oracle. >> any other name you want to throw out? >> i think that's what comes to mind. >> dana, quick thought on the retail season. >> macy's, tjx, michael kors will be some of the winners and we'll have a retail season that will be extended. >> thank you for joining us. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." good morning and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with kayla tausche. it's bring your kid to work day on what lab shortened trading day for the markets. the stock market will close at

1:00 p.m., the bond market i believe at 2:00 p.m. we are poised at what would seem a higher open. we're not going to get a lot of hours of trading in. as in for the 10-year note yield, let's take a look and see where we are. there it is. 27.66. and we'll go to the map in europe where i can never figure out the geography. >> you know the boot is italy. >> i know the boot is italy and i can pick up russia. our road map here back in the united states starts with what else, retail. millions of shoppers, yes,

millions hitting the stores for black friday. we'll go live to say how sales are going. brian? >> the markets are open today for an abbreviated trading session and we are poised to open at record highs again, which will be about the 40th time this year. i guess you guys could say that here on "squawk on the street." the nasdaq finishing wednesday's session at a 13-year high, kayla. >> and thin trading today on a shortened trading day. and also bitcoin keeps on surging, topping $1,200 earlier today, doesn't even sound real. it's having its on black friday development today. >> i think we're going to be talking to someone from the retail side of ebay.

>> if bitcoin keeps going up in value and it keeps going up in value then i will have overpaid you. >> but why would he accept that? >> because it will be going up in value. >> or he doesn't want to lose my business. >> the holiday search for bargains is under way this black friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, of course. many consumers across the country lined up at malls in the wee hours of the morning to get first dibs on sales. courtney reagan is at the mall at fairfield commons in dayton, ohio.

she's checking out the action. a lot of tinsel behind you. >> it's pretty festive in dayton, ohio. >> we a a big pick up last night when the stores opened earlier. a bit of a lull overnight here but traffic is starting to pick up. if we think about categories, electronics near the top of the list of what shoppers are checking out with today, including smartphones and tablets. which can't be easy. we know some of these employees have been working the eequivalent of double shifts and -- >> we opened at 4 a.m. and i'll be working until 10:00 at night. math a little fuzzy here, about 18-hour shifts. >> it seems that the foot traffic has been heaviest at macy's. shopular, an app, says that's

where shoppers are spending the most time on average, 79 minutes followed by jcpenney. certainly those are not the only stores that shoppers are hitting. >> came out at midnight. we went to kmart, old navy, h.h. greg, here, the mall. payless. >> she was pretty ambitious. we're hearing from ibm that loon sales on thanksgiving day up 11.5%. so growth there, too, for those who didn't want to deal with all this. >> online sales will represent almost half of the sales if not more than that. that almost seems like a low number, given how many people are on their tablets rather than going to the mall. >> it's a huge issue people buying the devices to of course

buy many things but not store. you wonder is it because they stink or is it because everybody's wave ug. >> or if the parent isn't bringing the mall, are they not bringing their teens? >> i've called for years for everybody to do 100% of their shoppingline so that america is just littered with empty strip malls. >> well, speaking of malls, the biggest mall in the country, what is black friday looking like at the largest shopping mall in u.s.? we go to jay gray at the mall of america in minnesota. good morning. >> reporter: hey, there. good morning, kayla. here people take blad friday very seriously at america's largest mall. they work in shifts. so the late night shift that came in looking for deals have just about wrapped up and the

good news, for retailers anyway, that. >> walking around has a bag or two bags or three bags. it looks like they're shopping and talking to them. they say they are finding deals. they say it takes some work and some walking but that they are finding deals. a lot of people are saying they're spending a little more this year than last year. so all good signs for the retailers. >> jay gray, good luck out there in the mall of america. >> let's bring in stacy and brian. brian which retailers are doing it right and will win this season?

>> it's tough to say now but within my group, best buy will be a winner. they're pricing better against the competition offline and online. >> stacy, welcome. it good to see you. not to get into best buy for a little bit are you surprised at how well it been? >> yes. buttist in best buy last night, one of 3,900 in line waiting to get in, but you talk to the salespeople and they actually know what they're talking about now. they've cleared out all of the sort of "c" players and the staff is incredible. i i was there for research and i did not buy a thing but purely supposed to be the market for -- >> yes.

but the best deal is on the games. and there as a lot of gift cards. so there are good deals out there. >> brian, this stock price we all have remarked on it many times on this show. we're talking $12, they couldn't get an lbo done at more than 17 a years ago meerp we are at 40, backed off from 43 after the last quarter. given what you're seeing, do you think it's actually got more room to run? >> i think best buy is still cheap here. i think the real catalyst for the stock has been a new management team, new ceo, new cfo joined the company about a year ago. they've been in a very short amount of time, significant change to that company. i look at best buy still inexpensive here. >> when you think about the big promotional environment, the question is to what extent are they discounting some of these products? did you think that will hurt margins in these stocks in the

long run? >> it tough to say. i think one of the benefits there it gives the retailer a lot of time to prepare. they're working with their vendors. no question price motions are a negative for margins. >> when you look at the retail holders, it outperforming the s&p 500 by about 3%. jcpenney the top performer. that's a special case. macy's has done well and surprisingly dillard. >> if you take a macy's, they're a middle income and they also have a lot of brand notice store like any of the others that have been limp manying around.

>> they're probably the better retailer. the the key is is they're going in and they're getting the market share and they're not letting it walk out the door. >> analysts, well done, you go and do your store checks but of course, for example, in best buy we're talking about showrooming. we don't hear about it anymore, but the idea of so many of these potential sales going online. stacy, what are your expectations? >> online stales are about 10% of the business right now. loon purchases right now, almost 25% are being made on hand-held devices. the guy who is do omni channel, like macy's, they're going to win. >> we can't leave without talking about jcpenney. do you believe they'll be able

to turn it around based on this holiday season sp. >> they're up against minus 31 comps, how can they not top comps? have they sent their customer headed for the exits and how do they get them back? that's not a stock i'm involved with. >> stacy and brian, thank you very much. >> happy thanksgiving. >> coming up, black friday from a ceo's perspective, we're going to talk with farooq and steven when we come back. ♪ ♪ looking at covered call strategies to generate income? with fidelity's options platform,

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when it comes to black friday, we know it can get serious. a video on youtube showed shoppers screaming and fighting over televisions at a walmart in north carolina. >> i'm from the south. that's thursday. >> the user says hooves kicked

out of the walmart for reporting. you can see the fight. somebody's victorious. i was at an opening of a walmart in china, many years ago at this point, and there were fights at the cashier register routinely, just in the two or three hours we were there so this is not uncommon. >> and it's also true for social media, too. >> and those tvs are probably smart tvs enabled with a youtube app, they can go home, install the television and watch a video of themselves trampling their neighbor for the purchase. it's like the pink floyd -- i'm off on a left field -- never mind. >> i like when you do that. >> are there street signs today? >> no. we say black friday like it's

easter. many of the stores have started their specials, like macy's, a week ago. you wonder if today has the same meaning for retailers that it did once prior to the interweb. >> the interesting this evening is cyber monday, too, that used to be the big day for the deals online and now people have been shopping on line for the last week, two weeks, even a month. >> here's a good question for the viewers, what do you guys have "squawk on the tweet" or something? >> we do. >> are the deals really good today? i don't buy anything for anybody anyway so i don't have to worry about deals but is today a good deal day? i actually don't know. there's door busters but are prices better now than they will be in a week? i have no idea. >> i'm a similar shopper to you in that i don't.

i'm a nonshopper. if jim cramer were here, he'd have an answer for us, he goes through -- >> i got a 75-pound bag of dog food for the four dogs in my house. it appeared to be the same price. >> coming up, want to avoid the masses at the mall? ebay would like to tell you. we'll tell you how ahead. and the nyse closes at 1:00 on this shortened closing day. we are up 34 in the dow. can anything stop this market run? we're going to talk about it when "squawk on the street" returns on this holiday black friday. stick around. ya know, with new fedex one rate you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. how naughty was he? oh boy... [ male announcer ] fedex one rate.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." we're just about ten minutes before the opening bell on this shortened trading day. ben, it seems like there's nothing on the calendar, a very thin next week. what are you watching for in terms of retail? it's the only thing the market is going off of this day. >> the only thing is the arbitrage in the retail sector, target versus coach or macy's versus penney's. why the traders are interested today will be the closing, when you get what's called window dressing, whether defending

those positions, long or short going into the closing bell today, you may see a little bit of excitement. other than that, keep an eye on money flows that are going into mutual funds, it's going to keep this bull going. >> we're at 16,097, do you think the win dro dressing today will be largely profit taking? >> no. at this point i don't see any reason to take profits. >> ride this as long as can you, flight. >> the bull called tina. there is no alternative. right now the market seems to be collecting in the money fund market, sitting short term, waiting for the right time to invest. but if you've waited, you missed the trade. >> is there a quiet feeling that this will end badly at some point that, we're just going to ride the roller coaster as long as we can? why be the first one off? everybody's enjoying the ride. are there whispers this will not end well? >> i've been in the business for 30 years. every professional i talk to will tell you the money they

want to spend is at least on some protection to the down side. we've not had any significant correction for the year, we had one 5%, one 4.5%, a lot of complacency. >> we're going to be in december soon and thinking about the end of the year and the taper. >> as i tried to explain to people, if you want to retire, you should not be in bonds. this market is going to continue to do what it's going to do in anticipation of one of the worst recessions/depressions we've ever been in.

i think the low fruit's been picked. it's where do we go from here? >> the conventional wisdom is the market will keep going up but there could be volatility in december. you have the jobs report, november retail sales and you also have the budget deadline december 13. >> i hope so. i hope for volatility. >> what happens in the middle of deficien december? >> in full disclosure, i believe the fed was going to taper last month. so that was my whole prediction. i'm not alone when i see firms like goldman sachs. the fed gave a clear signal to the market and they disappointed. you'll see the fed try to regain that credibility. >> are we in the media too focused on this idea of taper? the reality is we know it going to happen at some point. if you know something's going to happen, you plan for it. it may be longer away than you think but it's still going to happen. i think earnings still should

matter. if we grow the 1% next year, you'll see the market go down considerably because earnings are going to go up. if we grow at 4% next year, the market should go up because earnings will expand. >> it is that simple. it's not necessarily the media but the fact of the matter the fed has interjected itself to manipulate the marketplace. if it's quantitative easing, the opposite of easing has to be tightening. it may not be the tool -- that's what they call their tool, but that's why we've seen the ten-year go from 1.6 to 2.5 to 2.7. in the meantime, these few short months will look like a blip on the screen in the history of when you should have been in the market. >> the opening bell on this holiday shortened trading day is just about four minutes away. "squawk on the street" is back right after this. ng, isn't a thing at all?

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that aside, here's the issue.

do i care how much somebody sells? do i care how much they're making from what they sell? jcpenney will probably sell a lot of stuff but what is their apple going to be? what is apple's margin? 40-some percent? >> that's a good point. you hear the opening bell here at the nyse. at the big board, we have chaired buzz, raising funds for nonprofits. over at the nasdaq, sears holdings. and which also owns kmart. >> is lampert there? >> he's probably down in florida. >> there's more green. >> then i leave it to cramer and he takes it from there. >> people say why are stocks

higher? >> you say because people are buyi buying, more buyers than sellers. that's always the answer. the small cap is beating the nasdaq by about 5%. no one's paying attention to the small caps. they are just continuing to run. what i'm saying to our audience, this worldwide audience of billions right now, pay attention to the small caps. >> he's a good piece of advice. some people paying attention to best buy this morning. we talked a good deal about if around the 9:00 hour, the stock was at 1.8% right now. off of its high but what a story this has been over the course of the last year. that stock up around 250 or more percent. 240%. just trailing two of your favorites, netflix and tesla.

>> best buy was my pick for street signs last year. and i finished i think second if the season would have continued, i would have destroyed my competition, like i like to, but you brought up that the founder, richard scholes, could not get a buy at 15. the run for best buy has been spectacular. when you look at the leaders over the last month or so, no knock on the jcpenneys, the first solars, the xerox, the pitney bowes. >> when you talk about those stocks that have risen, a lot of those are best performers from an all-time low.

jcpenney is one of the best performers from the all-time lows. >> a low-quality rally. these are not leading names. i haven't heard the tina analogy that ben made earlier because there's nothing else to buy, there is nothing else to buy, t.i.n.a., i'm going to borrow that. europe, a lot of very shot people said i'm poking around in europe and i'm starting to buy big cap european stocks, a lot of people said he was nuts, he's outperformed. >> you can be right but at the wrong time. a lot of people said go buy europe, buy european equities. do you think that right now is the time to actually get into --

>> it's hard to know. last year my main prediction was the nikkei would be the best selling developed market on world -- >> i'm going to listen to you this year. if you picked the nikkei and best buy, you got something going on here. >> why are you working here? >> even a blind skiquirrel finda nut. >> i'll give you a preview. >> cinquo demayo. it has nothing to do with the date. if we rallied off qe 1, why wouldn't be nikkei also rally

when the experiment is bigger and japan is working up to the fact that they need more bursts and they need to put people in the workforce. the whole men work and women don't is garbage. mitsubishi bank, i used to work there. put the smartest people in the job. in the next five years, i think mexico is going to be a fantastic story, unless it's not. in which case i'll never mention it again. >> citigroup is making big bets on mexico. the consumer is just starting to have spending power. >> the middle class. >> manufacturing capacity. >> if they can control the violence, the drug violence. a lot of people used to go to mexico on vacation, they say i can't go. mexico needs to fix that and you should see tourism rebound and give the market another run-up.

>> james, target, home depot all up this morning. generally a positive take on retail. mary thompson joins us on the floor with more on what is moving this morning. good morning, mary. >> david, we see a continuation of the record run we've had on wall street today in a holiday shortened trading session. we'll close at 1:00 eastern time. a little bit of weakness in the banking stocks and energy stocks as well as the reits today. the markets are on track for their third month of gains, the dow up 3.5%, the nasdaq up 3.2% and the s&p up 2.9%. so overall a very strong three-month period for the markets as we head into december, which also is historically a fairly strong month for the markets. let's take a quick look at the retailers. i know david just mentioned them in early trading, we're seeing them up across the board, retailing looking strong amongs groups that we follow in today's

session. the shippers are moving higher in the previomarket. they're seeing big gains in things like coal and grain. a couple of other stocks, archer daniels midland, the company is saying that the australian government nixed its bid to buy product and pulling back a bit. and renren down 4.5%. the dow keeps climbing, though, up 44 points. >> kayla and david, i want to ask you two to opine for a

second, if you will and you can clo choose to pass or avoid. >> and there's no pink floyd reference? >> no. >> you keep making the absurd statement if earnings will rise, they will rise unless they fall, earnings don't rise anymore. this is a fed-induced bubble. to say anything different is silly. >> so some think that it's 100% of the rally that we've seen is from the fed. i think some of it is from the fed but 100%? what do you think? >> the asset managers i spoke to are focused on the taper, coupled with a rising multiple and the question as to whether

corporate america can continue to justify that by deliverings earnings next year. i think it's a valid concern. >> but i think we've reached a point where you have to talk about revenues because companies have become so efficient, they're using excess cash to buy back their own stock, they're not hiring. >> revenue growth has been paltry. the bottom line has been much stronger than the top line because of the productivity. >> everybody i know in corporate america is maxed out. they're putting in 60, 70 hours a week. the companies have got to start hiring people. dear fortune 500, start hiring with your profits. sheila? >> we are opening at a fresh 13-year high. we are right now at 4,060. part of the story has to do with apple. it really an up trend we've been

seeing this entire week. if we can close above the 5.50 a share level, we are right next to that right now, that's a level we haven't seen since january. retail of course also in big focus at the nasdaq. sears did ring the opening bell. no sighting of eddie lampert but that stock down about 1%. and retail getting a good lift. take a look at dollar tree, costco, bed bath & beyond and we've been hearing a lot of positive feedback about online sales. and one of the big things about the nasdaq's rise this year, tesla, baidu, netflix, amazon all higher today. >> happy black friday to you, rick. looks like the 10-year is 2.76. what do you have your eye on today?

>> well, it's 2.75, 2.76, just to put some perspective. on wednesday, our last trading day, we had a settlement around 2.74. we closed last week at 2.74. so we are a little bit above it. a two-week chart reveals that the immediate issue is the 2.80 level, which was last week's kind of high water mark. of course we all know that the high yield close thus far since this move since the 138 all-time yield on the 10 has been 2.99, not quite 3%. if we look at the spreads and it really is a spread gain, whether you look at the 5 to 10s or 5 to 30s on a month-to-date chart, you can see there has been some flattening. it doesn't seem to be the favorite trade which is the steepener. let's look at what's going on overseas. they weren't closed. many talked about japanese data but being of talking with

remaining issues with greece and the imf, the troika not necessarily taking the calendar schedule that was out there so when we start to get back into the thick of this after holidays and maybe post next year as we get into 2014, i think europe and some of the southern economies will be right back. on the bunds versus 10s, that's a 20-year chart. dollar yen reads close to 103 in the early trading. can you see why traders are excited. some thing the dollar/yen could hit 120! >> let go over to bertha coombs. >> reporter: this morning we got brent a little bit under pressure, wti floating a bit higher. for the month if you had

invested in the brent premium, that would have been the trade to do. these two were at par. we've seen wti nine next, the worst losing streak with the growing inventory here. that's the worst decline in the last three monies in about five years or so. the weaker dollar today is spritty much supportive across the board. we've got bullish news as far as cold in china, about 1030 bought in terms of the physical market. that's providing a little bit of support for gold. but gold as well working on its worst losing streak, going to be down this year for the first time in this century. guys, back to you. >> all right, bertha, thank you very much. up next, protesters taking aim at walmart, taking aim at higher wages.

phil lebeau is there. >> brian, we're here in the south side of chicago. are they protesting for wagers with workers who actually work at walmart? we'll talk about that after this break. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all...

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macy's opening its doors on thanksgiving night for the first time in its history. earlier on "squawk box," macy's ceo terry lundgren talked about the strange in strategy. >> that's what the customers wanted, that's what drove our decision. yes, we have major, major traffic flow of the young millennial consumer last night and earlier this morning. >> lundgren saying he estimated there were 15,000 people outside the flagship herald square store. he said there were about 11,000 last year. >> they went to the parade, they hung out. you know who else was at the parade? >> i do, actually. joe kernen? >> yes, i think the camera panned to joe. front row joe, no disrespect to

joe nemecheck, the race car driver. >> walmart bracing for activists and their supporters. they believe the wages are too little to live on and they are fighting for more pay. phil lebeau is there. >> reporter: there are about 75 protesters and some of the employees, the gentleman in the bright green shirt, is a walmart employee. but generally speaking, we've only come across a handful of employees. the others have been bussed to this location. why are they here? they call it jobs for justice, they say the average worker makes $8.81 and should be making

$12.50, what they call a living age. >> you got walmart employees that are scared and they're being scared because they're being intimidated pup g. you getting threatened with your jobs, that's the first thing you're looking at. we want our jobs. but don't nobody know about they have a right to strike and organize because this is the law. >> reporter: that is one of the few walmart works are that we talked with who is actually out here walking in front of the stores, protesting. walmart has more than 1.4 million employees in the u.s. and when the ceo of the u.s. division of walmart was asked this morning about these protests, here's what he had to say about them paying the minimum wage. >> we're proceed of the pay that we have. we pay in the top half of the retail industry. we understand there will be people out looking for more. we stand that frustration after five years of a difficult economy and we're going to do

all we can to look for opportunities for them to advance. >> as you take a look at the chart of walmart stock over the last year, the question has come up how much will these protests actually keep people from going into, say, this walmart neighborhood market or another store we were in today. the people at the other store, they were not fazed by protesters, they were going in. but for now, david, that's the story here on the north side of chicago. back to you. >> thanks very much, phil lebeau. a complicated to deal with there in terms of those wages. coming up on our black friday edition of "squawk on the

street," bitcoin goes black friday. stick around to find out what we're talking about. be right back. you get your coffee here. you get your hair cut here. you find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. when you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. the money you spend here, stays here. in this place you call your neighborhood.

tomorrow is small business saturday. get out and shop small.

joining us, the co-founder of century 21 stores. >> it's been 50 years, we opened up right on portland street and it a small store that's grown over the years and now we have eight years in the tristate area. >> does a day like this matter? >> it does. it's the start of the holiday season. th the crowds do come in, they want to shop. everybody is on the floor. >> you made the decision not to open on thanksgiving. do you feel you missed out on sales? >> i don't. number one, we want our

employees to be home with their families on thanksgiving. >> good for you. >> and we don't feel it will shift the bottom line. shopping early moves the monday forward. being closed on that day is not going to affect the bottom line. you're discounting all year round. do you find it amazing how the main line retailers trip over themselves this time of year? >> it's unbelievable. everybody has their on. we offer values, 65% off retail prices of single day of the year like you mentioned. customers don't have to wait till black friday to come in and get deals. they can get it any time. >> why aren't you national? why aren't you a publicly traded company? why aren't you in des moines,

debuque? >> well, we're a privately owned company in. >> why? >> we don't want to go nationwide yet. we are looking out of state for the first time in a long time. but we're going to keep it controlled and to our comfort level. >> you've managed to stay out of bankruptcy whereas a lot of your competitors, sims or daphne's or filine's has visited it more than once. what do you chuck your success up to? >> we've learned from companies that try to expand too fast, try to do too much too quickly and overextend themselves. we know what our secret -- not secret but our formula for success is and that's developing relationships with our vendors, giving us great experience.

staying in business this long, it's no accident. we know what we're doing. >> bank bank and men's wearhouse, should they get together? >> that's another question i can't answer. >> why do all of your associates wear those gold and yellow jackets when they sell houses? >> when i used to go on the market, i'm hear from century 21-the 21-th, they say i'm not buying house. >> who had the name century 21 first? >> we did. >> coming up, we'll have the ceo of the national retail federation. and also we'll have interesting questions on e-commerce. tomorrow night is the deadline for obama care. will it be fixed? we have some very big guests on

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yes, the madness has begun. retailers across america are already seeing long lines as black friday begins to shape up. >> want to get your hands on a google glass? how about an xbox. they are some of the hottest height items on ebay and following in the steps of retail, ebay started its sales early. >> and let's not forget the new york stock exchange teaming with children will close at 1:00 p.m. eastern today. >> and the november 30th deadline for the healthcare.gov relaunch is just a day away and they just called in hp for help. we'll talk with the operators of

university health services on just when the debacle may be over. kayla? >> shoppers all over the country are braving the crowds to take advantage of big discounts. best buy often has some of the best discounts. josh how's it going? >> reporter: here at best buy, the sale started thursday at 6:00 p.m. you saw big crowds last night. when i got here this morning around 5, 5:30, shoppers were already here looking for in electron iks. tech could overtake closing to new products, a better economy, he said he's looking for strong demand in two areas in particular. >> large screen tvs and tablet

computers. those have been strong sellers all year. we've got a lot of great pricing in those categories and lots of consumer demand. >> baker says he looking for strong demand for apple's ipad, amazon kindle but the shoppers we spoke to this morning were most interested in those televisions. >> best buy is having a sale, $169 for a 39 inch. we just grabbed a 40-inch one for the play station, you got to have the whole bundle. >> now 31% of those surveyed by the consumer electronics association said they intended to buy electronic this weekend, of course the actual number could be a lot higher. simon, back to you. >> in the meantime, the national retail federation is previous districting 97 million people will shot today.

here in a first on cnbc interview is matthew shea. before we get into the -- i think you even put some guidelines as to how big retailers should handle the crowds because they could be so enormous this year. >> this has been described as the super bowl, the world series, the masters, the stanley cup all rolled into one for retailers. so this is the day that really makes the season for many we retailers. an enormous amount of thought and time goes into everything,

merchandisi merchandising, marketing and you really have to approach this as a very significant effort because if you don't execute this week and today and tomorrow into particular, then can you have a tough season. >> you know, it was bizarre. i was watching a movie last night and i would think half of all the adverts that came on were for tablets, which broadcasters are really trying to avoid putting intel against microsoft against apple. to what extent will electronic sales sap the strength from other areas of the market? >> there's also a lot of energy around electronics. that tends to lead in many ways and drive traffic for retailers who come and bring people in their stores based on the way they lead with those products. but we know that in spite of the very somewhat positive top line indicators in the economies, stock market, gas prices, housing prices, it's going to be

very promotional out there. the gdp is not significant, retailers are going to be very, very promotion to to bring these great deals to customers the numbers we've seen have been record breaking, record breaking crowds and we think that's going to lead to a great holiday season. >> matthew, you talk about consumers that struggling. consumer confidence fell to a seven-month low. to what extend do you think consumers aren't ready to spend a boat load of money? >> we're predicting 3.9% growth. we think it going to be a very strong season. historically for the last 10 years, the average has been about 3.5% but we're not back to the prerecession number of high single digits. a lot of that is due to the fact

that you have these someone hollow indcys and that would seem to indicate a robust grow, growing and healthy economy. but for many consumers, they don't feel that way. we've talked a lot about this being a tail of two le of two r broad measure of unemployment. we're just not growing enough. consumers are looking for deals and they're going to find them this week. >> how have the sales been tracking? >> we got about a dozen of ceos in new york the week before last. i think things broadly speaking, across sectors, have been very challenging, it was promotional. when you get into the holiday season, this is the time of year when people are making emotional

purchases. it discretionary spending they're doing because they're excited about the season. so we feel very positive and we feel very good about the numbers that we're seeing so far over tonight and heading into this morning. we're confident we're going to have a strong season and we'll see house of representatives the rest of this weekend plays out. >> mr. shea, we are watching scenes in chicago where there are protests against the wages being paid at walmart and to a certain extent that retail giant is on a defensive and we've seen that on the "today" show today. have you softened your attitude towards a rise in the minimum wage? there's a billionaire in california also trying to get the minimum wage raised. i think 10.10 is what it would have to be raised to.

>> we should really be focused on other policies. rather than an policy that will increase cost for retailers, we should look at policies that create more jobs. we should fix our tax code, do an immigration deal. we ought to let the market drive growth for everyone. out of a works for of 160 million, 2 million are working at minimum wage. it's really a starting wage, not a minimum wage. >> am i right to say you're also using the holiday season to get the thousands take up a senate bill that will impose uniform state taxes on purchases regardless of whether they were online or out of state?

>> that's right. we've been talking about main street fair tax for a long time now. once upon a time it made sense to give them a fair chance when they started out in particular. we ought to have a level playing field on main whether they're in ohio or washington, d.c. or seattle, washington, they're buying from states across the country. and those retailers ought to be paying sales tax. everyone ought to be required to collect and remit that to the state. we can't arbitrarily decide if you're head yes don't thi.

>> we'll see if the house takes it up again. >> thank thanksgiving. >> you, too. of the national retail federation. thank you. >> deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers. in case you haven't seen it, it's black friday. this was posted on youtube by a shopper. if you could create a hash tag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be? tweet us. >> well, they may be hard to find in stores but they are on ebay and the prices are high.

we'll find out just how much they are going for. you get your hair cut here. you find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. when you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. the money you spend here, stays here. in this place you call your neighborhood. tomorrow is small business saturday. get out and shop small.

troubled healthcare.gov web site is switching web hoster providers from verizon's taramark to hewlett packard. this is to try to relaunch and fix the web site. the administration said it will

accurately for about 80% of users by tomorrow. joining me is alan miller, chairman of a fortune 500 health care management company. a lot of people are reveling in the problems. are is this really just a minor technology issues, which in a few months we will have forgotten. >> i have the whole idea that of afordable care act is to, obviously there are problems at the moment. they may not be ready on november 30th. but we're going to see expanded coverage. our stocks are very strong. 30 more people will have coverage and 30 more people will have mental health coverage.

so that will happen. when it all happens rn when it's perfect, who can tell. >> but what you have heard, sir? hopefully can you tell. you're running more than a hundred hospitals. what you have heard? >> we're running about 200. people are telling us that it is more difficult than they had anticipated but people are coming to hospitals. people are getting sick, people are getting injured. they have to go to hospitals and they are still coming. so i think it temporary. i don't know how long that lasts, him and that will be very good for the industry and for the. >> we can see there are problems with the front end of the desk. can you give us an idea of what

is happening at the back end and to cross reference the data and make it available to health care providers like you. because the word is that there could be chaos in opts because nobody's abe to work out who officially has coverage and at level going into the holiday season? >> i think that's going to have to be worked out. certainly the insurers are very concerned with the actuaries. the big problem is are younger people going to sign up? and insurers are very concerned about that, no question about it. but i think ultimately we have to see the extent of the coverage and then the i surers, they will be in business. there are exemptions then you're going to have people who will

happen -- the government will provide subsidies and give the coverage. we're looking forward to the fact we're going to have many more people covered. it as simple as that. ncht and -- >> and he's expressed skepticism about the fact that the wb site will be up here, governor dean joins us. we should note he is also a cnbc contributor. >> thank you. we're ignoring a huge issue, half the people on the obama care, half a million of them are on medicaid. >> that. >> but walk you throughs what

happened tomorrow. -- what's the best and worst case scenario here? >> lots of moaning and growning over the talk shows over the weekend. i think the president actually stated this pretty well. 80% is not what you'd expect from a good web site but it's a whole lot better than than what it was. >> so i'm looking at this story in the wall street journal that hp is replacing verizon as the host of the web site. it also said hp signed a contract this summer. is this opt ibs for you? >> if it doesn't work, the president and democrats are in a lot of troum and they. >> if i don't have coverage, i

still get treated at hospitals and the fiend is less that what i pay in premiums. unless i get into a car wreck, i'm going to be able to sign up, even if i get sick. >> that's actually not true. after the initial signup period, you can only sign up once a year and you don't get any tax subsidies. that's the first problem. if god forbid something does happen to you -- >> and the child and the wife. >> listen, at 25 years old, i would have signed up in i could. >> it the 26 to 30-year-olds that you have to worry about here. and i grief with you, there will be a resistance to signing up but they eventually will. not because of the fine but because it makes sense. you may have spent the harley davidson if you get sick. >> and there's always this

de13thline to have budget. senator paul murray. >> ok >>, i a ridiculous process and they can't get their act together. >> what would you do if you were in the white house? >> cry. no. i think congress has the purse strings, they have to get this together. i think i would probably be having a lot of meetings behind the scenes. they're going to get a bare minimum of strategy talks after this deadline and we need to get this to move on. >> in 2014, are you running for congress? >> no, i like hillary clinton, irthink she'd be a great president so i'm supporting her. >> where's she been? she's difficult nitly laying low. she's worked hard for a along.

>> why are we talking about the 2016 race? >> hobbs/clinton, 2016? >> what makes you think i woulding on that side of the aisle? >> that's a good question, governor. who is going to be challenging anybody -- is it hobbs cruise, hops -- h what more could you do, right? sal lot of value adhere when we're talking about the obama care budget. of course we'll be talking about that for three years. >> up next, how the moles over the country are taking extra measures to protect shoppers this friday. and we'll check in with homeland security right after the break. ♪

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♪ baby, it's cold outside >> it's take your kids to work day. always a fun day on the floor. right now the dow, 16,167. the inflation adjusted all-time high, 16,219. we're pushing that now. >> it's interesting with the s&p constantly above 1800. we can debate whether that is a fresh trading range. ebay, gamestop and microsoft are the top gainers, companies that will feature prominently in the holiday season and at least they hope. in the wake of high profile shootings in jersey and in kenya, shopping malls are taking security very seriously this

holiday season. eamon javers is live with more on that. >> reporter: good morning. we're here at tyson's small in virginia, if you manage a mall, that shooting incident in paramus, new jersey is very much on your mind, as well as others around the country. they're stepping it up. take a listen. >> we're just hoping everyone is in holiday cheer today. >> there will be an enhanced police presence. the mall security is complemented by a law enforcement patrol. in many centers, they've worked through response protocols where they'll shut the doors, attempt to evacuate areas very quickly or shelter in place where it's safe to do so. we certainly saw that in

paramus. >> one of the problems for mall security experts, you don't want to scare away shoppers. shoppers today say they're comfortable with the security around the ball. >> we're just hoping everyone's in the holiday cheer. >> if you get too worried about that, you wouldn't be able to go outside. >> they've got it covered without them being around. >> so there you have it, direct from santa claus himself. he says the security here is fine. if santa says it, he's fine. >> eamon javers, the only man in america in a suit right now. >> he isn't the only person wearing a suit this holiday season. >> you're wearing a suit.

>> but i'm not wearing a full suit. you don't know what's on the bottom. >> david kalb was arrested after being featured in an episode of "american greed." here's a clip. >> april 2012, 29-year-old david kalb pleads guilty orchestrating a series of mortgage and lending frauds across the country. he may be young but he's destroyed lives and stole nearly $11 million says u.s. attorney james bowman. >> i think there's no question he's very intelligent. unfortunately, he decided to use that intelligence to lure people in to give money he was going to lose or spend for himself.

>> he pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 50 families in three separate different fraud schemes. >> not everyone ventures out to the stores on friday. some use the internet. we'll find out how much online traffic is expected coming up. r] if we could see energy... what would we see? ♪ the billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. ♪ we'd see all the electricity flowing through the devices that connect us and teach us. ♪ we'd see that almost 100% of medical plastics are made from oil and natural gas. ♪ and an industry that supports

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the national retail federation says more than half of americans will do their shopping online today. chris payne is the head of ebay north america. welcome to the program. >> good morning. >> what are you seeing? >> it's going to be a big few days. lots going on. since midnight last night, we started our deals program for black friday. we're selling an ipad minui a second, believe it or not. it will be an exciting few days. >> you were selling an ipad mini a second? >> at midnight. >> wow. >> how big is the tablet spend going to be this year and to what degree do you think it will all spend away from other areas? how are you focusing the product that you have? >> there's a lot of great deals

available online. the hottest gifting item this holiday without a doubt is the gaming console, sony and microsoft are kind of duking it out. they're out of stock most places. fortunately you can get them on ebay. we're selling one every couple minutes at this point, people are reselling them on ebay. so if little johnny needs one for christmas, you can get them there. but there's lots of products, particularly around electronics, that are hot this season. >> google glass going for about $26 on ebay. is that going to be one of your big sellers? what's your outlook for the product? >> i wouldn't say it's a big seller yet, it's an innovative product. it won't be a big one for us this holiday. >> you mentioned the reselling of items. i know that's a big part of ebay's business. does that push a lot of your

sales back? are you going to see a lot of sales coming from people not being able to return them and actually reselling them on ebay? >> ebay is about 75% new items. so it's not redominapredominant resale business any longer. right now we're in the heat of the deal season, everything selling out very, very quickly. but as we get past christmas or people want to return something or didn't like the present they got, absolutely, people turn to ebay to sell that product and move on. >> chris, how do you get paid? do you care if an xbox one goes for a thousand dollars or $500? >> we take a percentage. if an xbox one is going between $600 or $700 today, we take a

cut of that transaction. >> this is still an investing network. have i to ask you about where we are on the profitability of the company and where we are on your stock price. you've had a huge surge in google and amazon stock prices. yours continues to fall back. the company warned on october the 16th of a dramatically decelerating u.s. e-commerce growth. how do you square that public statement or that reaction to the interview we've had at this point? >> we're not focused on the short-term movements in the stock. we're focused on delivering for the customer. there's a lot going on. we're really pleased with the first three quarters of this year. at ebay, inc., our commerce vol um is up for the year. we're really focused on innovating on behalf of the

customers. we think we do that, good things will follow. >> forgive me for asking you, are you still seeing a dramatically decelerating e-commerce growth in this country? >> i have nothing to add other than what bob swan, our cfo, added at the last conference call. as you guys know, cyber week, if you will, is a very important week. it's happening right now and we're focused on delivering that value to our customers. >> chris, we spend a lot of time debating the merits of bitcoin. your ceo was quoted as saying it would eventually accept bitcoin. what is your take on this new currency and do you think ebay will eventually start accepting this? >> it's early in the digital currency realm. we allow it in a classified or free format where we don't take a cut of the transaction today.

john donahoe, our ceo has talked about it as a part of our industry but it's very well. >> thank you for joining us. >> some stocks are trading in the s&p right now, ebay is the second best performer today. amazon is about ninth out of 500 names. so people are biography the e-commerce names today, perhaps out of the cyber bounce. >> it's had a rough time when everybody else has been able to accelerate into year end? >> when's simon monday? >> simon monday? >> coming up, we'll see who is

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." black friday is in full swing, though technically it started yesterday. courtney reagan is live at the mall in fairfield, ohio with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. it feels like afternoon or evening here. we've been going strong for quite a number of hours now. ibm says thanksgiving day online sales up 20%. traffic beginning to pick up here at the mall. that's what i'm hearing from malls around the country as

well. jcpenney, one of those retailers that opened doors at 8:00 p.m. jpmorgan thinks traffic is picking up at jcpenney. not every jcpenney shopper agrees. listen to what one of them told us today. >> it wasn't as crowded this year compared to last year, which i was surprised. so it wasn't too much of a difference except for the fact it want crowded. >> a couple of analysts do think that walmart's gradual door buster sales have really helped with traffic. observations traffic heavy at walmart around the country. macy's noted as a clear winner, the door buster specials with the brand names really helping and that data seems to be supported from what we're hearing from the folks out of shopular, it's an app and it says walmart foot traffic up 150% and that macy's is winning

for the longest shopping visit at 79 minutes, followed by jcpenney at 72. >> that's because people are wandering around aimlessly trying to find what they're looking for. >> perhaps. >> where are the socks? hey, go oakwood high. just want to throw that out there. you know what i mean. >> let's get the news on the luxury brands. and the luxury spender, the fed has made everybody richer. >> we play in a different paradigm than a lot of the headlines we're seeing. a lot of the true luxury brands

weren't open, aren't discounting. there are winners and losers. it's really about the product. we can look at a lot of the stats. the luxury shopper is there but they're making choices. >> do you have to discount? at the high end, why discount? >> we are not discounting. our business is really about supporting our designers and about bringing the best product and listening to our collectors and they're there and they're buying. >> can you just give us questions on the products we've got here. how much are the pigs? >> the pigs are $88. they're hand painted. the other ornament is about $150. >> and it's neiman marcus, sachs, fifth avenue? >> that's right. >> your consumers are not

breaking down the doors. what does that mean for aurora brands? >> luckily our consumer is breaking down the door but they're buying at regular price. most of these things are limited edition, hand made, they're very special products. our customers there are. it is a very important week for us. >> how much of your business do you do this week in terms of the overall holiday season? >> well, holiday is about 20% of our business. we'll probably do 15% of that this week. >> lee, you're a private equity guy. you bought this business, you're restructuring it. what is your exit strategy here? we see a lot of private equity getting out on the market. do you look for an acquirer? >> we have important luxury, home, gift, lifestyle brands and we're continuing to build on that platform. >> that isn't really an answer. what is your exit strategy?

>> i think it is either at some point to take the business public or sell to a large strategic. >> that's pretty much what any company will do to maximize their exit strategy. sell the company. our plan is to close up shot and walk away. >> he might say i don't want to exit, i want to stay in this. >> nobody does that. >> really? >> still ahead, the chairman and ceo of ethan allen will join us with his take on the holiday season. back after a quick break.

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the dow is up 53. let's get to rick santelli in chicago. good morning, rick. >> good morning, simon. you know, an expression that we hear quite often these days is there is no alternative. t.i.n.a. using that expression seems to, at least in the urban legend

category, to be credited to margaret thatcher. but the way i think i would like to discuss t.i.n.a. this morning is in the context of what we've heard just today alone, at least several times. and that is -- equities are going up for one major reason, and that, of course, is liquidity and fed programs and supouuper low interest rates, m post-crisis super low, and there is no alternative. the flows will go in the riskier areas because there is no return -- there isn't any return in other areas. but i think that t.i.n.a. can be applied to the fixed income markets, as well. one of the conventional wisdoms just like the notion that stocks will keep going up is that interest rates are going to be broken up into long, medium, and short maturities with the big trade being a yield curve steepening. and historically, at least for the last several months, and maybe even for the last year,

it's been true. it's been a great trade for many on this trading floor, and many viewers and listeners that are running funds and big investment pools, that may be home today watching. but consider. what if they're wrong? i had a guest on wednesday who said, you know, i think maybe the economy would heal faster, which means that the steepeners could quickly turn to flatteners. but think about what that could mean. think about all of the anxieties that we experienced in the credit crisis due to the fact that companies like lehmans, like bear stearns, like drexel burnham lambert, it's about short-term overnight money, trying to procure funds to keep the operation going. a yield curve flattening would mean that short rates could pop up longer and faster than long rates. and if that is true, what about all of the companies that have really fed at the trough of cheap money?

what would happen to them? i've been thinking of ways that the yield curve could flatten. i'll have a guest on. we'll explore that. i'll give you a final thought. the 2014 midterms. now, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, the gridlock in certain ways is one of the reasons i think the yield curve remains steep. if one party becomes dominant, i think that could change. one of the signals, maybe we should pay more attention to is, if the gridlock stops, whether for good or bad, will the yield curve have dramatic changes? big question mark. back to you. >> all right, thank you so much, rick. always enlightening. thanks for your thoughts. second mention of t.i.n.a. on the show. we had ben willis on earlier talking t.i.n.a. meanwhile, we're watching the stock market. and if you need stocking-stuffer ideas, how about a stock filler? dominic chu has some of the possible winners this holiday season. dom? >> kayla, let's stay in the black friday spirit of things, because, of course, it's a huge shopping holiday. let's look at some of the retail stocks that end up doing the best, and this time around,

we're going to look at one part of the retailers specifically, and those are the jewellers, the ones tied to the jewelry business. now, the third-best performing stock among the big retail names that we talk about, over the past black -- three black fridays to the year end, so black friday to the end of the year, over the past three years. on average, blue nile is up almost 16.5% a year during that timeframe. not too shabby. number two, also on the jewelry side of things, zale, one of the biggest jewelry companies in america. that stock is up nearly 19% a year, in terms of the black friday to the year-end period for the last three years, on average. and number one is movado, up over 19% during that time period. the consumer discretionary stocks are a big focus for investors, because if you look at the overall picture, the etf, the one that tracks the consumer discretionary stocks, is up massively, 222% over the course of the last five years, and on average, over the last three holiday shopping seasons between

black friday and year end, kayla, those stocks are up about 4% on average. so again, if you're looking for a place to put your money, some stocking stuffers, check out the consumer discretionary stocks, specifically the ones tied to the jewelry business. back over to you. >> thanks, dom. a programming note for the gentlemen looking to buy something special and shiny, watch on monday. blue nile's president and ceo is an exclusive on "squawk on the street." all right. tweet time. if the pushy crowds and shopping deals aren't clue enough today is black friday -- did you know that today was black friday, america? and here's what it looked like inside a walmart in north carolina yesterday. people basically pushing and shoving, their own children to the ground to buy a television. so today, we're asking you if you could create a hashtag for the twitter verse that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be? we want to hear from you. tweet us @squawkstreet. we'll read some of your answers coming up after the break.

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time to squawk on the tweet. deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers, it is finally black friday. on this morning's squawk on the tweet, if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be? trader bf hunger games. zero margin. which is a point that we've covered many times. and jim tweets, #consumerorange i goseason. not to put too fine a point on it. what would you have gone for, brian? >> i don't know, i'm sort of fascinated by this -- hey, ladies? ladies, would you -- do you want to come up here toer a second? will you come up here? come on up here. it's okay. >> a very fun day. >> it's family day at the new york stock exchange. >> i have me fiance, too. he's enjoying the day. he hasn't gotten his face painted. >> these are not my kids. they're children of folks here at the nyse. come here. and honestly, this is a nice

family environment day. yeah, there you go. what is that? >> a butterfly. >> it's a butterfly. very cool. you know what i'm thinking about, thinking about spending time with the family on black friday, and having a great weekend with wine. >> on that note, brian, thank you for joining us. >> you are very welcome. >> you do your own show -- >> no, i'm going home baby. >> but watch "street signs" monday at 2:00. if you're just tuning, good morning, so far this is what you've missed this black friday morning. >> bye. great job, girls. you made national television. thank you. >> announcer: welcome to "squawk on the street." here's what's happened so far -- >> our competitors were going to be open, so that's what drove our decision that, yes, we definitely got a major, major traffic flow of the young millennial consumer last night and early this morning. we are really encouraged with what we saw last night. the customers were out in droves

and they were excited and shopping. we think there's a lot of pent-up demand, customers are excited about the christmas season. all of the teen retailers have done absolutely miserably, and you wonder, is it because they stink, or is it because everybody is saving up for the latest iphone? started black friday, actually, last friday. they had 65% off plus 20% off with a macy's card. yes, that will hurt margins a little bit, but the key is, they're going in and getting the market share and not letting it walk out the door. [ bell sounds ] >> and this has been described as the super bowl, the world series, the masters, the stanley cup all rolled into one for retailers. so this is the day that -- or the beginning of the weekend that really makes the season for many retailers. >> since midnight last night, we started our deals program for black friday. we weremini a second at midnight. it will be an exciting few days. >> announcer: here we go again.

the "squawk on the street" countdown to christmas has officially begun! ho ho ho! ♪ it's beginning to look a lot like christmas ♪ ♪ everywhere you go >> oh, yes, good morning if you've joined us. we're live here at post 9 at the new york stock exchange. it's giddy day here at the exchanges. let's look at where we are on the markets. we trade through, higher on the day, up 53 on the dow. the s&p, of course, still above 1,800, a big debate as if that now becomes a floor for the market. as we go into 2014. the top 3 winners in the s&p right now, vertex farmer, alexion pharma, and ebay a focus for many on this black friday morning. >> the black friday madness continues this hour with shoppers in full force. we have two big retail chiefs. on tap, the ceo for ethan allen for the pulse on home furnishings, plus an exclusive

interview with the tanger ceo. more than 180 million shop at their locations, and apple isn't big on deals or discounts, but today, the tech giant is giving out store gift cards with certain purchases. is this enough to grab shoppers' attention? all of that coming up this hour on "squawk on the street." on the news alert, let's take you live to washington where first lady michelle obama is due to welcome the official white house christmas tree. you see the staff standing by. the daughters. as soon as we get that, we'll return to the white house for another festive image. target has already been open for over 12 hours. the retailer opened at 8:00 p.m. last night for the first time ever. and it hopes to keep shoppers coming through the weekend holiday. julia boorstin is live at a target in los angeles with more on that. julia, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, simon. there are more than 1,000 people in line here when target opened last night, rushing in for limited door-buster deals,

including a $239 50-inch flat-screen tv which sold out almost immediately. it stayed busy until 1:00 a.m. local and really quieted down. it's starting to pick up again. the mall that the target is located in just opened up. now, it's not just the flat-screen tv that people are going for. all sorts of televisions continue to be really popular. also, a lot of apple products this year. we're seeing a lot of people walk out with ipads and ipad mi minis. target had a special deal giving a gift card to those who bought the air. a lot of people going for electronics. headphones are a big seller. the accessories and games for the new video game consoles. and, also, people are just going for toys. planning ahead for the big holiday season. here's what shoppers told us. >> i got a tablet for my son so he could be able to download apps and music. >> we came for the sales. for the deals.

>> so we got her the beat solo, and my husband got himself this bluetooth for his ipod. my son got himself his ipod, and a game. >> reporter: one big trend this year, doing research online to save both time and money. the folks we've talked to are researching product reviews on youtube, comparing prices on amazon, and using target's new cartwheel app to get additional discounts. all of the online research is translating to more online purchases. target.com saw record traffic last night, and the company says that in the early morning hours, target.com sales were double last year's. so, kayla, we'll have to see if all of the online activity depresses activity here in the stores over the big shopping weekend. back over to you. >> all right, well, stay tuned for that, julia. thanks again for that report. with millions of americans hitting stores today, the next guest is homing home furnishings are on the shopping list.

farooq kathwari is president and ceo of ethan allen interiors. thank you so much for being with us. home furnishings doesn't strike me as a traditional black friday business. but is that changing? >> you know, it is not. in fact -- first of all, i'm glad to be here, especially with all of the kids. if i had known that, i would have gotten our granddaughter samantha with me. fantastic. >> you'll know for next time. >> next time. it is normally not. but there is a change, and a shift is taking place where today i think you are taking a look at the people are now starting to give gifts to themselves. and home's very important. and with all of the crazy things happening in the world, homes have become a haven. and for us, for the first time in our history, i just brought it over, because i was looking at it, you know, we have never done this. that is, black friday goes red at ethan allen. it's a full-page ad in "the new york times" all over the country, television. >> so you've never taken out an ad or done this steep of

discounts on black friday? >> well, discount. take a look, it's only 15%. that's a big issue. if you go into the rest of the paper, 40%, 50%, 60%, to some degree discounts have lost the credibility, because of the fact, how can you have 40%, 50%, 60% discounting all the time and be profitable? but ethan allen, to give 15% is a big deal for us. and this is -- we've done it for the first time. >> we've been debating, you know, the profitability of the retailers. you touched on the one thing that analysts, traders at the new york stock exchange are talking about, with the discounts, how do you maintain profitability? at what point do you say, we can't discount any further? >> absolutely. you know, of course, there are two aspects to it. one is, the issue of credibility. a lot of retailers are losing credibility because consumers now understand that to give 40%, 50%, 60% off, either you're going to be out of business, or you raised your prices to do it. >> but a lot of that -- a lot of that stock -- a lot of the discounts are not really real,

are they? as a businessperson, if you looked into it, they probably never sold it for the higher price, or if they had, it's been limited only. that's been well covered. i'm fascinated about your focus on what works profitably. surely these very big names with very sophisticated managements know what they're doing. >> yeah, see, it is, absolutely. but it is -- people are following each other. it's like a craze. when one major retailer does it, others follow it. somebody else does it even more. it really is going, as you have said, it's almost going -- it's a race to not making money. >> you don't see, then, as these lost leaders to get people into the store, to then buy other stuff once they bought whatever initially attracted them in? is that concept dead to you? >> i think so. i think people today understand that to buy anything at regular prices, it does not make sense. >> who's your customer right now? when i think ethan allen, i think middle-market, possibly a

first-time home buyer. who are you really trying to target right now with some of the discounts and with your actual product selection? >> you know, ethan allen, we've been around for 80 years. we are an iconic american brand. 70% we also manufacture ourselves. we have interior design services. but today, the consumer, especially the younger consumer, is looking for not only great style, great products and also looking for you might say instant gratification. that's a big, major change. >> so it's a younger consumer? what's the confidence level of that consumer? >> well, it's -- let's face it, at this stage, we also have very, very strong consumer base, that you might call baby boomers. because, you know, we are -- we sell great products, great quality, great services. the consumer confidence level, i would say, people are somewhat concerned, i would say that. >> let me ask you about the international expansion. you have 70 locations in china? >> we do. >> seven-zero locations in china. and you're opening now in korea,

jordan, saudi arabia, and romania. those are kind of emerging markets. are you -- just describe to me what the international expansion strategy is. do you see the emerging market as the place for you, because they are perhaps a lower middle class that's emerging, that's where the expansion is? as opposed to what might be happening in this country? >> look at china as a great example. you mentioned korea, the middle east. even now, i'm going a week from now to bucharest for the grand opening of our first ethan allen in eastern europe. they want american brands. >> are they franchises, or are they fully owned? >> they are franchises. we have -- not in america, almost, 70% are owned by the company. we have opened two in belgium this past year. we own those. but the rest are franchises. and the great thing is this, they love the quality, love the service, and we're expanding also in china, and also, as you

said, in korea, in the middle east -- >> jordan and saudi. >> and saudi arabia. >> definitely an interesting expansion story. we want to check back with you, farooq, to see how the black friday promotion worked, whether it was successful or not with how you had hoped, farooq kathwari of ethan allen, thank you so much. >> good to be here. good to see you, simon, too. >> the clock is ticking -- there you are. we're one day away from self-imposed deadline to get the obama website up and running. what happens if it is still not working properly? we'll ask the former hhs secretary michael levitt in a moment. first, rick san tetelli worg his way through the next hour of "squawk on the street." >> if they miss that deadline tomorrow, i doubt the world will come to an end, which maybe is the problem. i also think the world coming to an end in terms of the yield curve, which is our topic today,

money markets may have a lot to do with knowing when the yield curve actually starts to flip the other way. why, you ask? well, of course, you'll have to come back in ten minutes when i talk about that topic with dan "the man" stesich. [woman]ask me...

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the online insurance marketplace for small businesses. let's bring in michael levitt, founder and chairman of leavitt partners, served as hhs secretary under the last bush administration. he's, of course, the former governor of utah. mr. secretary, welcome to the program. this decision to delay now for one year the ability of small businesses to buy what they need online, they'll have to go through other agencies, through other brokers. do you think that's decent triage or an indication that they really are very troubled now? >> it's been very evident that the small business exchange was in trouble for a long time. they had deferred this before. it does put small businesses in a precarious situation, because they have not been relieved from the mandate -- or individual mandate, but that the businesses will have fewer choices. i think many businesses were thinking this would be a means by which they could find choices for their employees, and

obviously, that will be the burden now. >> do you think in the meantime that the white house will meet its goal of having basically 80% of americans able to do what they have to do on the federal website as of tomorrow night? and how should they communicate that to the public as, of course, they go out next week to try to court younger pooh eer join that process? if they say everything is fixed, they could presumably overload the website if people try to log on, as they must do? >> frankly, i have not heard the number 80% before. but the vast majority, or as the number that i've heard them use. i think, frankly, there's going to be a gradual improvement. it has been gradually improving. but one of the dilemmas that the administration found themselves in is they had to put out a date certain, but they created such expectation now around this date, it'll in some ways hard to meet, because everyone who doesn't see it, they'll have

failed. i think they will continue to see steady improvement in the technology. how quickly people will come back is a mystery to all of us. >> mr. leavitt, depending on what happens tomorrow, there will be detractors and there will be people who cheer it. how are you watching it, and what are you watching for to mark the relative success of how this relaunch actually goes? what are you looking for? >> my point of reference was the medicare part d plan, which i was responsible for implementing. we went through a six to eight-week period of frankly a lot of technology problems that over -- or at least in the sixth, seventh, eighth week, we did see it smooth out. our problems with -- were different, they were less profound. but what i'm going to be looking for are a set of metrics that can demonstrate that there is clear progress, understood, and that it's steady. >> mr. secretary, given your

experience, are you able to just shed some light on what the technical implications are as we now learn of the decision to move the contract to host the whole service away from verizon and over to hp, and presumably, therefore, all of the great d a databases and action to hp over the coming weeks? how big of a job is that from your point of view, from a policy perspective? and would you have made that decision given where we obviously are? >> well, none of us have the benefit of real insight into why they made the decision. but i think you could look at it one of two ways. you could say, first of all, it shows an aggressive desire to get it fixed, and they must have come to the conclusion that what they were doing wasn't going to work. and secondly, obviously, there was a point where they had to say, we have -- we've got to take a chance here on a new vendor. the biggest, and i think most

important change they've made, is that they have implemented now one contractor to be the integrator. that's where -- that was the most serious mistake, in my v w view, on top of the -- that mistake, and then the mistake of not getting the regulations out in a timely way. those were the two mistakes that have ultimately created all of this dilemma. >> in the meantime, it will be a very interesting weekend. mr. leavitt, former secretary, thank you very much for joining us, sir. >> thank you. if you're watching this video at home, you may be one of the lucky ones, because stores across the country have been mobbed this black friday. so just how much are people spending this holiday season? we'll ask steven tanger, ceo of tanger outlets, a little later in the show. we're back on "squawk on the street" after a quick break.

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on the rise. one of the better performers today. it's being helped along by a positive note. saying the recent sale of product royalty rights to a hepatitis-c job to janzen pharmaceuticals, so again, simon, nice moves for the vrtx shares. over to. >> sure is. dom, thank you very much. let's check on where we are with gold. of course, today, we're not finishing out the week -- a holiday-shortened week, but finishing up the month of trade. it's worth noting that so far gold is down about 6.5%. that would be the worst november since 1978 when it plunged almost 20%. it's the worst month since june of this year, and it is the third, kayla, consecutive monthly decline. >> there's an interesting chart on our website right now. bitcoin versus gold. and the question, would you rather buy an ounce of gold or one bitcoin? bitcoin is at 1,165 roughly earlier today. so they're right in the same price range there. what would you do, simon?

>> i'm very concerned that we keep covering bitcoin as though it were a -- as though it were an asset of value and quality, and bitcoin is not an asset, according to the critics of value and quality. i don't think -- >> its valuation is simple supply-and-demand -- >> the valuation is manipulated by things we don't understand. >> two other stocks we want to mention at all-time highs, some of the shippers, fedex, u.p.s. as people are shipping on cyber monday, coming up. and, also, thanksgiving, big day for online. those stocks are also at all-time highs. meanwhile, treasury prices dropping on a shortened holiday trading day. we've been watching them all day. the market is scheduled to close at 1:00 p.m. eastern, so we have an hour and a half left. we'll head over to rick santelli in chicago for more on the treasury market. rick? >> well, thank you. first of all, market closing, the cash market, it will definitely be closing at 2:00 eastern, the futures markets at 1:00 eastern. and with regard to bitcoin, i had an epiphany listening to you talk about it.

the only way to bring bitcoin down to a real price to make sense is to start minting them in gold. that'll definitely be the end of the bull market, right? [ laughter ] all right, dan, i hope you had a nice thanksgiving. >> a great one. >> we talked about t.i.n.a. earlier. >> right. >> there is no alternative. and i think that describes stocks adequately. would the steep yield curve by the t.i.n.a. with regard to the you'll curve? >> at this point, that seems to be the case. people are flooding to the equities. the short-term rates aren't there, so you have to make something somewhere. >> and they're not there for what reason? >> the fed is keeping them artificially -- >> okay, the fed is -- >> let's not get -- yeah, right. >> let's kick the tires on this a bit. borrow, short, lend, long. it's not as cute as t.i.n.a., but bsl squared. >> sounds good. >> we have seen how companies have lots of value, but if you can't get your hands on it in a timely fashion? >> they'll get caught in a

squeeze, and it will cost them extra money. and the firms won't be profitable. >> let's walk down the fantasy lane. if the fed can do it, why can't we? let's say the bulk of the economy does better, the pavl pavlovian effect, with the salivating, we've have conditioned companies to do, live in the short end where rates are cheap? isn't that possible? >> it is possible. >> what happens to the companies if there's a quick curve fluctuation from steep to flatter? >> if, in fact, the economy doesn't grow enough for the firms to be profitable, you have an issue. because they're not getting the revenues in. the economy is doing a little better. the km he has to do a lot better in order to keep the same equation, because you'll have the higher short-term rates, and it will cost them more money. >> if we ever came to the point where, let's say, the fed acknowledged that a bulk of the economy was really starting to fire on all cylinders, would these issues about the yield

curve be important in the realtime, or, i think, the greatest fear is, is that the market would sense that early and start to flatten the curve early? the impression of things getting better? >> well, you know, the market senses what's going to happen, first. if you look at what happened to the 10-year and 30-year when all of the talk was maybe the fed will begin tapering. if you want to watch things, you have to watch the money market. don't watch what the fed is talking about, because they'll be behind the curve. >> we're out of time. if there's trillions of dollars in the money market now, what would happen if short rates moved higher? >> well, you get a bunch more in there. >> where do you think that might come from? >> well -- >> maybe the equities? >> possibly a closer market, better return, though. >> we have to go. thanks, dan -- >> you're welcome. >> -- for showing up on this friday. back to the gang. >> thank you, rick. the bells are about to sound overseas. we're just a few minutes left in europe's trading day. we'll have that close for you and the impact on the u.s. markets right after this break. black friday morning on cnbc. 'r. and we're here.

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>> announcer: the european markets are clothing now. as the bells sound, you'll see we're relatively flat overall. if you look at the numbers on the video wall. interesting data, house prices in the u.k. rising at their fastest in three years, up now 6.5% year-on-year. a bigger issue is that the euro zone inflation strengthened on the latest figures to 0.9%, and unemployment actually ticked

down from the record 12.2% to 12.1%. both of those are positive signs, but it's not enough for the ecb to just stand back and not do anything moving forward. it seems to be the view. there was, incidentally, a big miss on german retail elsas, falling month on month. you can argue the pace of the economic expansion is not picking up momentum in the euro zone at the moment. of course, yesterday, we actually traded in europe when these markets here in this country were closed. so let's have a look at how that tracks for the week overall. and i think it's a slight outperformance for the european markets. yes, there you go. meanwhile, today, the banks have done well. it's basically on individual corporate data. you see credit agricall is higher. italy's third largest bank doing well after the capital raise. and just want to mention where we are on the euro, because in the last 24 hours, the netherlands have been stripped of the aaa rating by s&p. spain has been raised from

negative watch by s&p to bbb-minus. both of the elements seem to be shrugged off by the markets, because, as we heard in our slot just now, the markets have to move in advance of the ratings agencies. you see the you're reuro still strong. kayla, people are saying, when does that become so painful that they're trying to talk it down? >> the credit waiting bumped up one notch, still in the single-b rating. the map earlier, it was largely green. we did see a reversal from what we saw earlier in the morning. >> it's tiny. marginal. >> yes. we want to look at what's moving here at home. we have mary thompson on the floor of the new york stock exchange with a look at the u.s. markets. mary? >> hey there, kayla. a record day in a shortened day of trading here at the new york stock exchange. the dow and s&p continuing their march into record territory. the nasdaq at a 13-year high, with nasdaq 4,100, within striking distance. now, the dow and s&p both on track for the eighth-straight

week of gains, long winning streak for both of those. let's look at the sectors moving the markets now to the upside. this is consumer discretionary. no surprise. on this black friday. we're seeing strength in energy, particularly the oil and gas equipment companies look strong today. and technology is strong, as well. speaking of technology, all of the commentary coming out of the retailers suggests that is one area of strength. a lot of ipads being sold, a lot of video games being sold. and as a result, both best buy and gamestop are performing well today. taking a look at some of the companies that are hitting all-time highs, the stocks are hitting all-time highs today. it's fitting on black friday that you have walmart hitting an all-time high. macy's hit one earlier, pulled back a little bit, along with hasbro, the toymaker and some of the participants that will deliver, fedex and u.p.s. but fedex pulling back. and the dow transports, for the past three months, strongest among the dow, s&p, transports, et cetera. the leader have been the airlines, but they're weaker

today. simon, back to you. >> thank you very much, mary. shoppers out in force, of course, this black friday, as you might expect. let's check in with a man who has a very good gauge on the pulse of the computer here at post 9, steven tanger, president and ceo of tanger factory outlet centers. they own and operate 44 shopping centers no you in 26 states and canada. good morning. >> hi, simon. how are you? >> how's business? what's happening out there? >> business is very good, thank heavens. the consumers are out enjoying being together with their fam y family. we had a more robust black friday than we had anticipated. as you might imagine, you probably heard, the month of november is the new black friday. >> yeah. >> the season has been extended. but overall, we're expecting a good holiday season, up probably low single digits. >> what is the -- what is the pressure -- i think you opened last night at 10:00, didn't you? >> we did. >> what is the pressure within the mall, with the other -- with the other clients?

i mean, what are they saying to you opening the mall overall? what's the discussion like at the moment? >> well, it's a fine balance between family time and social issues with opening early to attract more customers. >> do they approach you? do they say, look, we have to open earlier? is there conflict between retailers? >> no, there really is no conflict between retailers. as you might imagine, we get paid 24/7 every day. so we encourage retailers to do what they feel is right, to balance between the social issues with families of their employees, and the economic issues of trying to generate more sales. >> well, what is the conflict with having to sell online? because oftentimes, the draw of an outlet is you have to drive there to actually get the deal, and you have to walk into the store and see what's being offered there in person. i've noticed some of the reta retailers have started launching factory website, j. crew is the one that comes to mind. do you worry that the outlet is going to shift online, as well?

>> we don't think so, kayla. but we're finding less than 7% of our tenants have a -- an o outlet dot-com website. we sell 93%, 94% of the products sold in tanger outlets are apparel and footwear. it's difficult to buy that online when you have colors and sizes. you really doesn't know except if you're buying basics. and going shopping is a family experience. it's a social experience. >> is it also true to say that if i am a brand, the merchandise that i sell in my main store and online is of a higher quality than what i would sell in an outlet? it's not the same product, is it? meaning, you can't have a website for both. it would conflict. >> every product sold in the tanger outlets center by every one of the close to 500 brands has the brand name in the label. every ceo's primary job is to protect and enhance their brand.

no products sold in any distribution channel is going to diminish the quality of the brand. >> well, what's the tech footprint at tanger? because you're mentioning apparel and luggage and jewelry and that sort of stuff is typical at an outlet center, but we've heard all morning that tech will probably outsell a lot of the apparel stuff this season. do you worry that you're going to lose out on some of the sales by not having a lot of tech outlets? >> there is no real hot item today. apparel sales will be extended all the way through the first of the year. the outlets do a tremendous volume between christmas and the first of the year where gift cards are exchanged or used. so we're not seeing that. it's, as in every year, small electronics, whatever the hot item is, consumer electronics tends to sell early. but apparel, the weather's beautiful now around the country, it's chilly, outerwear is selling, and most of our brands are exceeding their plan.

>> mr. tanger, before you go, there is this whole conversation about the bifurcation of the market, the fact that those that are more upscale, probably have more money because of the stock market and house prices rising, those at the bottoms have incomes that have not shifted and food stamps -- cuts in food stamps, forgive me. is that showing up in what you see for 2014 in the sort of leases and the sort of activity you're getting from the clients? are you seeing value being less anxious to expand? >> we're not seeing that, simon, at all. tanger properties around the united states and in canada are 99% occupied. most of which have waiting li s lists. so we're not seeing any of what you're commenting on. >> sounds like a good business. >> so far, in the past 33 years, it's been a great business. thank you for having me. >> thank you for coming in. steven tanger, joining us exclusively. >> thank you, simon. we're still on retail on this busy black friday. we have big protests under way at 1,500 different walmart stores across the country,

fighting for higher wages and better benefits. we'll bring you the latest from one of the protests. that's coming up next on "squawk on the street." announcer: where can an investor be a name and not a number? scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office. they're nearby and ready to help. so when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade. announcer: ranked highest in investor satisfaction with self-directed services by j.d. power and associates. stick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the new flexcare platinum from philips sonicare and save now. philips sonicare. [ male announcer ] if we could see energy... what would we see? ♪

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>> how is this possible? >> he said something about doing channel checks for elle brands. >> she's looking for door busters at tesla. >> there weren't any. >> we are checking the retail side of the whole thing on this black friday. we've got some ceos coming up to tell us. >> that's right. we'll talk to the ceo of lands' end, to see what's flying there, out of their stores. we'll also talk to ibm about some of the analytics, because you know we love the numbers here. they should have an early read. they have 800 points of sale, where they'll be able to tell us exactly what people are or aren't buying today. >> does priceline have a season like this? is this important to them? you bet. the ceo of priceline americas will be joining us. come on out, if you're in the area, at the short hills mall. >> and bring a coffee. >> please. the line at starbucks is out the door. >> some things never change, guys. a special "closing bell" today. thank you very much. big protests are under way at 1,500 different walmart stores across the country.

workers and supporters are demonstrating against what they call wages that are too low to live on. phil lebeau is live outside a walmart in chicago. phil, over to you. phil, can you hear me? you're live on the television. phil lebeau, can you hear me? i think we have -- >> reporter: simon, i'm down the street from a walmart anybo neighborhood market sheer in the lakeside avenue neighborhood of chicago. i can, simon. do you hear me? i'm not really sure what happened. >> okay. phil, we've got a terrible delay getting to you, phil. we'll come back to phil lebeau in a few moments' time. meanwhile, we do want to talk about apple. a company that's not big on discounts or deals, but today,

only, the tech giant is giving out store gift cards with certain purchases, including the i pad. will it be enough for tim cook to get an apple ipad christmas, or will the competition bridge that gap? we'll bring in a writer with the street.com. thank you guys for being with us on this busy black friday. >> good morning. >> rocco, we'll start with you, because the big question is whether apple can maintain its market share. it's been slipping in the last kwauf quarter. it was 29.5%. what do you see being the a risk here for apple? >> i see the future being at risk, but that's about it. i'm not concerned at all about market share. apple is the perfect illustration of what's right in retail. they create an experience. they have this new tablet, the ipad air, people said, well, it's a little lighter, what's the big deal? go to the apple store and play with one, and you'll see they've created an experience, and what they feel like a tablet should be, and people are buying it. they're buying that and the mini. you go to an apple store, you go

to, say, lulu, even a tesla store, even though you're not buying a car, you might be compelled to pick up a t-shirt, because they create great experiences. that's a long-term strategy in retail. suck people in with the experience. don't get them all excited about door-buster deals that everybody is doing and this thing that people are calling a race to the bottom now. my concern is, can they maintain this momentum, can they maintain the hale effect? i upgrade my iphone every couple of year, upgrade my ipad, can they maintain this in the future? can cook come up with another category to kill, reinvent, or create? >> well, experience aside, the real issue is price tag does matter. eric, for a lot of the deals, the ipad money going for $299 at most retailers, and a samsung a higher price range there. when you're canvassing the tablet market this holiday season, who do you think will end up winning this race? >> oh, i think apple will win the tablet market hands down. anecdotally, people have been telling me in my twitter feed,

the lines for the ipad products are long, and the other products, not especially long at all. you did mention that apple is dropping market share, but i think it's falling in market share -- it's about a 30%, 35% market share, depending on who you ask, that's as the tablet market generally is getting bigger. so by volume, it's probably quite a bit larger, even though the share of the 100% pie is a little smaller. >> you know, rocco, i want to push back about what you said just now about apple basically winning the party on its own. you are a man of great culture and indeed great wealth, and you may see -- you may see the world in a different way to other people that are more prescient, and if you look at the type of advertising on national television, particularly from the likes of intel, or from the likes of microsoft with the surface, they clearly think that there is a game there for them to win. >> i would agree, there probably is. they can pick up some of the people that aren't going to buy apple products.

the point that we're kind of missing in this conversation is that apple really never has cared about market share. now, sure, they were the market share leader with the ipad, but things have changed in that market. there are more entrants, as we just illustrated. so why focus on market share for apple? they don't want to focus on the people that will pay the $200 chromebook. that's not their market. it never has been. they don't cut corners. they create experiences. they go after a customer that is going to pay a high price, no question the stuff is overpriced, but they know they're getting experience and quality product they can count on. that's the market. i don't care if they miss an analyst estimate by 500,000 units on the iphone. i don't care if their market share, you know, happens to slip one quarter. that's not what they're about. they're about building a long-term strategy that's sustainable, and hooks people into what is hands down the best ecosystem in tech. >> right. well, we will soon enough see how that panned out this holiday season.

rocco and eric, we have to leave it there for you now. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> you bet. this is the first-ever bitcoin black friday. we'll be joined by the co-founder of the fight for the future, the group that is helping to organize today's event. have a look at how bitcoin is trading against the dollar right now. relatively flat from the session overall, but you will be aware that it has had an amazing run. ♪ you can stand me up at the gates of hell ♪ ♪ ♪

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let's send it back to phil

lebeau, who's outside that walmart in chicago. massive protests are under way, 1,500 different walmart stores across the country. phil, what do you have for us? >> reporter: simon, we're in the lakeview neighborhood on the north side of chicago, and this was the scene just an hour ago in front of a walmart neighborhood market. there were about 75 protesters here -- [ audio difficulties ] -- in front of the neighborhood market. the police warned them to move. they would not move, because they were stopping traffic. so several protesters were arrested for blocking the traffic. two of the protesters arrested were walmart employees. here's what one of them had to say as he was being led away by the police. >> i normally get retaliated tonight when i come in, but it doesn't matter. i'm 45 years old, and like i said, everyone else have a living age in the chicago area, and we need one, too. if we stood up and fight with everyone from cta, chicago

police, chicago fire department, we stood with them, and now we would love for them to stand with us. hey, this is working. it's not for me. it's for my workers. >> reporter: this is what -- 1,500 protests scheduled for around the country. walmart's minimum wage is $8.80 an hour. [ audio difficulties ] -- comes out to $12.50 an shower. keep in mind, we have reached out to walmart executives to get their reaction today. but we've not heard back from them. [ audio difficulties ] -- walmart executives have said they pay their employees a fair wage and that they are willing to talk with them, but that's the story from here on the north side of chicago, back to you. >> good to see you, phil. we apologize to the viewers for the poor quality of the audio link. phil lebeau, live, as you can

tell, in chicago. mark your calendars, bitcoin is officially going black friday this year. supporters of the virtual currency are bringing together more than 500 merchants in what's being billed at the first-ever bitcoin black friday. an online shopping extravaganza just for those that have their hands on bitcoin. this on a day when bitcoin topped $1,200 earlier this morning. helm wilson is part of the group helping to organize bitcoin black friday. welcome to the program, sir. what essentially is it, what are you organizing? >> so bitcoin black friday is a one-day event where you can get great deals on holiday shopping for using bitcoin. you can get everything from smartphone to a bottle of wine to coffee or honey, gift cards, to well-known retailers like target, amazon, or gamestop. and there's even a site selling christmas trees. you can get a fresh christmas tree delivered to your door.

if you buy with bitcoin, they'll include christmas lights for free. >> are you creating platforms that people can use their bitcoins on that access other vendors, or are more vendors taking bitcoin directly? >> we have a site that has over 500 deals listed. so we put out the call to vendors that are accepting bitcoin. we tried to get some new vendors to start accepting bitcoin for the day of. and there's over 500 of them. some are well known businesses like the web-hosting site wordpress or online dating site okcupid. and they're all offering deals today, but only if you use bitcoin. >> when you look at that image, holmes, it looks like a fairly smattering of merchants. what has the reception been like when talking about this concept and potentially participating? what have they said? >> well, people are excited about it. i mean, a lot -- there's a lot of excitement around this new technology. it makes doing online transactions so much easier, and it also -- it also cuts out the

fees. you know, whenever you use a credit card online, there are these fees that are largely hidden to consumers, but really add up for businesses. bitcoin's a bit more like cash. no middleman. if you send someone bitcoin, they get all of it. and it's much more simple and efficient. >> it's not like cash, though, is it? let's have a look at one of the charts for the year, if we can. >> up 8,600%. >> cash is something that is basic fundamental, like a utility, you kind of know that tomorrow it's going to be worth what it is today. now, that chart's fine. if you're selling -- if you're selling merchandise and accepting bitcoin, good for you. because the bitcoin that you've accepted is gaining in value. but it's a huge liability. if bitcoin becomes bigger, for those vendors with the holding bitcoins, sir, because as you know, holmes, it could equally plunge. >> of course, yeah. one really important thing that's happened in the past few months is that merchants services like coinbase and

bitpay let businesses that accept bitcoin cash out into dollars or other currencies immediately once the transaction is completed at the rate of that moment. it becomes a pass-through and a way to get transactions done, like paypal, only more efficient and simpler for everyone. >> all right. fascinating development. holmes wilson, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. and just a reminder, keep the tweets coming. we have deep discounts, pushy shoppers, all of that means it has to be black friday. you're watching a scene inside a walmart yesterday. shoppers fighting over tvs. wow, quite a brawl going on there. we're asking if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be? tweet us at squawkstreet. you get your coffee here. you get your hair cut here. you find that certain thing you were looking for here,

but actually you get so much more. when you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. the money you spend here, stays here. in this place you call your neighborhood. tomorrow is small business saturday. get out and shop small. ♪ ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review.

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[ music transitions to rock ] make it happen with the all-new fidelity active trader pro. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades when you open an account. tweet time! deep discounts, combative crowds, pushy shoppers, yes, black friday has finally arrived. so we've been asking you all morning, if you could create a hashtag that captures all of the black friday madness, what would it be? homenet tweets, #blackeyefriday. will tweets, #omggottahave it --

>> that's a mouthful. >> and manny tweets #trampled. which kind of sums it up in many ways. >> i think it does. i like walmarthungergames. >> kayla, thank you for today. >> thank you for having me. >> that brings us to the end of "squawk on the street" for this black friday. let's send it over to a special early extravaganza of a "closing bell." thank you, simon. and welcome indeed to a very special noontime edition on the east coast of "closing bell," i'm kelly evans. on this black friday, we are coming to you live from the mall at short hills in new jersey. i've dragged him here. >> i cannot believe i'm saying, i'm bill griffeth, here at the short hills mall in new jersey on a black friday. i'm shopping on a black friday. this is my worst nightmare here. >> i don't know. i saw you over thereoo