s&p had been up ten points, now it's indicated down 3.5. they're indicated up, the nasdaq futures, only by ten points. let's look at the treasury market too because that's the really interesting point. the yield on the two-year is back above 4.7%. that's the big mover, 4.74%. ten-year is above 4.2%. that does it for us today. we'll be right back here tomorrow. right now, time for "squawk on the street." good tuesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, david faber. big morning, futures slid from the highs but they hold gains as november cpi comes in mostly in line. headline runs a tenth hot. year on year falls to 3.1 ahead of the fed decision tomorrow. stocks holding at highs of the year after that key inflation read. what does it mean for fed rate cut expectations?

>> plus, hasbro's holiday humbug, gcutting nearly 20% of its workforce. speaking of cuts, ford cutting f-150 reversing -- cutting production plans in half. the company saying it's matching with customer demand. in terms of those cuts. >> let's begin with market reaction to cpi on day one of that fed meeting. core was .3, but actually .28. an uptick in used cars. >> used cars are up 50% since 2019. housing is up 40% since 2019. the only times we have had sustained double digit increases in the price of food is during covid. you don't have a big drop in prices of food at all. as a matter of fact, food away was .4. there will be people who want to sell and say this is enough for jay powell. it's actually not at all enough.

and i think that you have to have some roll back from the highest prices ever. david, i think that people don't realize how much damage was done to the working person during covid. when you have these numbers that are not up as much as we expected, i say, well, wait a second, how about down? >> yeah. i mean, damage done, but also a great deal of money coming in from the government. for those same people, right? >> right, but 9% increase in minimum wage since 2019. that's a working person. so i come back and i say, you know what, the person in the middle and upper middle, they may be fine with this. and as a matter of fact, we all know that because of rates being so high, housing is now a dream. when we saw that piece yesterday in the "wall street journal" about how renting is so much cheaper. i look at this number and say how much of it is just really we

say okay, he's fought it and fought it, it's okay, but it is not if you're a working person. >> okay, but isn't his number just a number? not necessarily thinking of stratification of the economy? >> i think -- no, i think he's very attuned to how well people who are making $45,000 and less, and you know, carl, when i look at the numbers and think about what happened during covid, and david is right, a lot of government money came in, but i don't think these are satisfactory numbers at all. because the big things are cars and food and homes. it's not apparel. you can always go to tjx if you want apparel. >> shelter was not cooperative this time. up .4. although first uptick in used cars since may. i mean, you actually think that's a sustained trend? >> how can used cars be up 50%. i happen to be someone in this three-day period who was in the

business of financing cars. and they said that the lower prices are for cars with 100,000 miles or more. and people are borrowing a lot of money for 100,000 mile cars. that's an unholy situation. so again, i come back to what are the big things that people buy. and then what are the sustained things people buy. food and then housing, auto. and they're all not good enough yet. but going in the right direction. >> you're not looking for a retracement to 2019 prices? >> that's not going to happen. they're too far away. but i do think that the sustained notion you can raise prices no matter what, after so many double digit increases, if you go back, i mean, let's forget 2019 for a second. let's go back to 2003. let's do a 20-year view. we have never had a sustained period of inflation like this. as a matter of fact, we have only had ten months where

inflation for food went down. and those were almost all during the great recession. we have had double-digit gains for the first time, this does not repeal those. if i were jay, i would say, i need more. i need a little more. let's not look at wall street and what they're saying. let's think about how much it costs have a car and have a home if you're a working person. >> all right. >> all right. >> what does this have to do with the stock market? what's it mean? >> there's so many people who are saying that the cuts are either going to be the second quarter or the third quarter, and if you're investing in stocks, if you think that, then you're piing a little more speculative. i'm not sure i like that. >> okay. >> it's just -- you know, it's a matter of fact, we had gigantic boosts in speculative stocks. i'm not saying that the fed cares. they're not really looking at

the stock market. i think there's too many strategists who are saying when are the cuts going to happen? second quarter or third quarter. i'm saying, where is the room for maybe no cuts? where is the room, no cuts until we see some actual negative numbers as opposed to inflation's rising less than expected? >> right. certainly milken's view yesterday on our air, saying not going to take a chance on a resumption of 1970s style inflation. >> i speak to mr. milken, david, you do quite a bit, he is a heavyweight when it comes to these things. >> he's a heavyweight in every way. >> every way. >> every way. >> have you ever spoke to him about health care? >> not just the kind that he has solved. >> yeah, no. he's deep in. >> he's a sympathetic person. i think that his -- i like his judgment. >> we did have a day yesterday, jim, where most of the mag 7, if not all, were lower. we closed high on the indices.

>> i think the mag 7, we have trimmed some mag 7 for the travel trust. how much do you need to make in a given year? there is a notion that the market is rotated. david, i'm seeing buyers of regional banks for the first time since march. they're too cheap. >> yeah, banks actually yesterday were notable. meta was also notable for being down. >> i think so. nvidia was down. >> it feels like every time there's this rotation, it never really fully gets there. and then we're back to normal, which is just buy the mag 7. >> you always say, you have to back up the cash. you always say nvidia is actually -- nvidia is selling at 25 times, but you always said meta is actually pretty cheap. >> no, i think people who i speak to with some regularity who still own the stock believe it is. certainly based on their

assumptions for now what is coming very soon, next year, for what they see as 24 earnings. that has been the case. >> right. >> for some time. >> let's take a look at, say, robinhood, or lyft. lyft has been on my show a number of times. lyft is losing a lot of money, but they have a plan to get better. okay. and david risher is really an amazing man. he's the ceo. this stock just moved up four points in a couple weeks. that's the animal spirits that i'm not sure i want to see even though i'm rooting for lyft. rooting shouldn't play a role. save that for rooting for -- i almost said a team i rooted for on sunday. i didn't want to get into the nfl? >> why? what about that devito guy? you got to love him. >> his agent is a meme star now. >> that agent. i missed it yesterday. so yeah. >> okay, if you look at our new

ticker which is easy to read, you see upstart at 35. upstart was at 20. and boom, what happened? people got more bullish. maybe people are too bullish. >> well, we were talking towards the end of last week about the return of the retail investor in a more significant way. >> yes, did you get firm numbers on that? >> no, i was just hearing it from market participants. particularly in some heavily shorted stocks. just overall. >> biggest retail weekly inflow since march of '22. >> look, i like the retail investor. "mad money" is predicated. you also think you have to be wary when you see so many people come in at once, buying some stocks that are not making money. i mean, i think amc, there's amc again. it's above seven. >> yeah, a little bit of meme stuff going on. >> i'm going to use that tonight. you mind if i steal that?

>> not at all. >> do i have to attribute to you in any way, shape, or form? >> that agent is memesterish, too. >> you have wilson, now devito. >> a great weekend/weekday for new york football. >> i'm not from new york. >> i'm aware of where you're not from. >> although, coach daboll once said to me you haven't lived in f philadelphia for 50 years. are you kidding me. >> it dies hard, that allegiance. i haven't lived in queens in a long time, and here i am, still rooting for the mets and the jets. >> the niners are doing well, speaking of which, oracle is down in the market. q2 revenue comes in below expectations, that despite the ceo saying the company sees demand for generative ai and cloud infrastructure services increasing at a, quote, astronomical rate. stock is down almost ten this morning. >> we have a small position in

it for the travel trust, and we're blowing out of it. let me tell you why. >> really? >> yes. >> are you alerting the investment club? >> i did. look, i can't -- i work for cnbc, i can't say i'm not doing anything. i don't want to run ahead of anybody. >> i didn't mean to cut you off. why? >> a couple reasons. first is this is not going -- this change is not going to happen fast enough. it sounded like a two-quarter change. second, the company is very bullish about the long term. but we are in a market where if you don't have short term positives and you didn't have a short term positive on the deal that's pushed out. david, also, they're billing all these data centers. they don't make money while they're building them. >> 100 new cloud data centers they're building to meet growing demand. >> right, but i want the software portion of the demand.

aws is a huge customer of theirs. and larry, who is a genius, talked about listen, maybe you want to consume some of this and not be tied in. okay. well, david, that's what snowflake is doing, and they gave you the analytics. so off this, i would rather own snowflake, and it's a very expensive stock. >> i keep coming back to given all the data centers being built, why wouldn't you just want to own the picks and shovels into the daptthe data c? >> should i give up everything i wrote today? i said you should buy the picks. >> you did? >> yes. did you get the alert? >> no, i didn't get the alert. i'm not part of the club. >> listen, i let you join. >> i get the club every morning. >> that's true. >> that's the hammer. >> and during the course of the day, because we're in constant contact. >> when we listen to the call, we said look, it's obvious

they're building a lot, so why don't we take advantage of the companies that are helping them? and i feel, i mean, sometimes you like your first loss is your best loss. i waited for this. by the way, the previous quarter wasn't good either. i happen to think the world of her, but they continue to think they're doing great. cerner, they bought for $28 billion this week, in 2021, no good news yet. when is that supposed to start being accretive? health care records company that is not helping them. i believe that epic is winning in a lot of the situations they go head to head. so i just don't want to -- we have a club meeting this week. i don't want to defend a stock i don't believe in when there are some i believe in greatly, and i want to have cash because i think the market has gotten too

speculative. >> wow, all right. i like to hear you when you're that definitive. >> don't change your opinion. >> i was heart sick when i read the call. >> heart sick? safra is not going to be happy with you. >> i respect her greatly, but i think you can come back to it a quarter from now, and you can buy it. if i think they're closer to making money, then i'm happy to get in there. but they're not. >> they're turning on 20 new oracle cloud data centers colocated with and connected to microsoft azure. simultaneously building dozens of new data centers in countries all over the world. demand is over the moon. that is a quote from larry ellison. >> demand over the moon in the previous quarter. they're spending a lot of money. it's true, by the way, that amazon web services and microsoft all need it because these guys had the foresight to buy a lot of nvidia chips.

as we know, nvidia is right now the be all end all. i felt terrible it. i hate making mistakes and i feel like i made a mistake. own your mistakes. you don't punt. look, we'll get the ball back. i don't believe we'll get the ball back. >> up 250 pest this week. >> a great play. that's dave cody. when you have a mea culpa, here's what you do. mea culpa. i'm not going to be like so many people who come on the air and say i'm early. i'm not early. i'm wrong. >> you might be early. >> and then i'll come back to it. i wish i didn't have to stock about it. >> oracle has been up 41% this year. not like it's been a bad stock. >> what have you done for me lately? >> okay. >> when we come back, more ev challenges in the auto industry. ford slashing their f-150 lightning production for 2024.

we'll get to other news regarding the autos, gm, hasbro, there's some news in m&a with pfizer and astrazeneca. trying to claw back some of the losses from the highs after cpi. we're back in a moment. in the u.s. we see millions of cyber threats each year. that rate is increasing as more and more businesses move to the cloud. - so, the question is... - cyber attack!

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first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. some ev developments involving ford.

the company cutting planned production of the f-150 lightning in half in 2024 after significantly increasing plan capacity for the pickup this year. a spokeswoman said we'll continue to match production with customer demand. sounding an awfully like mary bari last week. >> go back and forth with jim farley. what he said to me that i told club members is our hybrid sales in november were up 75% and up 23% for the year. we plan to expand our hybrid vehicle lineup and look to double sales with the launch of our new e-150 truck. why not put the resources toward the new f-150, david, when you know there's tremendous demand? >> i don't know, jim. why not? >> it wasn't really -- it was a bit rhetorical. i'll give you that. >> okay. >> but i do think as i turn to carl, i think what's coming is that he says hybrid strategy is

really paying off. they have a great hybrid strategy. i think a lot of these companies are really tired of where their stocks are, including jim farley. they don't want to make things that don't sell. the number one and two best selling hybrid trucks in america are the ford maverick, which is what i have. i get like 900,000 miles to the gallon, david. and i'll give you a ride once, but you have to be in the bed. it's called the bed, the thing behind the cab. and the f-150, their f-150. they own the number one and number two. the maverick, you can actually park in the city. but i do think that that's very telling. and jim doesn't want his stock at 10 anymore. he doesn't want it at 11. he wants it at 14, 15, pronto. >> meantime, ubs today names gm a top 24 pick. they actually have their ev growth rate forecast, 47% this year. 11% next year. and 14% the year after that. >> yeah, i find -- i actually

find that too optimistic. i'll go to jonas' note, which actually was very good. jonas is pretty abject, he likes what's happening with these. >> he's been calling for them to get real for a long time. >> to get real is the right thing. that's exactly right. and yes, a lot of surprises. he thinks that tesla is going to lose money on evs. >> what? >> yeah. he said they could lose money. david, asset impairment on evs and av, david, autonomous is proving to be a bit of a difficult thing to do. >> full self driving. elon musk has been prauomising for many years. it's still coming. i'll let you know that. >> how about how hard the cybertruck is proving to be? >> cybertruck was difficult as well, given the stainless steel. hard to manipulate. >> look, i don't want to provoke

any more -- look, the big issue with all of these is also, will china come in? and i have secretary gina rumondo on today, and i want to find out, are we going to lower the tariffs on china in order to be able to save the working person money? because theirs are coming well underneath. >> we're not letting china sell evs in this country, really? are we? >> you want a $15,000 ev? >> by the way, europe now by far is a huge market. and obviously, the domestic market in china where more evs are sold. >> how about they took over mexico? >> excuse me. >> chinese have the largest share of mexico. of automobiles. just -- i think it's worth a question. you want me not to ask the question? >> i think it's a good question. >> you do? >> yeah. if she says memesterize, that's news. >> did you use the word idiot? >> keep a list. going to be a lot more. the show is barely started.

>> we'll get cramer's mad dash and countdown to the opening bell after a short break. busy morning with cpi now under our belts as wloe ok ahead to tomorrow's fed decision. back in a moment. that time to reflect. to be like wow! what did i do to get here? (tense music) right. work. you worked hard and it's time for a bank that'll work hard for you. everbank performance savings is built to put your money to work with some of the highest rates in the country . going, got you where you want to be. we're the partners for your next move. everbank. advantage, you. with gold bond... you can age on your own terms. retinol overnight means... the smoothing benefits of retinol. are now for your whole body. plus, fast-working crepe corrector diminishes wrinkled skin in just two days. gold bond. champion your skin.

take a look at the ten-year note yield after we got cpi. has moved up a bit. was around 4.16, and now we're talking 4.227. of course, it is still not long ago as you can see from that chart that we were, well, doesn't quite capture it. we were very close to 5%. we have a lot more for you including an opening bell and a mad dash. don't forget, you can catch us

by listening to and following "sawon the street" opening bell podcast.

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all this new music. i'm not sure what i'm hearing. very nice intro. we have a minute before we get to the opening bell. rl. >> a bit of a mea culpa. goldman, fine american brand and consumer goods research. upgrades ralph lauren from neutral to neutral from sell. now, the stock is up 27%. so it wasn't such a good call. i'm glad they did it. i had on the ceo and they have a very good road map for worldwide expansion, including china. they have gotten rid of brands that have lagged. it has a classic look to it, and what you should buy given the fact they have very big up numbers year over year. i'm glad that they did this, but it's a little late.

>> that's all i got. >> that's all i got. >> i shake my head. i look at carl. >> opening bell. >> anyway, i happen to like the label. >> let's get the opening bell. cnbc real time standings. the big board. san francisco based celebrating 40 years at the nasdaq. it's a bitcoin mining company stronghold, digital mining. holding 46.15 at the opening. >> could do that. by the way, the ceo of prologics. we should mention this is probably the best reit when it comes to industrial real estate. it's never been in trouble. i salute them. it's great they have that. they have made an acquisition. they're superb. i think that what we want to look at is this company that was in the ft this morning, which is

nvidia, placing a lot of bets. i think that matters. and below 70 is continually a theme that people get excited about when it comes to the fed. i think it could be ephemeral, but i mean, it does seem to be -- ithink you have to call it a freefall. >> we have global tensions in the middle east. production cuts at opec. record production in this country. >> this country is incredible. >> and exports just on fire. >> i know. you know, we're the biggest exporter of butane, propane. we don't even have enough export capacity to get rid of the stuff. david, when you think about us and oil and gas, you have to think about the fact that we have much more, but we don't have enough ability to ship it because we don't have enough docks, piers. >> is that really the case? we don't have ability to export it is in some way. >> because no one thought we would come to the point where we're the one that could be the

deciding -- you know, we're pretty powerful. >> we have 13.2 million barrels a day, correct? >> david, now what is the strategy of the empire? does he want to use his tremendous balance sheet to turn the spigot on or is he happy with it? >> when you speak to exxon and when i spoke to woods last week, he said nothing beyond in many ways more than they have said previously. they do believe that while pioneer is certainly advanced technologically, they have the resources to take things even further in terms of the ability to get more and more out of the ground. and more efficiently. you know more about this than i. >> all in, you could argue that sheffield, ceo who built this great company, has got $30 a barrel all in. well, i mean, hey. even at $69, they can make a lot of money.

>> and vaccy yesterday with that occidental deal, most of which was debt, $9 billion of the $12 billion headline number, was also permian assets, talking about how at $70, they're going to be making plenty of money. $70 on wti. >> we were debating this concept of, will there be more use of heavy equipment or will they just prove to be able to be in this area, able to drill more and hit more with no more rigs? so far, that's been the case. >> i mean, the rig count and the drop in price is what makes you think about efficiency. others argue we don't need to rush to fill the spr because that was built in a time where others could take advantage of us in a hurry. >> but we ever make it, producing 68 millionbarrels a day, look, it's always a quizzical thing because we know there's some parts of the

country still using oil in the northeast, but that's because they fought the pipes. but i look at these companies and i say, as much as i really like a chevron, i mean, and think mike does a great job, it's very hard stock to own. exxon, with the guy -- >> guyana. >> guyana. i do find what happens is i begin to be concerned that there are geopolitical issues. >> mike disputed that in an interview yesterday, and with darren woods as well. exxon is the lead in guyana. we're talking about as much as a million barrels a day from that very tiny country. there's this threat from venezuela, and woods seemed to be of the belief, jim, that that would not be allowed. that that would be pushed back, any incursions by the venezuelans to somehow take control of those operations. but you've got exxon lead

position and then hess, it's the single most important asset for hess, which of course, is being purchased by chevron. but again, mike worth in an interview yesterday, not with us, but indicated he's not overly concerned by those threats. >> the oil companies should stick with venezuela for a long time, and that proved to be an ill advised strategy. >> guys want to hit m&a this morning, both in deals completed and deals announced. let's start with one that's going to close. and we have talked about it a great deal here in the nine or so months since it was first announced. cjef and pfizer. the deal is closing on december 14th. the lawyers and bankers close to this transaction seem to have not really been let in on where things stood with the anten trust regulators. so i was still being pointed to perhaps a close that was going to be early next year. but no, they're closing.

now they reached a deal with the ftc. has pfizer. of course, remember, there was a lot that was to use a word jim often uses, quizzical about any ftc concerns here given no overlaps, but of course, as we learned to expect, it doesn't mean that the ftc won't take their time and issue a second request and give you a really hard time. that seems to have been the case here as well. they get the deal done. there is a very interesting provision here, though, that's worth mentioning. that is, the pfizer has chosen, and this is from the press release, to erevocably donate the sales from the then ceo in the u.s. to the american association for cancer research. we had that written out for you. i have never seen this before. i have never seen this before

where the ftc seems to have gotten a deal of some kind in which pfizer and or the acquiring company is going to donate royalties from a particular drug to a charity. now, we're not talking huge dollars. my understanding is they licensed this a number of years ago from germany's merck. talking about $200 million or so in sales. again, remember, that's then the royalties are off that. not talking about a large amount of money, but it is somewhat unique, jim. >> yes. >> somewhat unique. >> now david, given the fact of what you were saying, it is a bit of a surprise, any chance that the ftc may be changing its attitude toward mergers where it's not readily seen what the anticompetitive notion is? >> you know, i did in just sort of calling back people today on this, somebody did say to me that they sense that the ferocity from the ftc is less

so. >> i agree with that. >> and then there's the subway deal. it's private, so our viewers in the public equity perspective don't care. but that one potentially getting some sort of antitrust. that's not happening from what i understand. so there's a hope that that thing is going to move more quickly than might have even been anticipated recently. jim, what i do sense overall in m&a is a willingness for companies to say, it's enough already. we're going. and so there is a building optimism in terms of the volume of deals potentially next year, because of the willingness of strategic buyers to say we have to do what we have to do. >> is this a good time to talk about wyndham? >> sure. let's do that. you're talking about choice here, which sometimes we talk about unsolicited bids. sometimes we say hostile.

this is really hostile. this is mean. this is nasty. this is we're coming after your board of directors. we're instituting an exchange offer. we own your stock $110 million or more, we're filing hsr, and we're coming. that said, none of it means that it's going to end up with them owning the company. we're going to have an opportunity to talk to the ceo in the next hour. we'll have an opportunity to ask some of the key questions here. but jim, what's been notable to me is how few of the risk arbs who would get involved in the situations are not in this one. i think you're kind of looking for shareholders, an overlapping shareholder base, perhaps, to really push wyndham. i don't know if it's going to happen or not. and we'll talk to choice's ceo about that. but it's an interesting one from the perspective of they have been rebuffed, they have been rebuffed again and again, and they finally say all right,

enough is enough. we just want to bring it to shareholders, so to speak, challenge the board, and try to get this thing done. >> i know steve holmes is not the ceo, but steve built that company. >> he's the chairman, though. >> he's an old friend, i will point blank discloche that, he was on the board with my wife at bucknell. and i have to tell you, he built this great company, and it is surprising to me to see this kind of action after -- look, it's a public company. you can do whatever you want, but i think it's just wrong that they're trying to steal the company from what steve built. >> they're not trying to steal it. they're making an offer. maybe they'll increase their offer and it's up to shareholders. they would say hey, the company doesn't want to deal with us so we're bringing to shareholders and giving you an opportunity. you don't want it, fine. they also put in a 6% ticking fee, like $38 million a month after a certain period in terms of regulatory review, because

that remains as well a concern here. in terms of the ftc, and a reverse break free of $435 million. if in fact it does get rejected, wyndham shareholders -- >> remember, this is hotel to hotel. when we talk about pfizer to seagen, it's embarrassing because the specialty of seagen is very hard to solve cancers. pfizer has nothing. this is hotel to hotel. >> on pfizer, i want to make one other reference to the press release, jim, because it was interesting to me as well. amir malik is going to become the chief u.s. commercial officer, executive vice president, and continue reporting to albert borlov, who is the ceo. i'm told that positions him as the clear at this point heir apparent. >> very interesting. >> yeah. >> look, pfizer is underperforming, we know that. >> oh, yeah. over any time period. >> i think they bit off more than they can chew.

they made a lot of acquisitions. these are not easily integrated. this is a great deal. but we need to see if they have the attention span to be able to go after some of these harder cancers. >> well, they use some of the windfall, so to speak, from the covid vaccine to buy companies. and this was the key one. this was a very large deal. one of the largest of this year. they're going to be closing it on the 14th. again, on m&a, just real quick, liberty media, it gets so complicated and sirius satellite, they have reached a deal in which the tracking stock and the physical stock, so to speak, everything will be merged resulting in a new sirius xm, being an independent company, no majority stockholder, single class of shares. yes, imagine that. single class of shares and a board they say comprising a majority of independent directors. let me give you a quick read on

it. there is wells fargo saying given the transferred debt, we think they should derate from maybe over a little ten times over ebitda. proforma will get you a market cap or enterprise value of $23 billion, and 16% equity value declined. $19.4 billion today to $16.3 billion. that gets you to $4.80 a share. guess where the sock is trading right now, $4.70. a bit of a disappointment? you know, again, they're transferring debt and everything else there. it's always complicated when it comes to liberty and sirius, but i wanted to mention it. >> this is a company that people have to understand, the fulcrum of it is used car sales. that's what drives us. >> not new car? >> used. and i have to tell you, i

haven't studied the company lately. you know why i haven't? because of that crazy ownership structure. i didn't think it was worth looking at. >> the back story is of course the tracker always traded a significant discount to the actual, so they wanted to capture that discount. >> well, look, anything that simplifies things, i have to open the books on this again. maybe it's been left behind and it's got good reups. i think, carl, i don't know, when you rent a car, okay, you presume it has it. i rented an avis car, there it is. >> you don't want a car without satellite radio. >> not at all. >> absolutely not. >> these days, it's so easy to stream whatever you have over your in-car radio, and that is a potential threat to them, so it really does depend on the actual content they're providing. but sirius will tell you we have a lot that people love, not just howard stern. >> that's very true. very good for sports.

>> we didn't get a chance to talk to you yesterday about cigna, humana, macy's. >> it turned out cigna was very much like the hindenburg. that was very ill fated and ill advised. lake hrs, new jersey, where it crashed. >> not the excellent research firm. macy's, obviously, real estate play. here's something interesting. pennsylvania realty, preit, one of the oldest, one of the oldest reits, filed bankruptcy for a second time yesterday, because it's not clear how much their malls are worth, except for the a mall, cherry hill mall, and i don't know whether you can really monetize the malls. i also -- i have to tell you, tony spring is coming in and he's from bloomingdale's. you want a shot here, but there's a feeling you can keep

bloomies and keep them or sell them and sell the real estate. it seemed a little, let's say, out of the norm to see these two firms suddenly emerge given the fact real estate, they have tried to monetize the real estate before and it hasn't really worked. >> we talked about it yesterday. years ago that starboard, which has a pretty good track record on many things. jeff smith i remember making a presentation. i think it was delivering alpha. i think you and i were there. >> $72 price target. >> right, thank you. his memory. >> for insignificant things. >> never came close, and the thesis was largely based on the asset value of the giant store on 34th street. >> right. look, i think that put up or shut up. show us the money. like choice, don't just float it. don't float it like cigna. >> citi does cut m to sell on the notion the real estate

business might be not as tough as the actual business, but not easy either. >> look, it's a very tough business. we all know that macy's has been a challenge property. because its price range is so low, they don't get a lot of credit from macys.com. a show me story, remember nordstrom is not doing well. the mall is doing very poorly. >> yeah. we haven't mentioned the hasbro layoffs, a fifth of their workforce, to the degree they're in store. we haven't touched on google and the epic case. page one in most of the papers. san francisco jury unanimous deliberated for less than four hours. another landmark case still in the process. >> the media plays it up as being this is a $200 billion franchise, whatever. and they'll make a settlement. apple had a similar situation. wasn't as extreme as this one. >> but a jury did find them

guilty. so to speak, of basically monopoly behavior. not an insignificant moment. >> what are they going to do? make it so it's less of a monopoly. >> jim, the other case i continue to hear about is the u.s. government against google, but the fees that apple pays for having search to google, it's like those are huge numbers. >> because they want to lock it in. >> i don't know. it's the other way around. >> how much do you keep? but i will say, with all of these, the government has a mixed record of winning. >> yeah. >> mixed. >> i don't like mixed. mixed doesn't make the playoffs. >> i don't know. you thought the u.s. government's case against google on sort of the publishing side, you thought that was a very strong case. >> i have since become convinced that the other side, that google

has a very good defense there. and yes. >> look at you. >> you mean on the search? doj case? >> yeah, i just don't think they were munaup alilous when it com to these advertising issues. >> even though they control the marketplace? >> they control both sides. that's true. but what's happened is google is not as important. tiktok is the most important thing. >> small potatoes argument. >> yes. >> david. >> small potatoes theory? >> like the red kind that i grow. >> small potatoes. >> we're going with the small potatoes theory. >> also known as the little old me defense. >> right. tiktok rules the world right now. >> rules the world. and you know who rules tiktok? tom and his partner. they're in there, man. >> not me. >> we have to go. >> just when we're getting good. >> dow trying to get back to the

flat line. down a point. let's watch bonds. data mostly out of the way for the morning. once we get ppi, we'll start to be able to put together estimates for pce. right now, ten-year still a little elevated. relative to earlier this morning. don't go away. at pgim, finding opportunity in fixed income today, helps secure tomorrow. our time-tested fixed income suite, backed by over 145 years of risk experience, helps investors meet their goals. pgim investments. shaping tomorrow today.

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take a look at target today. down this morning, although goldman does make it a top pick for next year and says the valuation here below its historic average, limited downside potential and they do see, as the consumer benefits from less inflation, a normalization of discretionary mix, which, of course, target benefits from. we'll watch that closely, as the dow goes positive up 3 points. stop trading with jim is next. i! they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery.

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for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. let's get to jim and stop trading. >> carl a lot of retailers reported not great numbers and bounced back. look at lulu, we felt lulu was not working and it's right back one that hasn't recovered is walmart. i found it refreshing cowen

added that as its favorite idea in retail with a 188 price target. i think the selloff is overdone and makes for an interesting pick. >> we didn't mention walgreens, as moody's cuts to junk, trading just above 25-year lows. >> i have to tell you, a lot of people feel that new ceo, it is a miracle worker. they have the theft problem that has bedeviled everybody in retail, so i don't know how much they can possibly change things. tim wentworth, i met him, he's extraordinary. >> raimondo tonight? >> yeah. this is about china and what she's doing in terms of reshoring. a lot of tough questions i have for her. it's difficult to influence some chinese companies that don't use our equipment. >> jim, we'll see you at 6:00. >> thank you. great show. >> "mad money" at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. j when we come back the white house reaction to cpi.

lael brainard in a moment.

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good tuesday morning. welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street." i'm sara eisen with carl quintanilla and david faber, we are live as always from post nine of the new york stock exchange. take a look at stocks here in the early action. the nasdaq 100 is positive. everybody else is negative. but if you look inside the s&p right now, you do see strengths in materials and information technology, industrials, financials and consumer staples, why the overall index is little changed. energy, utilities and real estate are weighing the heaviest on the index. treasuries post-cpi or inflation report reaction here. you're seeing a little bit firmer yield. the 10-year note yield ticks up to 4.24 in the under 4.2 earlier this morning. little bit of selling on a bit of a firmer read on inflation which we'll get to. watching the 30-year yield higher at 4.34 ahead of an auction later. here are three movers we're

watching. shares of oracle dropping following disappointing revenue and guidance. the company says increased competition in cloud computing are weighing on demand. stock is down sharply right now more than 10%. google has lost its antitrust fight against epic games. a federal court jury found that google play's store has been protected by anti-competitive barriers that have damaged smartphone consumers and software developers. google says it will appeal. and hasbro cutting nearly 20% of its workforce as weaker sales for toys and games carry through to the holiday quarter. the company's ceo says he expects challenges to continue into next year. guys, we should talk about inflation. it's the data point of the morning i would say. not a major surprise. pretty much in line. a little bit firl. let's review some of the key numbers here. november headline inflation rose 0.1 on the month. that was a little bit higher

than expected. we expected a 0 number there. it was up on core, which we know the fed is looking at, you take out food and energy, 0.3%. that was expected. also you hear a lot about the numbers on a year-over-year basis. let's share them. 3.1% prices are rising compared to a year ago, a slight slowdown from november. that's good news from the fed. the core numbers at 4%, double where the fed wants it at the target of %. one more number not to bombard you with numbers but because the fed pays attention, core services ex-shelter and that came in at 0.5%. the that was a little bit higher than october and i think, guys, it speaks to the fact that fed might have a hawkish pause, might say okay, we're not raising rates, not expecting that tomorrow, however, you know, they want to be aware of the fact that inflation is not

back at target and might prove stickier than expected on the path down to target. >> what's the language around the hawkish pause and is the market expecting that? will that be a surprise should it occur? >> i think the market would be -- i think one way that they can communicate that is in the dots, the sep, summary of economic projections which comes out. the market expects four cuts next year. will the fed forecast two cuts. that would be a message to the market you're ahead of yourself. powell can talk about the fact that we're not thinking about cutting rates at this stage and that, you know, we're going to monitor the incoming data to make sure that inflation returns to target. he can have a little bit more forceful language when it comes to the fact that they're not saying mission accomplished, that there still might be work to do when it comes to fighting inflation and not mention the cuts an downplay them. i think the market is expecting something like that, but how much pain does he want to

infl inflict? that will be the question. there's almost a 50% chance they cut in march according to the fed funds futures market and they will go in may. fed might push back a little. >> yeah. mohammad has been vocal with the notion that fed is losing control of that narrative. yellen on the tape right now saying that rising real rates may impact the fed decision on the rate paths. sort of channeling waller. interesting to hear her get near fed policy. >> she's usually kind of careful and speaking at a "wall street journal" event right now talking about the soft landing. i think we have a quote from her. continuing to repeat the mess an, a soft landing in the economy continues to grow. the labor market remains strong and inflation comes down and i believe that's the path we're on. i will ask her about real rates. she's going to come on the show tomorrow for an exclusive interview and we can talk about that and how far she's willing to go when it comes to the

inflation fight and what the fed should or should not be doing at this point. i think there's a lot to get to, including the outlook for next year on the u.s. economy and global economy. >> no good reason to think last mile inflation should be especially difficult, adding that touch as well? >> right. she probably doesn't want more rate hikes which she's not going to say explicitly, but clearly, i think they want to preserve the soft landing that they have and that they have achieved right now. the question, i wonder if the fed will talk around this a little bit, we still have a strong labor market and we still have a decent consumer spending environment. there were new numbers out from bank of america and their institute looking at credit and debit card spending, we have a good chart showing a rise in november 0.5%. that was a big bounceback of 0.5%. we're not looking at spending numbers that we saw as you can esee earlier last year and the

year before, but we're still in positive territory. the blue numbers card spending 0.5% higher and a lot no surprise is in services, the yellow line, whereas goods less so. you saw that reflected, apparel, for instance. apparel had the steepest decline in prices since 2020. >> mentioned airlines, would be stronger had it not been for gasoline and what that did to spending. >> yeah. the services inflation in health care spending, it's in auto insurance spending which i look at 19% jump year over year, and shelter still a problem. third of the cpi and still contributing to the price increase. >> let's go deeper, joining us pimco chief economist paul mccauley now an adjunct professor at georgetown. great to see you. what an important day. the knee-jerk is that probably won't have an effect on whatever we hear tomorrow but long term, there are still hopes that shelter will come to play? >> yeah. i think that's the bottom line.

disinflation is well in train. the big lagging indicator has been homeowners' equivalent. rent. we got a positive rent last month. we gave it back this month. that's the sticky component. logic says it should be coming down as the new year progresses. its lag, but it will be coming down. sometimes i feel like i put out the landing lights for amelia earheart on this thing. it is coming down and the fed is finished tightening. that's the big issue. the debate now is ought about the timing and the magnitude of the easing cycle to come. >> you don't think it's a risk that we have this still strong labor market and decently strong consumer spending environment because of the labor market, real wages are growing? you don't think that's all a risk to inflation flaring back up? >> i don't think it's a risk to reverse what's going on in the

disinflationary trend. i think it's a risk for delaying the pivot longer than the market anticipates. i think the market is going to be consistently ahead of the fed, the fed wants it that way, so i think that's the game that we're in now. it's not a game where we can get economic data that would change the reality, the last hike is in. >> so what do you expect in terms of the powell tone tomorrow? do you think he's going to talk tougher than the market expects? >> certainly. i think he will talk tougher from the standpoint of rate cuts, but in general, i think he's going to be crafting a new narrative because they've been threatening one last hike consistently, and the dot plot will roll off the december cut, which has the one last hike, and the next dot will become the

operative dot is december '24 which shows the easing process has started. i think he will fine tune and recraft a new message for the next move will be an ease, but i think he will be hawkish relative to current expectations in the marketplace. >> you know, paul, when you think about powell's pressers over the last couple years, he really did lean in heavy when things were tough on jolts, job openings, and inflation expectations. we got new york fed yesterday, umich friday, why can't he be as dovish as he was hawkish back then on the same set of metrics? >> i think he can be. it's matter of choice of how he wants to shape the narrative because i think he really does want to be in charge of the narrative and the old narrative of higher for longer is past its used by date. i think he has to have a new

message, and i think that will be part of what he does tomorrow. it's not just his message, it's the fomc because the fomc is putting down a lot of markers with a new dot plot and will be starting the new year out, i think, with a warm and fuzzy tone, but not an urgent tone, from the standpoint of cutting. >> find out in 24 hours, paul. great to chat with you and the analysis today. paul mccauley. >> thank you. as we head to break, here's our road map for the hour. ford planning to slash production for the ev lightening as ev demand slows. americans are not prepared or willing to adopt the technology so quickly here. >> choice hotels taking its bid to wyndham shareholders. it's a hostile bid now. the ceo joins us exclusively oofts break.

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hotels after attempts to reach a deal were rebuffed since choice made its offer in october and plans to challenge wyndham's board of directors at the next shareholder meeting. joining us with more is patrick pacious, choice hotel's president and ceo. it's not an insignificant effort to undertake a hostile bid going after board seats, instituting an exchange offer, and on from there, opening stock in excess of 110 million. why are you persisting in this effort? why is this an important acquisition target for you? >> good morning, david. the reason is the offer is compelling the opportunity for shareholders, for our franchisees and guests is really compelling and the work is laborious but the reward is going to be significant. so we're moving forward today with two things, an exchange offer, which gives a blueprint

for wyndham shareholders to provide us with feedback, and we move forward as you're well aware the hsr process and we want to get the clock started on that be front because it's one of the things that the wyndham board said to us was their concern about how long that would take, and so we wanted to get that clock started so our investors and theirs will have clarity on the regulatory front before having to actually vote their shares. >> yeah. you know, patrick, i know many members of the so-called risk community quite well who might sometimes take part in a deal like this in your favor, so to speak. many seem to be staying away from it. i wonder, are there other large shareholders at wyndham you have heard from positively in terms of their support or you're hoping to get their support? is there anything you can tell us there? >> sure. so we took our proposal public on the 17th of october, david, and since that time, we talked to many of their shareholders

about 60 different conversations, and they have expressed to us their desire, they see the strategic rationale and like the price, everybody's question was around clarity and the same is true, how long would it take to get through a regulatory review process. wyndham has been saying inaccurately we think as going to be two years. we believe we'll get this done in under a year, which is customary, and what we offer in our enhanced offer to them in november was really a belt and suspenders set of robust protections they requested should this go beyond a year. whether our shareholders, their shareholders, everybody is looking for more certainty around timing and want to wait until the proxy window opens which begins next month and why we're taking this exchange offer out public to begin to get feedback in advance of that proxy contest. >> right. you mentioned, of course, what is antitrust, the regulatory review, and they keep saying

you've told them it's 24 months. they have that in their response to the latest offer this morning, estimated 24-month timeline previously cited by choice. that's not the case? >> that's never been the case and we've never said that was the case they asked for that additional protection. we offered it to them. even though we don't believe it's going to be necessary. >> you filed an s-4 in which you revealed the ftc informed you on november 16th they have launched a nonpublic investigation into theproposed merger. do you think wyndham proactively reached out to the ftc perhaps here and what can you tell us in terms of your expectations then on the antitrust front, patrick? because the fact is that if you do combine, you'll have 50 to 60% market share in mid-sale and economy hotels in the country? >> so we have really taken an opportunity, david, to go to the ftc when deals are discussed publicly like ours has been since the middle of october,

it's not unusual for the ftc to want to begin an investigation, so we proactively engaged with them and had a meeting with them last week, very substantive questions and productive meeting. filing the hsr notification today, it's a statutory process and begins the calendar. we'll meet going forward to get clarity around that. when you look at the hotel services market, the combined share of the two companies is only going to be 17% of the rooms, and those rooms are owned by small business franchisees who control their own pricing. the consumer is not going to be impacted here. the franchisees set the pricing and the pricing strategy. this is not the dollar menu or $5 footlongs. our franchisees can set prices as they see fit and do on a regular basis, daily and ultimately hourly, as you look at the marketplace. >> suffice it to say you are confident you will be able to get past an antitrust review

here. they do and can take a long time, even when they end up positively for the acquirer, you know that, patrick? >> we are well aware and well advised. we are already, as i said, engaged with the ftc and so we will be able to actually provide clarity in the coming weeks and months to our shareholders about what length of time this may take, but when you look at the positive opportunity here, it's so compelling that getting through that process is a really welcome opportunity for us given the reward that's on the back end. >> and finally, when it comes to price, i think in one of your letters a few months back already you said our enhanced proposal based on public information represents best and final offer. this morning, in your release, you said there's potential for additional value to be unlocked if wyndham comes to the negotiating table. are you saying that you have more money in you and if so, can you actually come up with more cash if people think your stock is something they don't want to

take here in. >> david, we can do all of that. we can bring that value, if we can get to a phase of due diligence here, and understand why wyndham has been unwilling to come to the table and see if there's more value to be unlocked, which they believe there is, let's see that. let's have both companies get to the negotiating table and a friendly transaction here and unlock value that's great for both sets of shareholders. we've always been willing in the eight months we've been at this to engage on that front. they just have been unwilling to engage. they even declined -- >> they say -- >> they declined to do due diligence on our stock, which we offered an opportunity to do that, which indicates they have not been interested in doing a productive engagement. >> they say you have too much leverage and think your stock is overvalued. >> the market doesn't believe that, and when you look at where we're headed on leverage, this is not the grocery store business. both of these companies have operating margins in the 70% range, so the ability to delever

here within a two-year time frame, which is what we believe will happen, is extremely attractive and we've proven that. we just integrated the radisson brands in an 11-month timeframe and significantly exceeded the synergy target ahead of schedule, so we have an integration playbook and know how to do this and feel confident in our ability to delever in a quick time. >> patrick, we're going to be following closely. not often we get full-blown hostile bids and appreciate you taking the time. >> thanks, david. still to come on the show, director lael brainard with the white house's first reaction to this morning's inflation numbers pp. keep an eye on big tech. cathie wood snaps up 9,000 shares of microsoft for her etf. about 10,000 shares of meta platforms as well. her first big microsoft buy in nine months, and first meta buy in five months. arc next gen internet fund is

higher up 80% this year, but down 50% over e sthr.thla tee we'll be right back.

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fed kicks off its two-day fomc meeting today. many expecting another pause when it comes to rates, but that said, what does it mean for stocks in 2024? steve liesman joins us with results of our latest cnbc fed survey. hey, steve. >> hey, carl. yeah, kind of upbeat, rate cuts and a soft landing are in the forecast and so is s&p a,000. none of it is going to happen as soon as the market wants. maybe a couple years for the s&p 5,000. here's the forecast of this i want to call it the equity group. you can see 418 7, so not so greatthis year. 4583 now. you go and look at what happens, it goes up to 5,000 or above 5,000, by december 2025, so that's just an 8% gain over those two years. the group generally negative on equities. the managing partner says equities are expecting a v-shaped earnings recovery an outcome unlikely with contracting bank credit.

relative to a soft landing outcome, which by the way the percentage went up in the survey, 47% say the market is overpriced, 27% say it's priced correctly and 24% under priced. that's about as optimistic as this group gets. we'll take a look at if there's a recession, 91% believe stocks are over priced. looking at fed expects, 100% say the fed will leave rates unchanged this week. 53%, our first percentage above 50%, say that first cut comes in june 2024. moves up to 69% for july. not as optimistic or as quick as the futures market is. there's that 4.53 year end rate for the funds in 2024. that's above where the market is. looking for about 85 basis points. first time we're asking about qt or ending qt in a while. november 2024 is the average. but that hides a lot of dispersion. respondents are all over the place on that. on today's inflation number,

isn't negate the bullish cut for rate cuts, pushed it off for a near term cut, making the forecast for june today, a bit more plausible and as you know, sara, we're going to go back and forth as the data comes in as to when that first cut might happen. >> right. is the takeaway here from the survey investors expect the cuts next year but aren't that excited about the equity market in anticipation? i feel like if you poll strategists you might get more optimistic targets from the s&p getting hthe fed is done next year. >> i'm going to throw that back at you, sara. imagine tomorrow powell says yes, we're cutting in june. has the market priced that in already? >> yes. >> is that going to be news to the market? >> not news. and you would not say that. but yes. >> he won't say it. it's a thought experiment. i think some of it is already priced in. i think it would, perhaps, free

some people to say you know what, now it's a better time to take a gamble on equities so yes, i think that the market -- when they say 47% say it's overpriced for a soft landing, i think that's about as optimistic as this group gets when it comes to equities. >> it's priced in. steve liesman. and a quick programming note we're going to have more coverage on the economic outlook this hour, nec director lael brainard will join us from the white house, her first take on inflation, plus an exclusive you do not want to miss, an interviewwith treasury secretary janet yellen tomorrow 10:30 eastern on "squawk on the street." still ahead, ford slashing production plans for its f-150 electric pick-up. plus a boots on the ground read when it comes to ev demand in this country and where it's going n a moment.

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. welcome back. i'm silvana henao with your cnbc news update. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is meeting behind closed doors today with all 100 senators. he's in d.c. to discuss an impact in washington over more aid to help kyiv in its war with russia. zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with president biden this afternoon. the biden administration announced it will impose a visa restrictions on nearly 300 guatemalan lawmakers, private sector leaders and their families. the white house accuses them of undermining democracy and the rule of law following attempts in guatemala to block president-elect from taking office in january. harvard university's president will remain in the role following nearly a week of outcry over testimony she and other elite university presidents gave at a

congressional hearing about anti-semitism on their campuses. demands for claudine gay to resume gained steam after the university of pennsylvania president stepped down but had harvard's board released a statement of support for gay saying she is still the right leader for harvard. guys, i'll send it back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. calls for genocide they say are despicable contrary to the fundamental mental human values and president gay has apologized for how she handled her testimony, but i think there will continue to be questions about the moral leadership of harvard. ford slashing its plans for a production of an f-150 lightening pick-up. phil lebeau here and what it's going to mean for the stock here. >> i think the stock is not reacting a lot. it's up fractionally. this is not a huge surprise, sara. you can only build to demand and the demand is not there for the f-150 lightning. the demand that ford thought. it's slashing its plan for 2024

production, cutting it at basically in half and that means they're going to about 80,000 at the current production rates next year. this year they have sold just over 20,000 f-150 lightnings. in terms of total ev sales in the u.s., this is still tesla's market. it dominates with 56% market share of all evs sold in the u.s. there you see gm at 6.4% and ford at number five with 5% market share. and remember, ford has said it's deferring about $12 billion in ev investments, money that was going to be spent next year and shortly after that, they're going to push that out a little bit further, not scrapping it altogether, but elongating their investments in evs and see this market develop a little bit more. what this means for gm and stellantis. why? is the electric pick-up market going to develop as they expect to? they both have electric pick-ups

coming to market in 2024, not in huge numbers, but it does raise this question, what does the consumer want? the bottom line is this when commit to the lightning, i talked to a lot of dealers, they say the same thing, people come in and want to look at the hybrids before they think of looking at the lightning. >> great setup and important story. our phil lebeau. we'll stick with evs, around 4,000 dealerships signed a letter to the president in november requesting to, quote, pump the brakes on the ev transition. our next guest represents one of them, arguing, quote, this mandate is too much too soon and every-day americans are not prepared or willing to adopt so quickly. let's bring in paul rochelle, they sell vehicles from virginia, maryland and washington, d.c. thanks for being with us. we talked about your letter when it was originally made public. any meaningful response from the administration? >> nothing as of yet directly, but i can tell you the reason we wrote that letter it's obvious,

as stated, comes down to consumer demand and the joys of the consumer. they're telling us by not buying these vehicles in great demand, exactly what they're ready for. one of the points i want to make is, when you talk about everyday affordability for an everyday american and you think of the school teachers, the nurses, the members of the military, can they afford a 60, 70, 80,000 vehicle and afford and put charging systems into their homes if they have a garage? these are just the real obstacles we're facing. and look, ford made their cuts. i understand that. again, it goes back to what phil said. the demand is not there. but the reality is, all of the manufacturers make fantastic products. ford makes a great product, toyota, lexus, nissan all make great products. that's not the issue. the issue is simply the american consumer and what we're hearing every day on the floors over showrooms they're not ready to

make that commitment or leap. the range anxiety is one huge factor our consumers are stressed with right now. living in the d.c.-baltimore market where we have the 495 beltway it's a good concern to have if you're not sure you're going to have the ability to charge your vehicle when you get your point of destination, work or somewhere else. the infrastructure is not there yet. >> would it be your preference or dealers' preference to put policy pushes behind hybrid or into classic vehicles? >> well, i'll tell you, the demand for hybrid, plug-in hybrids, those are viable options that still do exactly what we're all in agreement to do. we want to make vehicles that don't pollute and don't have high carbon output. that's been a goal of ours across the board at all manufacturers. there's no reason to not look at those and give those value when measuring what we're doing to be carbon neutral. we would ask two things.

one, give the plug-in hybrids consideration and give the american consumer the customer at the end of the day, the time and the ability to make these, again, these tough decisions when some, again, some people are looking to spend more on a vehicle than they make annually. that's not realistic. >> you know what was surprising to some was mary barra's comments out of gm even their long-term ts of full electrification of the fleet might be in question if the consumer doesn't follow. do you believe 10, 15 years out, we will not see widespread adoption of electric and might be something else? >> it could be something else. there are other options coming down the pike. what we've asked for in this letter is not we don't want ev. it's that, again, we've got to let the organic customer demand, the customers going to naturally migrate to other ways, not just enbegins, as they did with hybrid engine first came out,

there was a slow adoption rate but now we're seeing more people turn to those. it's a great alternative. it does, again, tremendous effects in taking carbon out of the environment. again, i would tell you all the dealers, consumers, every single client we talk to on a daily basis say the same thing. we need to slow it down. >> i believe there are provisions of the ira known in part as the climate bill, that, you know, have yet to take place, and may speed up some of this transition at least in a positive way. would you allow for that? is there a possibility in your mind that, you know, the execution on the charging front and infrastructure could speed up and change the consumer's viewpoint? >> well, again, most -- over 80% of i believe 80% of the charging is done at home, though, so when talking about a broad or certain thoroughfares and points you're going to have charging stations, let's look at the reality of today. pull up to an average charging

unit at a park and ride and there's numbers i've heard greater than 50, 60,% don't work. that's a concern. charging is mostly down at home and when you think of the power grid and how are people going to put in these systems at their home and have the support of charging ability based on pipe and the ability to put those units in at their home and the adequate power that's another big issue that we're not talking about, but a lot of consumers are realizing they're not ready for. >> a third of americans don't have a driveway, so you got to get around some of the multifamily living situations too. it's an important story. appreciate your help on it. thanks. >> thank you for allowing me to shed light on it. is esg falling out of favor? cantor fitzgerald's howard lutnick where he sees data going into the new year at 11:00 a.m. stay with us.

despite a push towards esg initiatives in recent years support for that investing strategy may be waning, particularly among younger investors. brandon gomez is here. he's got some of the details for us. >> that's right. listen, i wouldn't say the bubble is bursting just yet, but it's definitely deflating. younger investors gen-z and millennials have been leading on certain esg principles and that shifted. stanford alongside the institute push publishing a new report, surveyed 1,000, and found those 41 or older, that that younger demographic are not prioritizing esg as much as last year. only 49% saying they are, quote, very concerned about environmental issues. that is still half the group, but over 20% lower than last

year's results. young and middle-aged investors less willing to say they want fund managers to use their size and voting power to influence esg practices of a company dropping to 61 and 50% theater compared to last year's results which you see. those young investors are still claiming they're willing too lose 1 to 5% of their retirement savings to support esg causes. that's a sizable percentage, but again, down significantly from last year when they were willing to lose upwards of 6 to 10% rather. older investors, 58 and older, don't want to lose anything, but blame it on inflation, rates, but the once fiery generation behind the push for esg seems to be entering a cautious period. >> i was going to ask you why we think that is? you know, it's been very politicized the esg push. i wonder if that has something to do with it? >> i think perhaps. also an alignment of the process that you don't necessarily have to be esg to see gains. these are combined issues.

look at companies like nike, right, sort of baked into the dna of those types of companies. maybe they don't want to see the loss, but also don't necessarily see it as an esg issue specifically. >> yeah. i think a lot of them have them baked in but don't call it esg anymore. it's like a dirty word. brandon gomez. after the break, director lael brainard with the white house's first reaction to this morning's inflation numbers. we're back after a quick break and we're rising on stocks, dow up 92, s&p has gone positive. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." inflation rose fractionally in november according to the consumer price index slowing to a 3.1% annual rate. this data ahead of a key fed meeting tomorrow. here with washington's first reaction, national economic council director lael brainard. director brainard, good to see you. >> good to be here.

>> what's your reaction? not necessarily a good thing to see a slight pick-up of inflation, but we did see that in the month over month numbers? >> i think the trend on inflation is very reassuring. it's pal what we would wish to see. inflation two-thirds. it's clearly trending down from here. and it's -- inflation has come down at a time when unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years against a back drop of really solid growth. so, that overall picture, i think, is very reassuring. >> it's reassuring to see it come down from multiyear highs andthe painful levels where we were, say, last year, but there's this school of thought worried about the last mile. how we get from 4% on core inflation to 2% where the fed wants it to be, and just how stubborn prices are at these levels. do you worry about that?

>> i'm not worried about that. i feel like the underlying trend lies in inflation are good. we've seen grocery prices come down. we've seen prices at the pump come down. we've seen some of the core areas moving back down to pre-pandemic levels. and generally, that's taken place against the back drop of a labor market that's come into much better balance with a lot of entrants, very high participation rates among working age americans. that's a picture of solid growth with a balanced labor market and inflation continuing to come down. >> but we are seeing rising wages and evidence of a tight labor market, as you say. so, is that a concern when it comes to fighting inflation? we know the fed has been worried

about the wage price spiral at this time after so many rate hikes to see such strength in the labor market. obviously, it's a good thing for americans, but is it a good thing when it comes to the inflation play? >> actually, i think the picture is very encouraging. vacancies have come down to much normal levels, the puts rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and more americans are coming into the labor force. remember that talk about the great resignation. it turned out, in fact, it was the great rebound with 2.8 million people joining the labor force just in the last year. so, wages have been moving, real wages. that's good for american workers. that's because you see productivity very strong over the course of the last year, nearly 2.5% productivity growth over the last year.

those are all consistent with inflation coming down. don't forget, supply chain pressures are all the way back down and inflation has followed that very closely. >> what about shelter, remains stubbornly high. i know it's lagging but it's such a big chunk of the overall number and has been elevated. what do you think is happening there with housing? >> yeah, so, i think housing costs are still unaffordable for so many americans. rent is still too high. it is coming down, as you said, but is still very unaffordable for many americans. and for first-time home buyers, it is still a very challenging picture. so, we're working hard on that. we have some proposals we'd like to see enacted with -- that would increase the supply of affordable homes for both renters as well as down payment assistance for first-time home buyers.

that is an area the president is very focused on. >> so, i know you were recently on the fed as vice chair. you probably don't want to comment too much on the fed, but there is a question about whether the fed can transition next year into cutting interest rates. do you think that would be helpful for the economy? >> so, as an administration, we respect the independence of the federal reserve, so would not comment on their policies. of course, i think the markets are seeing a benign picture with inflation coming down, continued solid growth, a labor market that's in better balance and some market rates, i think, reflect a picture of balance next year. >> i was just going to ask what your outlook is for growth in 2024. the market is feeling good about this soft landing, which the fed has managed to achieve so far. but there are risks the

momentum -- we could lose the momentum into '24. what do you think happens into growth? >> most forecasters have taken back recession calls as you've seen this picture of continuing solid growth with moderating inflation. and so there is every reason to believe that we could continue to see that through the next year. again, we've seen more balance in the labor market. we've seen very healthy business investment and awe rye esilient consumer, partly because balance sheets are stronger than they were even prior to the pandemic. >> what about on treasury supply. there's been some hand-wringing lately on some of these auctions. we're going to get a big 30-year later today. we're just wondering with the level of debt so high in this country, the deficit so high, and the need to issue much more debt next year, whether there's going to be enough demand. is that a valid concern? >> look, i think the president would like to see the fiscal

picture put on a sustainable basis on a bipartisan basis. he has $2.4 trillion worth of deficit reduction in his budget of last year. he negotiated a deal on a bipartisan basis with bipartisan majorities in both the senate and the house to reduce spending by an additional $1 trillion. and i think he'd like partners to work with on that it is very important to make sure that the nation has a strong and healthy fiscal future. >> lael brainard, appreciate the time today. thank you for the reaction to the cpi report. >> thank you. and the white house feels good about these numbers. they should. continues to point to a soft landing. the question is why the polls don't give the biden administration as much credit on the economy.

even with 3.7% unemployment rate and inflation that's come down. >> that continues to be a real issue going into what's obviously going to be an election year very soon. and the fact that, as you say -- i guess inflation just fights hard and we keep getting reminded of it. >> until rate hikes. >> yeah. we've got a lot more market coverage straight ahead from carl and sara. don't go anywhere. (adventurous music) ♪ ♪

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good tuesday morning. welcome to "money movers." i'm carl quintanilla with sara eisen. vincent reinhart on why investors will be disappointed with the messaging from the fmoc. with nearly $400 billion in assets under management, mike arougheti. and cantor's howard lutnick. and right now in the