceos on today s closing bell. an hour to go and the do you jones industrial average down again today to the tune of about 21