it is 5:00 a.m. here at cnbc global headquarters and here is your "five@5." we start with the stocks running the year in a hot streak with the dow capping off a fifth straight record close. why jim cramer says now may be the time to take some profits. also failing to deliver, fedex is sinking after the open after missing the mark for earnings and for outlook. and then around the world, the red sea shipping risk showing know signs of easing as a the u.s. and its allies weigh a new offensive strategy to bring order back to that region. plus alibaba's chief takes

matters into its own hands. and later disney cuts the ribbon on the new effort addition in shanghai, but will it be enough to jolt frustrated investors? it's wednesday, december 20th, 2023. you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. ♪ good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm frank holland. let's get you ready to start the day. as always we kick off the hour with a check of u.s. stock futures and take a look here. it's different than what we've seen in recent days. hardt hit. nasdaq the oss the dow sterday coming off its fifth record close of the year. you see e uptrd right there. a trip to cnbc guru robert hunt, entifyg the biggt ue chiwinners over the last

ni trang sessions. number one, waart followed very closelyy caterpillar and chipmaker intel. the s&p for its part now, just highkrjtly sitting at its me highest level since 2022. look at the yield onhe benchmk 10-year, a couplof sis points tn we s yesterday. energy, specifically oil. wetart wh wti, the u.s. bencark tring at 74.83, the barrel up over 1%. brent crude, a similar story but this morni it's all about a biearnings mov. it's all about fedex, shares selling off in the premarket. fedex now pects a low sile-digit sales decline for the fiscal year, down from its previo forecast of flat sales year over year. this is thsecondtraight quarter fedex has lowered it its express unit which gets lf

the venue ts hitspecially hard, shifng preferences and margins falling well below expectations. thattory a the stock uch more on throughout the hour. t now we're going to get bac to the broader markets. the investors are eaking out early. cuttg rates next year and an economy that just keeps chucking along. we mentioned, the dow record close.fifth straight the last time they had a record peri iaugustf 2021.e-d the s&p a shorways afrom itrecord lyear. ile you might want to ride this santa rally in fomo trade for as long as you can, jim cramer says now might be a time to take few profits. take off something, take it off the ble a little bit. as for me, though, i'm not willing to watch my winners turn into losers, and you don't nee to go all the way backes to see

what happens wheyou don't sell. the same darn thing happenedt the end of 2021, for heaven's sake. >> that's jim cramer. let's get some reaction with the founder and ceo of 213 str great to have you here. >> great to be bac >> i want to look at the money movers. fedex stock had moved 60% higher is. that the stock people should consider? >> for sure. we're more encouraging clients to raise the cash if there's a liquidity need in 2024. we're encouraging clients after january 2nd, if you have an outlook for tuition, down payment for a home, major tax payment, do it after january 2nd when market ts are high and

rebalance the portfolio. yes, i think most clients have been rated give p the run-up in the last six or eight weeks. rebalance to the areas that have been out of favor. >> i want to ask you about this. we're getting more dovish talks. yesterday we had goldman on projecting 5.4% rate cuts next year. at the same time you're telling their clients to take their money ouof the market. that just seems counterintuitive. >> no, not take money out of the market but thoughtfully rebalance the portfolio. it may be ahead of itself given the run and the record-highs we've mentioned. what we're suggesting is to go back and look at what areas have been out of favor. the market is that the fed likely is going to be able to hire for longer. if you look at what the fed officials have been saying, you look at the rate hikes. so our view would be we expect a more choppy volatile market next

year. for sure no major meltdowns, but i think we're in a sideway market that's looking for a catalyst for the next leg of growth. >> you're looking at it as you don't want to take money out of the markets. when you do that, what do you do with the cash? >> i think there are some areas investors should be looking at. much has been spoken of this network and others about equal weight and we think that makes sense, but the's also areas where we're loing opportunistically. biotech and health care. the m & a environmental was so chill. we think it's attracti active. large phma has huge patent cliffs and the population is going to triple in the next five years, so we think there's real health care.e sciences and international markets right now, frank.

we think that given the wars overseas, they've ground it higher. if the fed does, in fact, hold or cut, we think that bodes well for the dollar weakening, which should help with equities over >> review and rebalance but proceed with caution. greg, great to see you. time n for a che of some this mornins tocorpore our lvana nao is here with those. >> good morng to you. nedeveloents in alibabs akeup. the company anuncing the ceo is ting ers head of its commer business replac the co-fnder whoill assi firm.eatan assanagemt alibabs stock is down arply inecent wes. they he en in massiv

restructuring nce march which cludes divting the business into six standalone units. bheenwhile the irsill waivpenalty fees for thoho pa bacless than $100,000 from020. they will be eligiblfor the waiver totaling arou $1 billion, they' citinits suspenon of auto remders duri the pdemic as a rso fothe iver though addinghe pocy is met as a one-time relief and the white house puttinits suort bend tea. rmerlynown athe society e aumotive enginrs, they alw any vecle eipment maketo u, mafactur or

deploy the connector, this as e biden administration pushes the standardized chaing plugs for all the vehicles in the u.s. in an effort to boost tesla sales and combat climate change. >> thank you very much. a lomoreo come on "worldwide exchange" iluding one word investors have to know today. first, theed sea shipping continuing to be an issue. we lay o the cost impact to shpers aventuay consumers. plus, we're eping an eye fedex and why banof america iseeping an eye on the sto as it's seing off. later we take a look at disney's brand-new utopia land. to welcome us, our own eunice yoon. are you having a greatime out there? >> reporter: i'm not the only one. there are a whole host of visitors welcoming us to this huge attraction. more in just a moment.

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> welcome back to "worldwide exchange." board.ures down across the the nasdaq down more than quarter of a pcent. our joumanna bercetches live in our london newsom with much more on the early action. >> good morning, frank. well, it's a bit of an underwhelming start to the european indices echltost are trading under water. the ftse 100 he in the uk up 0.7%.

the catalyst being aery surprising downsidtrend to those inflation numbers, coming at 3.9% to the headline versus expectations of 4.4%. core cpi coming in at 5.1% veus 5.6% expectations this has fueled further rate cuts. the market is now pricing at 120 basis points worth of cuts out of the bank of england next year, d this has been a positive. on the flip side we've got the xe xetra dax. slightly below the forecast of minus 0.3%. we'rseeing the performan om here. th is how leadership is split, the topside telco up. they're planning to increase their ste in the company.

we've got tech down 0.4% and basic resources also struggling this morning, frank. >> joumanna, thank you very much. joumanna joumanna bercetche live in our london newsroom. a threat facing shipping in the red sea, a key channel for 12% of the global trade. the u.s. and its allies are reportedly considering a strategy shift from defense to offense. that would include military strikes against houthi rebels. looking to avoid the area.er ar joining us with more is crai fuller, a leading provider of global supply chain intelligence. greg craig, great to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> so far $35 billion in cargo diverted. give us a sense, a perspective

on a global sense and u.s. sense. how big of a deal is it? >> it's a much bigger deal if you're in europe. globally this is a significant development. and i think what is most concerning is that, you know, commercial shipping has largely been a very safe mode of traffic. it's been a very good mode of traffic. now we're in a whole new generation of geopolitical conflict where they're looking at the fronting lines. and if it continues to exacerbate, it will create significant disruptions. i think what it also does is changes the way supply chain professionals think about sourcing products from places like china, kind ya, malaysia, et cetera. so it potentially will have long-term impacts and is significantly over the long term how they think about their supply chains than just short

term. >> third major disruption than in the last couple of years. we had the u.s./china trade war, the pandemic, and now this. the ceo of maersk. when do you see the u.s. impacted? >> it will be lesser in the united states simply because we're not as dependent on the trade channels as europe. we have -- the majority of our trade flows are from china to the united states, really to the west coast. so from the perspective of being impacted, it will have an impact, but not as significant as europe. i think even more concerning is that this will change the way supply chain professionals think about sourcing long term, and they will consider moving production back to north america simply because it doesn't have the geopolitical issues that you

face. >> near shoring the off trend. we're showing e audience shares of maersk up. give us a sense for invests. are there certain companies you see benefiting from thiswhat you call a long-rm supply china and short term how should investors look at all of this? >> global shipping container companies are looking for a catalyst. maybe an unfortunate catalyst. they've been facing for the last 18 months significant pricing pressure because of ver pacitynd over supply of contner ships on the market and cong on the market. they'vbeen looking for pricg.s drive higr it aunfortate catalystut it's onehey will benefitro beuse nothey're able to have reduction in available capacity. ink abt the ount of time it tes to go arod sout

throh. compad to gng rht so it's a fferent trade calculation. it takes a lot of available pacity off the market. >> makes the trip longer, more expensive. before i letou go, i want to get your take on the fedex results. is that a read on the global economy or sply a fedex problem? >> ihink fedex is a barometer of global activity, particularly when you look at consumer e-commerce, which is where fedex demonstrates what is happening on a global basis. but we're seeing a very challenging freight market overall. fedex is not exclusive to that. companies generally are -- in a vid cycle, there's been too much capacity outhere. you know, on a global basis, the log logistics market in terms of goods, consumption has been a challenge. >> shares down 9.5%.

craig fuer, great to see you. thank you for your time and your insight. coming up on "worldwide exchange," a lajd marc state supreme ruling against former president donald trump as his white house hopes -- and his white hoe hopes for 2024. choronhasty mi g up. before you use ai to transform business, accelerate growth, predict trends, you need to begiwith trust. introducing watsonx governance. helping you govern any ai, as data, models, d policies change, so you can scale it responsibly. let's create ai that begins with trust, with watsonx governance. ibm. let's create.

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. welcome back. today disney is doing something about it. our eunice yoon joins us. come on, eunice, did you get us any t-shirts? are you having a good time? give us a sense of what's going on there. >> reporter: i might not have bought you any t-shirts, but i might have bought others t-shirtss such as myself. people have been going crazy in y zootopia. disney said it's the highest grossing animated feature for china. this is the only zootopia land in the world. it's a china-specific

attraction. when talking to people here, is part of the draw.ng us that it really is the appeal. this is the second expansion for the park. just to high light how important it is to the company, the top brass has come out here, ceo bob i gore was at thgrand ceremony and also the parks chief josh damaro. he said this park is on track to close in on a record. 13 million visitors have come here so far for this year. he said as part of the company's parks, disney plans to open a third hotehere. now, i also asked him about the geopolitical situation because what we're seeing is disney is sort of bucking the trend of the souring environment among american business. so i asked him about this u.s./china tsion and opening up on the park in th kind of environment. and he said the company is just

focused on the business. i have to say just talking to a lot of the people here, you know, they love the details. a lot of the visitors have said they're spending as much as $430 ju today. a lot of that on just more than t-shirts. i think it really says something about the geopolitics and that despite the fact that we have ese strained relations between the u.s. and china, that a lot of average chinese do like american companies and what they have to offer. well, speaking of american companies, a question right now. does the opening of the zootopia in shanghai, does it move the needle when it comes to investors? what does it mean for the stock? >> reporter: i thought what was teresting is the consumer trends. what we're seeing with the park is it's representative of the

overching consumer trends, despite the fact that consumption is lower. we've been seeing downgrades. this park is benefiting because people still want experiences. there's a lot of extra travel that we're seeing cause of the constraints on travel before because of the pandemic. also some of this is lifestyle. people are going out there not only to theme parks but also taking more city walks, going to domestic tourist spots, and disney is benefitting in that respect. >> absolutely. no. eunice, i wouldn't mind benefiting. i can email you my sizes, some things i'm looking at. i know you got some t-shirts. you know what? silence is golden on this. >>. >> reporter: there are some limits on some of the merch and i might have gone a little crazy. >> nothing wrong with that. i hope you have a grit time and you get to enjoy it a little bit. time now for a che on this

morning's otheheadlines outside of the world of bitz. nbc's jessica layton has more this morning. >> reporter: we begin with the bombshell decision of the colorado supreme court. the panel has ruled donald trump is disqualified from holding office again. they cite the 14th amendment finding that he engaged in the attack on the capitol. they have announce they'd will appeal the decision to the u.s. supreme court. the senate confirms the last of its appointments. senator tuberville had been blocking votes on the nomination since february in protest of the pentagon's policies on abortion for servicemembers. tuberville faced bipartisan backlash for his actions and dropped his hold on more than 400 military nominees earlier this month. and aaron rodgers is playing it safe for the rest of the nfl season.

on espn tuesday, the quarterback said despite the quickly coverry, he likely won't take the field for the last three games of the season. he cited his own heblt for the decision as well as the jets getting eliminated from playoff contention this past weekend, which we know, frank, is not a problem for your beloved eagles. they're doing very well. >> you're doing a lot of sports lately. i guess it just runs in e family. coming up on "worldwide exchange," a new study looks at accident rates by cabrand. we'll tell you where your car ranks. much more coming up. stay with us. meet gold bond daily healing. a powerhouse lotion that moisturizes, heals, and smooths dry skin. with 7 moisturizers & 3 vitamins. and... new gd bond healing sensitive. clinically shown to heal & moisturize

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it restores a lot of faith in humanity. it is right around 5:30 in the new york city area. there's a lot more on "worldwide exchange." he's what's on deck. the dow capping off its fifth straight record close, why the santa rally is just heating up for the new year. also, failing to deliver. shares of fedex, they're sinking ahead of the open after missing the mark in a very big way for earnings and for outlook what that could mean for the broader u.s. economy. and sticking with transports as today's 2024 playbook lays ouits ideas for the sector in it's wedsday, cember0th, 2023. you're watching "worldwide ♪xchange" right here on cnbc.

and welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm frank holland. let's get you ready to start your day. as always we pick up the half hour with u.s. stock futures. quite a different scene than we've been seeing in recent days. the nasdaq hit the hardest, and looks like it would open 28 to almost 30 points lower at least as of right now. keep in mind the dow is coming off its fifth record close of the year. you see the december rally. big moves to the upside. ahead, robert hunt, crunching the numbers and identifying the biggest chip numbers. number one on the list, wall street's boots alliance as the win kick kicked off. turning to the s&p, for its part now just about 1% from its own all-time high, currently sitting at its highest level since january of 2022. you see the big sharp upside

moves from the beginning of december. and, of course, we've got to take a look at bond yields. we take a look at the benchmark 10-year, ticking up one basis point from a half hour ago. remember, this is about 30 basis points lower than it was a week ago. similar moves for the 2-year as well. now let's get a check of some of this morning's top korpts stories. our silvana henao is here with those. >> good morning. southwest airlinestrikes a tentative contract deal with its pilots after more than three years of talks. it is the last of the four major airlines to reach an agreement with the pilots union. terms haven't been disclosed but pilots at american, united, and delta have won raises of about 40%. the ard says they'll review the dealefore presenting it to its 11,000 members. it comes weeks after flight attendants rejected a tentative contact following five years of

talks. and bird has filed for a chapter 11 bankruptcy. the company was founded by a former uber executive in 2017 and it went public in 2021 through a spac merger and was once valued at $2.5 million, but shares lost most of its value after going public. tesla drives are the most accident-prone. that's a study according t lending tree. they're involved in more accidents than drivers of any other major brand, about 23 per 1,000 drivers. for a crash, but it comes as ons tesla is recalling more than 2 million calls over a safety issue related to its autopilot software. frank, want to know what the most was?

that would be bmw drivers. >> that's interesting stat. we have a lot of tesla drivers here at cnbc. a lot of them like to drive fast. i don't know who it is. e neither. >> silvana, thank you very much. turning our atntion back to this morning's big money mover, that is fedex. the company lowered its revenue forecast calling for a low single-digit decline. it's the second straight quarter fedex lowered its outlook. customers shift to cheaper services. still the ceo remaining optimistic tick in his outlook for fedex's business transformation including better opating income thanks to ongoing cost-cutting efforts. let's discuss this further with ken huckster. ken, you're here in the house, great to have you here. >> thanks, frank. >> last time i checked it was

down 9.4 did it change your rating or price taet for the company or what was your overall tick? >> we lowered i it. it mostly relates to the outcome of earnings. what happened is as you mentioned theyowered their revenue outlook and i think that's really key. a lot less volume is flowing through the system. >> you seem to be buish on the stock. big rally on the stock. what's the catalyst to keep that rally going? >> i think that's key. the really is due to the drive. that's the key. without that, you see what's going ont u.p.s. is this huge impact of le volume and the negative leverage u get from that. they had a billion in profits last year. they would have lost $1.8 billion on the impacts p

post-covid and less volume. so you're getting out a billion of profits this year flat with last year, but you would have had a lot more going in. ith the cost cuttings >> missed margin estimates by a lot. but lowering theevenue guidance, that was interesting. a lot of pple thought they were going to beat on it. were you a bit surprised especially wn a lot of people thinthey gained business during u.p.s. and the closure of yellow? >> well, the yellow is definitely true on the freight side. we can see that on the express side and ground. really the ground is where they kept the ground volume from u.p.s. the margins were great. but really the key is express as you were talking about. the negative lever rang of having lower volumes, flying your planes and keeping the network running, that's the network flowing through. that's been the big overhang. really coming into the mid point of their range versus beating

expectatio that they were expecting. >> so fedex shes under pressure. i want to broaden it out just a bit. stick with us. we're going to look at the transport ock playbook. deutsche bank is projecting 11% for a number of transpor companies including u.p.s., ch robinson, and most of e other carriers. this follows a contraction in 2023. a year marked by freight recession d historic yellow. others operate in thsame truck space see some big stock moves in part due to customer gains. we'rjust talking about it. a big question for 2024, will the supply chain finally normalize and what will that mean for truckand rates? a close look at demand, the rates rebound across the board with food and beverage higher. this year overall traffic is

down 3%. container ships on rails is down 6%, but ti's forecasting an upside in double-digit gwth. we were talking shipping earlier. what's your view on some of the takes from colleagues? >> there's no doubt union pacific and what the new ceo is doing there in terms of revamping and cost-cutting, you look at it yo e syncretic opportunities. last time we chatted we talked about this freight recession. our survey tells us we're still at a very muted demand environmental even with the activity we've seen lately. without breaking out yet, we're still looking for that cost cutting. so union pacific is kind of the focus we've been highlighting. really active on the rails side. when you think about them starting to get growth, if we start to see that inflection, we've highlighted truckers like

knight and j.b. hunt, seeing they're the first movers of that. when we move in, we highlighted companies like xp o'and old dominion where you still get this lag benefit. that's going to flow through. you see the rails, very good activity. >> you agree. that's going to see the biggest upside in 2024, the rails. >> well, again, that one is -- you're talking about union pacific specifically because of what jim is doing on the cost-cutting. so you don't need the growth. if you get the growth, you talk out all the other leverage. you need the volume to flow through. >> you mentioned the container shipping. that's generally how consumer goods get into the u.s. when they come from asia or even now coming from mexico. when we look at that, isn't that heavily leveraged to consumer demand and consumer spending? what's your outlook? i guess it's a proxy. what's your outlook on the container ship? >> like i said, there's been a

lot of congestion we've had to deal with back in to 22021 and 2022. you're seeing that sfts greatly improve, so you're seeing an improve management there. international intermoto is still slow. we're starting to see that flow back from asia. as you mentioned what's going on with shipping lanes, will there be longer shipping. you might see the west coast picking up up some of the intermoto, and that's good for long hauling. >> trucking rates is about 75% of the u.s. supply chains. yes or no, are we out of the freight recession or no? we're elongating i. we're stilin this muted period. that's what yosee with fedex results and that's why revenue and volumes were down. >> great to have you here. thank you very much. we're going to turn our attention over to tech with the

sector trading in record territory thank thanks to the rally and the magnificent seven stocks which are about one third of the entire market cap. but with the business word of 2023 and likely 2024 with a massive investment cost paying off for investors. our own steve kovach joins us with more. steve. >> we surveyed members of the cnbc tech executive council on on their spending plans on i.t. and more on ai. this comes from council members made up of ceos, cios,nd techs. they're looking to spend on artificial intelligence. more than half of them, 59%, say their companies are accelerating investments in iowa capabilities. everyone else, they're still evaluating their iowa spending but being more cautious about it. butting about, look, no one, zero percent, is ignoring ai

august together. 41% say they plan to spend the most capital in the next 12 months. over 9% would spend on cybersecurity. i find it interesting. in light of the slew of hacking reports we've been getting and more to come with the new s.e.c. rules, where does that spending go? we asked these members about enterprise level ai. those are the chatbots being sold by companies like microsoft and salesforce. more than half of them, 55%, say they plan to purchase enterprise ai software and soon within the next six months. that's really good news for microsoft and its pricey co-pilot for office apps, and soon others like kboogle workspace could benefit as well, frank. >> you know, steve, i was a little surprised by the last number, that 55% plan to buy ai software. i thought every company was moving toward ai to improve efficiency and smooth their operations.

>> i've been talking a lot to decision-makers over the last several months, ctos and the like who would be buying the software from microsoft, and one of the concerns they bring up is they kind of want to see how it works in the real world first before making that big investment. keep in mind, it's expensive. it's $30 per seat per month. it's a huge investment. microsoft hasn't made promises that it will boost productivity. they're concerning about data security although microsoft says it's stuck and encrypted in the container and you can't shareny dae ta you would normally share. but a little cause with this new technology. there are a lot of factors at play, but the fact that so many are planning to spend within the next six months, that's all microsoft. there's not too many other competitives out there, and microsoft has such a stronghold in it. >> our steve kovach, thank you very much.

coming up on "worldwide exchange," after the 2020 election disinformation was fought on google, to4 will b fought in ai. there's a fit time eve nasa streami video from roughl80 timeshe distance from t ear to the moon firstime on video. an employee's cat named taters. a new bi could force chick-l-a chain toopen on suays along drives. they were always clod on sund for rest from work. and the netesla ber truck is a masterpiece. it's unusually successful for those o want to stand out. stay with us.

much mor"worldwide exchange" coming up after this.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we begin with steeple and several improvement names like lowe's. same-store sales will be flat. st stifel says appliances will be

challenging. shares of lowe's down 1.5%. and wells names krwd as a top pick. the shares up, basically flat. wells is also upgrading paramount global raising its price target to $18. it believes the probability of an m & a event will bring in new ways to bring up value. time now for your global briefing. alibaba ceo eddie wu shifting company leadership once again, taking over the e-commerce business as it loses market share. wu will replace trudy day after pushes out daniel zing from alibaba's crowd unit last november. uk inflation drops.

trans pore taugs, recreation, and culture as well as food and nonalcoholic beverages contributing to the decline as they say policies likely need to be restrictive for an extended period of time. and stange high zootopia opening as it looks to capitalize on the post pandemic surge, zootopia, a movie released in china in 2016 remains one of the highest grossing movie. it's an eight-themed area at the shanghai resort. eunice yoon hopefully buying the whole team some t-shirts. we'll see. ahead, one word investors need to no. forget 12 days of christmas. how about 12 reasons for stocks to rally in 204. ed yardeni will be here. if you haven't, check us out on

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time now for a wrap-up. et univeal is considering a theme park in the uk to compete with disney world. it's in the early stes of testing the logistics of a tme park and resort at that site. crispr's kmo is stepping down. he was appointed last may after serving as vp at amgen. alphabet says it will restrict the type of eleion questions. the restrictions will be alphabet focuses on the role a.

plays. the irs is waiving $1 billion in fees for backes taxes from 2020 and 2021. businesses who will be eligible next week, totals $1 billion in exempt fees. and tesla skips stock awards. the workers wither still given cost of-of-living increases and one of our big money movier ts morning, shares of fedex under pressure after the company missed second quarter earnings estimates and lowered its revenue forecast as lower demand and surcharges weigh on their business. shares of fedex down about 10% right now. optimism on wall street showing no signs of owing wn as they cheeon a potential for a santa claus rally. it's not just this year. next year could be poised for even more gains. strategists calling for the s&p 500 to break above 5,000 and

beyond. that including our next guest who currently has the highest target on the street. joining me now, ed yardeni, founder of yardeni research. ed, good morning. it's really great to have you here. >> thank you. >> let's jump into it. your target for next year, the most bullish on the street, what are you seeing that others may not be seeing? what's the catalyst for this big rise? >> i've been seeing a resilient economy since really early last year. early last year i agreed with the concerns that we might be in a recession, but i said it was a rolling recession hitting different indices at different times. i think that's played out well over the past couple of years. i'm seeing rolling recoveries as we go into next year. housing certainly looks like it's bottomed. we had a very strong number for housing starts yesterday. i think retailing is bottoming. i think the commercial real estate recession is still ahead of us, but it's going to stale

contained particular play in old office buildings. the key has been remarkably resilient and a lot of people say they're going to run out of excess savings during the pandemic. that's still plenty of job openings and rates are rising faster than prices. those are some of the things i'm seeing. >> so we've covered -- you're very bullish on 2024, but give us a sense as we see futures under a bit of pressure, partly due to fedex's result and the view of the global economy. what is your w.e.x. word of the day? >> well, merry. we've got a merry christmas ahead of us. i think the santa claus rally actually startedn october 27th. that's when we bottomed from the correction we had since july 31st. so i'm feeling pretty merry about the markets and the markets are certainly showing same attitude. are adopting the

>> right. so you see a santa claus rally coming. what leads this issanta clause rally that you're expecting to start next week? >> well, again, i think it's i think it's ahead of schedule, and i think the market anticipated that fed chair powell would be santa and not the grinch. and so f that's played out. but i think the leadership will continue to be in technology. but i think the market's really broadening out to financls, industrials would be the areas that i would be looking at. >> nasdaq under pressure in the premarket. hardest hit undo, about a quarter of a percent. your pick, one of them, qqqs. give us a sense. why are you still buish on this trade? >> well, it is a crowded trade, i'll grant you that. everybody has been buying technology stocks, but they've be buying basically eight stocks, and i think the chnology trade's going to broaden.

>> there we go. ed, we've got toeave you there. thank you for cong on the you. ow. we'rgoing to have to -- thank you. we're going to kick things off over to "squawk box." thank you for watching. tradinp makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley. my mom's life is the most important thing to me. hi mom! i called my mom, "i have this gene and i think you need to get tested." she feels like it was truly lifesaving. i'm a little anxious, i'm a little excited. and i think you need to get tested." i'm gonna be emotional, she's gonna be emotional, but it's gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness. oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets.

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great frank holland. two days in a row. good morning. fedex shares falling after the shipping giant cut its revenue outlook for the second straight quarter. rite aid pharmacy has been banned from using facial regnitiofor five years after thftc said it used it to surveil its customers without telling them. doing at drugstores?at you're why would anyone want to know that? and a supreme court decision in colorado shaking up the 2024 presidential race. the court ordered former president trump to be banned from the primary ballot, and that couldead to the general election theoretically.

reaction straight ahead. it's wednesday, december 20th, 2023, and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everybody, and welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm live from the nasdaq stockmarket in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin who are in parts all overer the place. guys, it is good to have everybody back together. >> kind of back. i mean it's good, but it's kind of back. >> at least we're here on screen. we're all on screen. >> spanning the globe. >> we are. >> not all of it. >> tri-state area. >> anyway, it's good to be here and have everybody on screen together. we're watching the u.s. equities futures this morning. after another day of gains for the market, and the do