umstances, after katrina, it was reprehensible, what nagin did. the city needed someone to be a true leader and he let everybody down. ♪♪ -- captions by vitac -- it's 5:00 a.m. at your cnbc headquarters and here are your "fi "five@5." in the red sea. companies look to get their ships back in the region as the u.s. and its allies work to secure the economic linchpin in the face of constant drone and missile attacks. then sam altman and legendary apple designer johnny ive add a new name to their all-star roster looking to build

the iphone of ai. and the go big or go home southeast and a new name to sink your teeth into. and whiskey drinkers, the imports look to be staying steady at least for now. it's wednesday, december 27 ts, 2 2023. you are watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc ooepz. good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange." as always we kick off this hour with a check of the u.s. stock futures with the s&p, nasdaq, and russell, all of them riding tree session wind streaks. the dow would open up 20 points higher. the s&p and nasdaq both fractionally higher at this hour. this fraction here after another positive session for yesterday.

it closed 1% from all time record-highs. we're keeping a close eye on the nasdaq 100. take a look. it's tracking for its best year since 1999. there's a prince george's joke in there. i'm not going to do it. we're checking the bond market. the 2-year note at 4, just over $ 4.25. the white house authorized a purchase of 3 million barrels for its strategic petroleum reserve. the s&p now less than 22 points away from its record close of 4796. that was set back on january 3rd of last year. it's been the biggest trading

doubt since the beginning of 2007 to the end of march, 2013. let's talk about the latest bull run and the markets and what my lie ahead with ben emmett. ben, it is great to see you. happy holidays. >> good morning, frank. great to see you too. happy holidays. >> right now we're in the middle of what people believe will be a santa claus rally. but you're looking at someone else we're seeing. liquidity. you're saying this year is actually breaking the norm. >> it is, frank. it's interesting to see from china. the dollar is weaker and it spills over into the commodities but also the stockmarket. so the year-end liquidity gets a bit tight because people are

away. i think it's china fueling the liquidity and that's again helping the santa claus rally. >> ben, you're not the only person looking at the dollar down. couldn't that be a positive to see a weaker dollar? why are you seeing that as a possible negative when it comes to the markets? >> there are a few things going on. it's a good thing for emerging markets to have a weaker dollar. a weaker dollar is easing. we have to watch how far this is going to go. for now it seems the emerging markets are an uplift as are commodities. that's what you would expect. you can see some of that going on in the first quarter, but the dollar is something to think of next year when we get into a

different environmental. i'm not sure if it's a positive. >> since the fed's pause, it's really performing, 5.5%. why do you say that's important for investors, spefgly bond investors? >> what's going on is there's been an uptick. i think it's underlying that the supply epidemic starts to catch up with the energy markets that finally they recognize supplies decl declining, so we haven't had much of a price inflation in the yield of the bonds. there's nothing left if there in terms of yields. if energy prices go up further, i do think long-term rates would

start to reflects that. it's a notable change, but it's about a change in the environmental. the economy continues to show some resiliency. yields start to rise up again. >> you say if the economy continues. i think that's been questioned over and over again. ben emons, thank you very much. time for some of our top corporate stories and here with it is silvana henao. >> good morning, frank. tesla is planning to launch an updated version of its popular plant in shanghai. it will feature significant interior and exterior changes and should reach mass production as soon as mid-2024. it will pause production for about a week and that will be in preparation for the changes. the plajt will need another

upgrade later this year before peek production begins. meanwhile the sponsor of the grayscale bitcoin trust etf says its chairman mark murphy will step down on january 1st. it comes as they await a possible green light to approve the first spot bitcoin etfs including one backed by grayscale. and shares of apple coming off their firth straight losing session. right now down slightly in the premarket, and this after the company said it's appealing the decision to ban imports of its ultra-2 and series 9 smart watches, stopping their sale in the u.s. now, according to "the wall street journal", apple is asking the kortz to allow it to begin selling the watches again while the appeal is being considered. if not, apple will suffer,

quote, irreparable harm, frank. >> a small peiece of revenue. it's a holiday item. aren't you an apple watcher? >> i sure am. >> silvana, we'll see you later in the show. turning our attention to the middle east and the ongoing tensions in that region following similar moves by maersk. it's increasing the number of ships bound for the red sea through the suez canal. they step up their military campaign in that region including an exchange yesterday that saw a u.s. navy destroyer and f-18 fighter group shoot down 17 drones and missiles launched by iranian-backed rebels. the houthi rebels attacked another shipping container. no injuries were reported.

msc says it will avoid using the red sea to avoid the attack and take the longer costly route ar around africa's cape. first, go big or go home series and an idea set to shine in the year ahead. plus spacex, shiyan, openai, and the madness breaking out across the open sector and a e ok at raeeal estate and a nam set for a breakout year ahead. we have a busy hour ahead when "worldwide exchange" returns. stay with us.

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all right. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we asked some senates to go big or go home. now it's time for a report card check. let's bring in gordon johnson, founder and researcher and his company -- i can't get the worlds out -- largest you urani

producer. happy holidays. >> nice to see you. >> gordon, this is all about your victory app. i want to educate the audience. uranium is at a 16-year high right now. that's certainly one catalyst. you read all that right. congrats. are you going to ride this stock next year as well? >> absolutely. a lot of the easy money has been made. uranium prices have gone up from 20 to $09. chemical stocks went from 8 to roughly 45. here's why we see significant upgrade still. historically the volume is contracting the stock market when a lot of the capacity was taking off wide, people were

making uranium and selling it for a loss. now you have 80%. why is that important? you have uranium supplies around the world. you're going to have a lot of new mines and because of that we think that the lack of supply, you're going to have prices go up even further upside. >> to your point in cop28, they pledged the triple nuclear power by 2050. you're right. this seems to be a long-term tailwind. you gave us a great pick. cameco. what's your other pick? >> we like r.u.n.

you've had two upgraded by respectable firms. the treasury yield has come down. what they've neglected is the spreads. when you talk about pricing a bond, it's not just the yield on the treasury. it's the spread. that's the risk the market puts in. spread's on solar abv bonds that have exploded. so it's more expensive now for these guys. so our belief is that given that this company burns about just under 1 billion dollars, only has $600 million of cash on its balance sheet, we think they're going to have to come to market with the equity. we think when that happens it resumes its downturn. >> by the way, we did ask for a new idea. we're going to let you slide on this one. i do want to ask you. you have a contrarian call. you mentioned another upgrade of

solar space. so in your thesis as rates continue to go down, there are expected to be cuts next year. won't that be a big tail wind for this business? >> yeah. that's a good point. if you look at actual home sales, we're looking at levels we haven't seen since the global financial crisis. even though you've had mortgage rates come down, it's at levels that we have never seen to the downside. i think that's a negative. again, people are demanding much higher yields on the solar bonds. so the demand that they use to finance their business is just not there. we think they're going to have issue equity. we think the upgrades are dead wrong because they completely forgot to look at the spreads in doing the upgrades. >> another respectable firm, by the way. gordon johnson, great to see you. thank you for your pick. coming up on "worldwide exchange," sam altman and legendary apple designer johnny

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there is a lot of information out there. hamas is a terrorist group oppressing the palestinian people. hamas refused a continued ceasefire, a continued pause in fighting and more aid from israelis in exchange for just freeing more hostages. instead, hamas resumed attacks. not to protect the palestinian people or obtain peace, only to destroy israel. we must stand against hamas and stand with palestinians and israelis for basic human rights. welcome back to "worldwide exchange".

sam altman and jony ive and apple vp are set to open up a fresh round of talks at or above $100 billion. if confirmed it would make it on par with spacex and $180 billion chinese shein and tiktok's bytedance. let's talking with ben harbor, whose portfolio companies include airbnb, pelletier and others. glad to have you. wanted to make sure you can hear us. give us a sense. is this a sustainable valuation?

we've seen a lot of high-tech companies and when we go to the public market, it doesn't quite play out that way. >> there's so much noise and ink spilled about this company and the media over the last couple of months particularly around the boardroom drama in november. i think it's tough to value it today. it's tough to understand what they have under the hood, what risks are lurking there with this cue star that led to that. that's why it's driving so much interest. i don't think it's sustainable today. >> huh much of this valuation is tied to microsoft in the use of itself iowa co-pilot. and also i want to bounce something off of you. this is a tweet from sam alt man on christmas. i'm not sure if he celebrates christmas or not. he says interesting thought

experiment, at what rate should you be willing to borrow money to build a data center if extremely powerful ai is close at hand. any idea or can you make sense of this tweet? >> having an enterprise of merchandisable front end to this makes sense. the partnership with microsoft is really aided in its ability to prove that it can make money. and so i think that that partnership is robust. it will grow and bring in other partners that don't necessarily compete. on the data center side of things, a clear objective for all of us. data centers have been a huge area of investment for real estate investors and have done

very well to date, one of those asset groups alongside of energy transition and private credit. so actually not too mind-blowing a treat from sam and one that i think makes sense in the current context. >> it sounds like you are saying the valuation is somewhat tied to the success of the microsoft ai co-pilot and adoption rate and how useful some of this generative ai turns out to be. >> absolutely. it clearly creates a market fit. >> i want to pivot over to s shein. this is an e-commerce retail brand. >> no. s shein is coming for everyone's lunch. they're a fast fashion low-cost-based product. across the entire population. so they're not just competing

with each other today. they're competing with amazon, dollar tree, unique flow, et cetera, and you're seeing is a fulfill by amazon play and it's a marketplace for third-party brands. i think they had around $500 billion last year and they're back up. you're going to see a lot of prop protective measures. they're going to take market shares from everyone including amazon. and quickly, tiktok's bytedance, what do you see? >> it's on the lower spectrum of valuations today. there's been a liquid buy-up shares at those types of levels. i think it's a company well

north of that, closer to $500 billion and it's trading at these levels, significantly below facebook and some of the other comps because of the macro noise and geopolitical noise and the name mentioned on cap capitolhill. coming up on "worldwide exchange," it's one for the record books in all the wrong ways, courtesy of your detroit pistons. if you haven't, check us out on apping, spotify, or other podcast apps. "worldwide exchange" coming up after this. meet gold bond daily healing. a powerhouse lotion that moisturizes, heals, and smooths dry skin. with 7 moisturizers & 3 vitamins. and... new gold bond healing sensitive. clinically shown to heal & moisturize dry, sensitive skin. gold bond.

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there's a lot more ahead on "worldwide exchange." here's what's still on deck. stoxxs looking to keep the win streak alive as tech gets set to do something it hasn't done since before y 2 hit. we're looking at real estate and the names primed for a breakout. and then later, companies look to get their ships back in the red sea as they work in the face of constant drone and missile attacks. it's wednesday, december 27th, 2023. you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. all right. welcome back to "worldwide

exchange." i'm frank holland. we're going to get a look at your day with u.s. stock futures with the s&p, nasdaq, and the russell, all of them riding three session win streaks. the dow would open up just about 20 points higher. s&p essentially flat, just a bit off the levels it was earlier. the nasdaq fractionally higher. again, it is early. this action after another positive session for stocks yesterday that saw the dow and s&p 500 close at 1% highs. the s&p up 16%, the nasdaq up over 19%. we're keeping also a very close eye on the nasdaq 100 tracking its best year for 1999. there's a prince joke if there there. i'm not go ing to do it. we're checking the bond market. as always we look at the

benchmark 10-year. both of them down 30 basis points since the fed's dovish pause just back two weeks ago. we're looking at the energy markets coming off its best day in two weeks. oil prices right now actually taking a bit of a dip. wti, $11.75 a barrel. brent crude down almost half a percent. that's your setup. right now we want to turnaround the world, specifically asia closing mostly higher overnight after an extended holiday weekend. we see the hang seng up, the best performer out of these indices. europe getting its trading day under way with gains across the board. weer ooh seeing pretty much a higher level. the ftse mib up under a quarter of a percent. now we want to turn your

attention to other parts of the market. giving a boost to one part of the economy in a very big way. that is housing and providing a tail wind to key players in that space, our diana olick has the housing playbook for 2024. >> the housing market will start the new year with a major tail wind, down a couple of headwinds. mortgage rates are now at the lowest level in six months after soaring to the highest level this century in october. that should bring some relief to buyers who were on the edge of affording a home or wouldn't qualify at higher rates. the expectation is rates will remain on the lower side at least in the first part of next year with less volatility than we've seen this year. now to the headwinds. first home prices. they continue to post bigger and bigger games. the latest from case-shiller had them up 4%. home prices are now 1% higher than the peak in 2022 and have

recovered all the losses recorded in the second half of last year. inventory is still incredibly low. sellers were a little more active this fall. but the supply for homes for sale is 38% lower than the prepandemic levels. others should see growth in their new orders. their stocks are rising all this year and really shot up when rates plunged. and we did see a big jump in housing starts. the coming spring will be critical to see if they're willing to sell their record low rates to move at the lower rates. frank? >> thank you to our diana olick. let's talk about what this means with bess friedman with one of the largest privately owned real estate brokerages in the u.s. good morning, happy holidays. >> good morning, frank, happy holidays. >> we're going to pick it up where we left off.

generally people -- it kind of starts in march. so give us a sense as we kind of go into the new year, as we head into the spring selling season. how meaningful is it. howelling do you think people are to sill their house and buy a new one? >> i think what diana just said is good news, the fact that rates are coming down makes buyers and sellers feel good. she mentioned prices are at an all-time high, and part of that is because of the tight inventory. and i think rates coming down will encourage more seller os to put their homes on the market, thus giving us more inventory, and that will let up prices a bit so they can come down. and buyers will go out. buyers are going to homes and seeing there's not a lot to choose from and you get bidding wars. we get more inventory, the

prices come down, market comes down, and the market moves in a better direction overall. >> it's moving in a better direction overall. at least more than half the people have a mortgage rate under 4% right now. when you have that low rate, how difficult is it to see the kind of movement. you mentioned tight inventory, but you see the movement people are willing to sell and buy even if it's at 5%. >> most have rates locked in under 4%. but the fact that the fed hasn't raised the fed fund rate, they indicated next year they're going to cut it three times, maybe four. this is good news. and i think sellers at some point do have to sell for various reasons for moving, for things like they need to upgrade, downgrade, whatever it is. so i think raids are still historically low, and what people say is if rates get into

6% or lower, they would be willing to buy our sell. so i think it's psychological at this point, and i think selles can do it. i don't think you're going to see everyone on the market, but slowly you'll start to see more and more people getting into the market because the psychology here is that rates have come down, will continue to come down, more buyers, more sellers. >> a lot of people describe it as marrying the housing. >> which is true. that's the thing. remember, home is a long-term investment. it's for your future. people raise families in their homes. it's an emotional commodity. it's sacred.

that's how people think of the home-buying process. we're starting to see the rental prices coming down. all of this bodes well for 2024. 2023 was a challenging year. >> before we let you go, though, i want to ask you one other question. we're seeing a lot of new construction in most big cities, in most areas, so right now would you buy now while prices are, i guess, kind of stable or would you wait for rates to go down with with thoughts there might be more inventory or rates would be lower? what would you do if you're looking for someone to buy a home? >> i would encourage them to move on it. there's no reason to wait. you don't flow what's going to be. none of us can microforecast the future. if you find a home you want, go forward today. i would not wait. >> affordability is a big

factor, but bess freedman says to do it. happy holidays. whiskey drinkers are breathing a sigh of relief as some top shelf spirits are looking to stay steady at least for now. emily is with us now. not a new story. we've seen this tariff issue come up over and over again. >> it's been going back and forth, frank. we do have some good news at least for european was ski lovers as we're heading into the new years. they're raising their glass to the eu after the countries announced they would suspend the rates of tariff. if not they would have been slapped with a 50% tariff. the reason we've heard so much back and forth. these tariffs are a large result over steel and aluminum tearists

put in place under the trump administration. they've been negotiating for the last two years to figure out a way forward. the goal is to, quote, forge a forward-looking arrangement that will allow us to join forces economically, to incentivize fair and clean production, and trade in the steel and aluminum sectors. andy barr told me the eu has become a critical market for distillers from his home state. in the year after the tariffs were first lifted in 2021, barr said there was an increase. >> europe matters. it's the biggest market outside of the united states for bourbon exports. we're still trying to crack the code in asia and other parts of the world, but europe really understands aged distilled spiritsing and so this is a

place where we need a level playing field, zero taxes, zero tariffs to really continue to grow this industry. >> the current pause on tariffs is set to last until march 31st, 2025. they're hoping to get a deal on steel and aluminum before then. frank? >> i used to cover spirits. got to go to kentucky. wasn't surprised there was a kentucky lawmaker speaking out about this. obviously a huge business. give us a sense. i'm sure there are a lot of hopes that these tariffs will continue to not be put into effect. is there any progress on the other side of it, the steel and aluminum tariffs? >> there is progress in the sense that the u.s. and eu are sitting down. the bigger concerns here in trying to get these tariffs lifted is they want to do is in a way that acknowledges some of the climate and environmental goals that the u.s. and eu are,

working toward. that's why it may take a little bit long in fixing out a way through the tariffs, but i think the fact that they have seen this pause continue is a good sign on both sides. frank, you're going to have to tell me how to get a job where i can go down to kentucky and try bourbon and whiskey. that sounds like a dream gig right there. >> i think you have it go. on the money trail. go down to kentucky. you have to taste some whiskey to see how voters take their temperatures by trying out the wasty. i'ming down the pitch for you, emily. >> i know what my new year's regulation is for 2024. thanks, frank go. >> good to see you. the wins keep coming for softbank. the stock is also getting a boost today in a moment. but we have a few top trending stories. firefighter 650 bucks you can

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that ambition has to start somewhere. how about your global briefing? we begin with shares of chinese online gaming giants rebounding in the overnight trade after the country's top regulating sector says it will carefully study new roles. this comes one day after nearly a dozen other smaller gaming companies announced a new share of buybacks in an effort to reassure regulators. shares of softbank surging after it disclosed it will receive a

new batch worth about $17.6 billion at no additional costs as past of a merger aingredient between swprint and t-mobile. and friendshiping giant says it's inabout creasing the number of ships through the suez canal. they step up their military campaign in the region including yesterday that saw a u.s. destroyer and f-18 fighter shoot down 17 drones and missiles a run. ed by iranian-backed rebels. it comes after houthi rebels successfully attacked another container ship yesterday owned by mse as it was making its way south past the suez canal. all crews are safe and no injuries reports. they will avoid the red sea and take the longer costlier route. coming up, the one word every investor fleed needs to k.

much more "worldwide exchange" coming up after this.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we begin with tesla reportedly planning to launch an updated vergts of its model y with exterior and interior changes expected as soon as mid-2024. speaking of byd, they obtain a level three license. it allows drivers to temporarily take their attention off the road due to the system's environmental detection abilities. a new note from goldman sachs during q4 of 2024.

that's well above the consensus of 0.9%. ai integration and upgrades could drive a rebound in pc sales in 2024 according to market research firm canals. shipments have declined due to weak demand, macro demands and a shift in budgets. this after open ai reportedly opened talks valuing the company at or above $100 billion. and intel coming off its biggest daily gain in two months after receiving $3.2 million from israel to build a new schip plant in the country's southern

region. that marks the biggest investment of a company by israel. turning to the day ahead, we have our dom chu taking a look at high-flying sectors from a valuation perspective heading into the new year. dom, thank you frp joining us. >> we have a setup going to 2024 where the s&p 500 currently trades at just around a hair below 20 times next year's forward earnings. analysts take on what earnings are going to be next year, that kind of gives you the benchmark, that's sitting right about where it is on average over the last five years. keep that in mind as we talk about about some of the overvalued sectors. one of the more high-flying, if you will, sectors out there.

growth is a big part of that story. consumer discretionary is up. remember, that's the big sector that has tesla and amazon in it, so people will keep an eye on that. industrial is trading at market multiples. you can see the premium valuations being dragged up by technology and consumer discretion. meanwhile check out what's happening with some of the more valued ones. we have utilities at 15 1/2 times the earnings, financials trading and an energy lagging behind at 11 times next year's expected earnings. so as you take a look at the setup, frank, we always want to talk about that magnificent se seven. it's still going to be the case, but energy is one of those poised for your a bigger bounce if they see it as a more value oriented sector. >> dom chu with this month's

sectornomics, thank you very much. joining us now for the trading day ahead, we have ivory johnson, a member of the cnbc group. happy birt happy holidays. anything you're seeing that you might want to make a move on as we see the final days of the year into next year? >> absolutely. i put a position on for the utilities not just because of the valuation, but they do well in this environmental. the bond market seems to believe we're going to have a slowing economy. when rates go down, that's good for utility stocks especially as the economy starts to slow. >> so everybody knows right now we're in a period where we see a santa claus rally. right now you're actually advising people to make some moves. it's not about buying the dip or the winners.

you're saying, sell the losers. >> right. there are four ways to lose well. there's lawsuits, divorce, taxes, and doing something stupid. i can help with two of those things, so to the extent you have positions you're not enamored with, you're not going to hold onto next year because your position has changed, sell those and balance that against some gains you might have had. because if you have mutual funds, then obviously they have to balance those out so you don't have a big tax bill come april 15th. >> so you're really focused on taxes as we close out the year. i don't think you're the only one. we were talking real estate earlier in the show. you're advocating buying real estate and doing something else we don't usually talk about. why is that important right now for investors? >> well, it's important because you can try and save taxes now or try and save taxes later. so if you're a high-wage-earning

w 2 employee, they took away their employee reimbursement deductions so all you have is the 401(k) deduction. so when you buy real estate, the cash surrender value grows tax deferred and then you can borough against the cash surrender value and pay no taxes on it. in fact, you pay it back with the death ben flt. so it's like the rocth ira. the cash surrender value can grow with the market if it's the type of policy that allows mutual funds or sometimes they have indexes that it's attached to. >> ivory, i usually ask what your w.e.x. word of the day. i think it's pretty obvious. taxes. >> taxes. >> you know it's about moves for today. what do investors need to do today and in the last trading days of the year and that's look

at your risk tolerance. what do you mean by that? >> when we have a move where the market's pretty big, review what your risk tolerance is because it may be skewed by the fact you made a lot of money. at the end of the year, reevaluate what you do. if you're getting closer to retirement, now's not the time when you have a lot of volatility in your partnortfoli a quick look at the futures before we let you guys go. we're seeing the dow hit its highs, looking like it opens up 30 points higher. remember it's close to a record close. the nasdaq solidly in the green. we'll be watching the nasdaq 100 trading at its highest level since 1999. again, there's a prince joke in there. i'll let the team on "squawk

box" make that joke. "squawk box" is up next. thank you. have a great day. >> announcer: sectornomics is sponsored by sector spdr etfs. loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck?

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good morning. another record-breaking day for the dow and the nasdaq. will there be another party? judging by the futures, it's going to be a nailbiter. rising tensions in the red sea. another round of attacks has the energy markets on alert. and apple will not back down in its watch battle. a key designer is about to join

forces with an ai upstart. it is wednesday, december 27th, 2023, and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning and welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in time square. i'm steve liesman. we have contessa brewer. contessa, help me out here. what's the record we're looking for on the s&p? >> we need about half of 1% higher? >> 4800 is it? something like that. not too much to do here. the dow kicked off the final trading week of 2023, closing at a record high. currently up