high. >> it was a large collection of ceos in that room. you can see the president still mingling with some of them on a day when the stock market is at another high. you have the nasdaq up seven points watching the dow and the s&p. thanks for watching. "power lunch" begins right now. thanks very much, scott. joined by sue herrera at the new york stock exchange and john harwood in washington where the president as john just pointed out lingered for almost two hours speaking with, talking to, taking questions from some of america's most prominent ceos. it was, john, a wide ranging two-hour conversation. i listened at the end there to the very pointed question from electric power executive about the level of regulation and answered basically by saying i'm

sympathetic in principle that the are regulations we need to do away with but on balance the common good has often benefitted from some of the regulations that have made business more expensive to do. he cited the former pollution in the chicago river, his hometown. >> exactly, tyler. the president tried to make the ceos understand the limitations on him as a political figure. at one point i believe it was fred smith of fed ex said why don't you just by the end of the year pass an infrastructure bill to raise the gas tax and provide a solid foundation for infrastructure funding. the president made the argument that it sounds great but very, very difficult to get congress to move. he lingered a long time, ranged across issues of government shutdown, tax reform, of immigration reform, all things where the business roundtable and president obama have been in league with one another although

they haven't always gotten what they wanted. but the president clearly tried to tease out those areas of agreement. as you suggested, tyler, cultivate members by -- he gave them a sense having let our cameras in on this meeting he said i said this to my staff but haven't said it publically before which would be endearing for the audience to say let's find the 25%. that is the way this president was trying to move the ball in terms of his relationships with these executives. >> he also said the corporate tax reform should come first and outlined some ideas on the table. do you think he swayed any of his republican counter parts? obviously a number of them want corporate tax reform. did he sway anyone who perhaps had been working against some of his ideas? >> i seriously doubt it, sue. everybody in theory as the president said agrees on the

need for a corporate tax reform. but because president obama insists on it being revenue neutral, a point he made to these executives it means there will be winners as well as loseers. that makes it difficult to pass because the losers make a lot more noise than winners do. republicans have a greater interest than the president does in getting the rate done. they don't care whether it is revenue neutral or not. the idea that you would have a relative shift of the tax burden from business to ordinary workers paying the income tax is something that republicans might accept but the democratic president would not accept. i think we are in a long-term conversation on tax reform that will bear fruit one day. >> john, i felt there were a couple of areas that were very interesting. he was quite illuminating on mr. putin. i would like to hear your thoughts on that. he talked about our competition

with china. and he said at one point i would much rather have our problems, thorny though they may be than the problems china has at the same time pointing out that china has been able to invest billions of dollars in its infrastructure. he still thinks ours is better but that they are narrowing the gap and that in the long term is worrisome. >> there are several interesting points there. he said his relationship with vladimir putin was blunt but business like. he suggested the relationship wasn't the problem. obviously the president has not been able to bend russia in the west direction on issues regarding ukraine. on china he talked about how china was slowing down to 7% growth and said we would take that over here but gave the reason for that as china rebalancing its economy to try to build up its middle class which is something u.s. policy

has encouraged. all in all i think the president as he discussed economic developments around the world was able to say something that these corporate leaders well understand which is that in relative terms the u.s. economy is doing quite well compared to our allies and emerging markets, too. >> he also said and there have been calls for him to be tougher on china and said basically punishing china is not the way to go. i find that comment interesting given some of the calls by both sides of the aisle to address the china currency issue among other things. >> the china currency issue is partly in the service of achieving that rebalancing. he expressed confidence that china was undertaking that initiative. of course, he has just cut a deal with china on carbon emissions which he hopes will be

the foundation of a global deal in that regard. so he is at the moment because of what he called substantial deliverables that came out of beijing feeling a little more bullish on that relationship than some have in the recent past. >> you pointed out that this is a generally more moderate audience of business executives, some of the largest companies in the country as compared with the kind of questions and the kinds of reception he would have received from the u.s. chamber of commerce. that seems significant here. was very pilot. he is still hanging, back slapping, shaking hands. >> some of these are his people. the business roundtable think back 25, 30 years ago when ronald reagan was president. this was a staunchly conservative republican group. now you've got the growth of tech executives in the roundtable. you have some wall street executives who are not down the

line conservative especially on social issues. it just means that in terms of donors, in terms of allies on certain policy questions the president's got friends in that room. maybe not most of them but a significant number. >> what do you basically think comes out of this? he addressed some wide ranging issues, immigration, corporate tax reform, reform of the individual tax code itself. when this event is over what happens next? where does he take this? how does he use this? >> this is not a satisfying answer but i think net-net zero is close to what the answer is because what he wants from business is to try to prod republicans in congress to make deals with him in certain areas like immigration, for example. i think that given the structure of our two parties it is

unlikely that those will be achieved. is there some working relationship he can foster on those regularatory issues where he said you are right part of the time we will work with you. i'm certain business will want to follow up on those offerings by the president but legislatively in terms of getting out of congress things on taxes and immigration for example the odds against those are low. >> i see him just passing hellos with fred smith of fed ex who asked a question basically about infrastructure and the president said i have to talk to mcconnell and boehner about whether any major funding the highway bill and so forth could come out of this new republican-controlled congress. is there a likelihood of success, i guess i'll say, on infrastructure in the next congress? >> as we see him shake hands with michael dell.

>> a couple of points, guys. one is i do think that as a deminmusoutcome existing projects will be funded. the question is, can you adopt a more stable funding source and increase the level of infrastructure investment which after all is the goal of the roundtable and the goal of the administration and the goal of some republicans on the hill. the latter two are more difficult to do. i think what we see a lot of in the next two years is things that keep waters as calm as republican leaders can keep them in terms of keeping the government open, avoiding debt crisis, building on that for new achievements for expansions of programs that both sides value is going to be hard to come together. >> you know, i know you said you didn't think much would come out of this in terms of progress for the president maybe with both

sides of the aisle. what about his image with the american people? he spoke frankly on issues that is important to a lot of americans like immigration and other things. does it boost his standing with some parts of the american public after a two hour q&a session like we just saw? >> i think it is hard to fundamentally change what any significant number of people think about this president. he has been in the public eye now for ten years. he has been running for president beginning in 2007. been president for the last six years. it's tough to change an image that has accumulated so much depth to it. could there be an incremental softening of some people who heard something and said i didn't realize the president agreed with us a little bit on regulation? possible but i don't think it is likely that would happen in a big way. i want to play a little bit of

the sound from what we heard from the president on tax reform, in particular corporate tax reform which has been an issue. the president said i want it but i'm not willing to expand the deficit to do it. here he is talking. >> what we are not willing to do is to structure a tax deal in which either it blows up the deficit or alternatively that you get tax shifting from businesses to middle class and working families. >> even though some people, for example, wall street firms which pay a relatively high effective rate will benefit, some will have to pay for that by giving up deductions and that won't be easy for everybody in that room to swallow. >> i want to spend most of my time -- in the short term there will be winners and losers

including in this room. the question then becomes are folks willing and ready to go ahead and make that move for the sake of a simpler, more stream lined more sensible tax system. >> that was one of two areas where the president was confronting leaders with some of the trade offs he faced. one was on taxes and the other on immigration where some executives were discussing the peace meal approach that republicans have offered and whether or not they could agree on some things like visa expansions and additional entry for graduates. the president said you can't cherry pick those things off because you will need those together in a package. the round table supports them but the republicans don't necessarily buy his notion. >> thank you very much john harwood for us from washington where the president has just

wrapped up a better than two hour. one of the top business execs who was there was ceo rex tillerson of exxon mobil in the room with the president. before that he was on squawk box this morning. crude dropping 30% since june. we said that about 4,000 times here lately. exxon mobil shares have taken a hit in that time. they are off about 5%. don't worry too much about it. they are still making about 8 billion a quarter. tillerson from "squawk box." >> it means a return to fundamentals for us. it is important about watching your cash and your investment decisions, being very disciplined about everything and looking for opportunities that may present themselves in an environment like this. this year we will add about 1.6 million barrels a day from supply. so you take a 1.6 million barrel

a day supply growth on top of 1 million barrel a day demand growth you have a surplus of capacity. at a time when opec members are by and large holding their production flat. you fill storage up, fill inventories up and at some point it has to show up in the price. all of the investment decisions we take have been tested across a range of pricing and accommodates these types of price swings. you ensure you can invest and be successful at the bottom. >> we test across a range down to $40 and up to $120. we now have significant title holdings in the balken and some very liquid rich plays in oklahoma. we are quite happy with the performance of those. it is a huge resource base. so if you are in our business you have to be in the big resource bases around the world. and this is one of the largest resource plays in the world. >> let's bring in brian sullivan

who just got back from the bakken in north dakota. gentlemen, exxon ceo is comfortable with $40 a barrel oil. i guess partly if you are exxon you can be. >> sure you can. first off, exxon buys a lot of oil. they are in upstream and down stream. also think about this. if oil stays at these levels and if our reporting for the bakken is accurate they might have to start selling assets on the cheap. who do you think would be ready to start picking up prime assets on the cheap? exxon, chev ron, the big players that have excess capital. >> he said they are already doing just that buying resources in the bakken because it is one of the newest big finds in the world these days. >> a well will cost you about $9

million to buy and start the well. it was $6 million five years ago. the operating costs have almost doubled because of the -- fracking makes things cheaper but not the land leases and not the labor. >> where do you see oil? we will play a sound byte in just a minute from another oil executive. where do you see oil headed in light of the fact that opec is keeping production stable? we ran a piece the other day saudis can pull oil out of the ground at a very low price. >> they have enough cash reserves to weather any storm in prices relative to their other opec counter parts, relative to russia all of whose national budgets are priced significantly higher. comfortable around here there is still more risk to the down side. there is a risk of a rally if the dollar should weaken or some middle eastern event. most of the fracking that's

being done in the united states is relatively profitable. range between $50 to $80. there is just a lot of oil in the world. there are stories out talking about how the saudis would be comfortable with $60. refiners into u.s. are selling gasoline $2.55 a gallon around the country. >> i do believe that the ceo of exxon mobil might know the oil business. i'm just speculating. >> you think he does? >> he said 1.6 million barrels a day new production, 1 million barrels a day in new demand leaving 600,000 barrels a day a slack. i think he figured out. we will go to dominic chu for a quick breaking news. >> here is what we have. we are watching a handful of names, a number of stocks in today's trading showing unusual moves on spikes in volume here. shares of analogue devices. i will throw a chart up for you. we have seen some moves to the

upside on no apparent news. we are looking at why things are happening. traders are asking what is going on with the names. best buy, that chart, as well, you can see unusual activity. cablevision showing signs that there is some unusual volume there. joy global shares. these are just four of the names that maybe some of our viewers are more familiar with. a handful of the names across the market are showing unusual activity. we are trying to work on figuring out why it is happening. a lot of traders e-mailing us saying there is something going on with these names. we are going to try to figure out what it is. >> our jim cramer spoke with the oil tycoon boone pickens on mad money last night. let's take a listen. >> we have increased production a million barrels a year for the last three years. that is remarkable, no place

else in the world has that happened. consequently i think you are going to probably see opec do something in the first quarter of next year as far as cutting production. but i'm not sure how much they have to cut to get to where i said you would be in 12 to 18 months. you will be back at $100 a barrel. >> back at $100 a barrel. you are shaking your head. >> i bumped into boone a couple of months ago in new york. i think we are more likely to go to 50 first before we go back to 100. there is a secular change in the oil industry. it's hard to get oil prices back to 100 barring a cataclysm of some sort given secular and structural changes. >> you know who the worst is for canada. that production could come

offline before bakken which could put a firm in for prices. opec, i know saudi arabia is the big dog. the other members likely don't have the pad of cash that saudi arabia has. >> flip something else around. if something goes right with iran and united states begins to weaken sanctions and iran is cooperating against isis and iraq continues to produce flatout and libya flatout. they are trying to get revenue and market share. it is becoming the game we used to see in manufacturing with japanese dumping products in the united states and prices collapsing. >> let's look at what the people say. the people say oil will be back above $100 within 18 months by a basically two to one margin. >> easy money shorting oil. >> i would like to see this based on what you said about iran saying iran could become one of our closest friends in

that region. would you say we would see an iranian flagged oil tanker pulling into long beach, california with a boat load of crude within three years? >> no. >> what do people say? >> we didn't ask the people that. >> do it on "street signs." >> two anchors of "street signs." this is the founding anchor. >> you are honored. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. 2:00 eastern. and marketify. market intelligence. sue, down to you. >> thank you, gentlemen. microsoft meeting shareholders for the first time. you know he has shaken things up since his arrival. what is the future of windows which is microsoft's main driver of revenue and profit?

check out the stock up more than 30%. might this incredible run continue in 2015? we'll find out. as we head out more on squawk box's ceo summit. check out cnbc.com for full coverage. back in two. i thought the fed may be late in easing and toigenning and now the lower deflationary pressures of oil prices could keep rates lower longer which means equity markets are going higher world wide. they will continue to go higher. ♪ music ...the getaway vehicle!

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welcome back to "power lunch." it is day two of the apple antitrust trial here in oakland, california. the star of the show today is going to be apple's eddie cue. he is going to take the stand to testify about an ipod upgrade in 2006. that is at the heart of this case. apple says it was a genuine improvement. plaintiffs say it was a way for apple to expand its monopoly. if anti-trust violations are proven apple could be on the hook to pay $1 billion in damages. thank you very much. let's go to headquarters. dominic chu has a "market flash." >> from technology to bio technology. the stock is rising for the

second consecutive session on the heels of positive trial data for the experimental alzheimer's drug. the stock up by about 4% on today's trade. microsoft's annual shareholder meeting kicked off this morning after a rally year underway under the new ceo. what is next for the tech giant? we are talking to senior technology analyst. good to see you again. welcome back. the stock has had an amazing run lately. something we would have never have seen some say under steve ballmer. >> it has opened up the name to a new class of investors. there are certain people we speak to who wouldn't consider investing in microsoft under mr. ballmer that are more enthusiastic. it is a whole new slate of directors. they have five new directors. you have a new management team

as well as a new way of thinking on the board. >> what do you expect from the stock and from the company? we are going into an interesting time of year for microsoft, a lot of hardware sales, a lot of phone sales, retail sales. what are your expectations here? >> if you look at how the stock has done year to date up 29%, a yield of about 2.6% from the dividend it has. trading about 18 times. it has been a very nice run but the december quarter is difficult because hardware sales is a primary driver for the results. this is an area where microsoft is still struggling. even though we saw some positive signs in the september quarter the expectations are for 13% lift driven by hardware sales. if you look at some of the stats there are real problems. >> very quickly, you said that he has opened up the stock to a whole new class of investors. what is it that does that that

steve ballmer did not? >> he has taken an approach to opening up microsoft's platform. you see it from everything whether it is bringing office to the ipad. you see it from the effort to jump start sales in the nine inch and under category of tablets by providing windows for free. you see them pushing back with the hp stream. this effort to become more viable and less of a closed platform and to play well with the other players including google and apple. >> play well in the sand box. great to see you again. thank you. china's stock market on a tear up 3.5% this week alone. many are raising concerns waving the red flag. how worried should you be? think about the lead up to the 2008 drop. we'll explain. i make a lot of purchases for my business.

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go over their banks. at least 13 people have reportedly been killed in flash floods there so far. another 18 are still missing. brian sullivan with breaking news. >> remember the hack attack against sony a couple of days ago there were reports that maybe north korea was behind it. now that will be confirmed that north korea will officially be named as the source of the huge hack in the computer systems and employee files of sony entertainment. the one that revealed salaries, home addresses, social security numbers and people that may be scheduled to be fired. remember this, there is a movie coming out called "the interview." supposed to be a comedy about two guys who go to north korea to aassassinate kim jong-un, the leader of north korea. that is a movie done by sony. it appears, guys, that north korea retaliated against sony for that movie. remember they hold the dear

leader in dear regard and hacked into their systems as punishment. this is a movie script unto itself. it is a very serious hack. a lot of data released. north korea will be named as the source of that hack attack. >> very interesting. >> i think north korea should be worried about seth rogen and james franco. >> you can see how violent those two can be. >> i won't say anything because i could be hacked by north korea. >> neither of us have the hair style to fit in there. >> you have to get the whole thing. >> you may be able to pull it off. >> got it. president obama meeting with top business leaders today. did he tell ceos what he wanted to hear? here to talk about that along with sue who will break up this party we have going here. president obama has never had the reputation of being

particularly pro business. did you hear a tone -- he has been a scold of business in many cases. did you hear a change of tone here today? >> i heard an attempted change in tone. i think what we are into is image rehab and legacy building. he is going to want to go out. i think he is not going to fool anybody on wall street when they look back at the record over the last six years. they will hear a lot of the talk and no action. maybe he will go back and try to do tax reform before he leaves. if it fails he will do what he always does and blame republicans. >> i disagree a little bit in the sense that i think there is a certain tactical aspect to what he did today. i don't think that contradicts what you are saying. he has to bring business leaders on board for what he wants to get done in the next two years. it is not all about image. >> except when he goes to them with this tax break here i need you to say it is okay to do away

with it. >> and he wants some of those ceos to put pressure on congressional leaders and senate leaders and use that leverage to reach across the aisle and get stuff done. whether or not that happens who knows? i think he will use that leverage to pressure congress. >> he is playing to where the ceos live. immigration reform, tax reform they have been clamoring for that. >> infrastructure. >> this is all very tactical even strategic. he is a man alone. he has effectively when you look down washington no allies to help him pass signature legislation if there is any passed in the next 24 months or so. you have to look at how you get maybe some of what you want. republicans may spend some time trying to defund programs thattist and. he needs as many allies as he

can find. >> i think he might get something on tax reform. i think immigration is too emotional an issue for many on capitol hill and it's emotional with constituents. >> i don't think he is going to get anything as far as individual tax reform goes. i think the corporate tax reform, the inversion, some of the proposals going on i think will be easy to do and maybe just getting at least a marginal deduction in a corporate tax rate. >> the problem remains as it has been for most of his term and certainly in the last couple of years that even though there may be some areas of agreement the areas of disagreement are so stark and so core to his opponents that they impede any progress on those areas. >> yes and no, tyler. when i look at the record, okay, the anti-business obama you have had record highs in the stock

market, record corporate profits. you have had a long string of job growth, not enough and not good enough. by the way, this guy who so opposed oil drilling you have this incredible boom. maybe none of it has anything to do with him. certainly he was not powerful enough to stand in the way of those things happening. >> you have $4 trillion being held by u.s. corporations. on the immigration reform position i would argue that he may have more leverage here than people realize having taken this executive action. the republicans have to look to 2016 if they want to be more than just an obstructionest party. they are going to have to do something and show some ability to govern if they want the white house. this is what it comes down to. they may find common ground even though it benefits both of them. they are looking to either retain the white house or gain the white house. and one side run the table. >> that is one of the reasons

why the republican leadership in congress has been so clear that they do not want government shutdown this time around because they realize that -- >> their poll numbers plunge. >> and then to your point the gop comes across as the obstructionest party. >> you mean because it is nothing to do with what happens to the economy? >> it is all politics. >> you will be back to take us through the beige book. >> it's called the tan book originally. >> is that true? >> remember, sue? art cashin used to talk about the tan book. >> jay crew colors there. >> 1932. >> july of 1932. >> be careful where you go with that, steve. >> contemporary. >> i think it should be the khaki book for khakis. we'll see you.

let's lock in the vote. is president obama pro-business? what do you expect? three out of five say no. two out of five say yes he is. let's go to the bond market cme rick santelli. >> look at this chart dating to the end of september we have a boat load of resistance in the form of 20 sessions between 2.30 and 2.38. everybody is talking about the effects and high yield of what is going on in energy. when you look at the hygtf. open the chart and go to spring of 2007 we clearly see the issues in front of high yield may be more than they were a year ago but certainly not anywhere where they were during the crisis. last but not least let's put up a chart going back to the spring

of '09 for the dollar index. hasn't been at these levels since then. euro is at a 27-month low and yen at 7.25-year low. a lot of unusual moves today at the new york stock exchange. we will tell you about that. as we head out more on our ceo summit from "squawk box." >> republicans have both houses and want to show that they can get something done over the next two years because of the big presidential election coming up. you have the president with two years left to drive his legacy. that to me is an interesting combination to try to get some things done here. here's some news you may find surprising.

we're for an open internet for all. we're for creating more innovation and competition. we're for net neutrality protection. now, here's some news you may find even more surprising. we're comcast. the only isp legally bound by full net neutrality rules. we are watching shares of corning raising quarterly dividend by 20% to 12 cents a share and announcing a buy back program. the stock up by about 2.5%. stay with us for just a minute because bob pisani is here at post nine. a number of traders down here are talking about some rather

unusual moves in some key stocks. accompanied in some cases, not all, by increased volume, as well. >> they are notable because the volume spikes are unusual and secondly they don't appear to be related. let me show you a couple of things and give you ideas about what i think might be going on. a number of people have noted that infrastructure stocks moved late this morning. now, that might make a little bit of sense. president obama was out this morning very aggressively talking about expanded infrastructure. some traders have said that would make sense to see them rise on that. that is maybe true. i think there may be some of that but it wouldn't account for other stocks moving, as well. take a look at best buy. their stock kind of spiked. we saw a move to the down side on rather heavy volume. that was a little bit significant. still trying to recover. take a look at campbell soup. another stock not directly related to infrastructure or even to anybody else out there. all of a sudden that stock

moving, as well, as you can see there, to the down side. much of that has recovered. another one i can give several of them, analogue devices not related to campbell or anything else. that stock had a sudden spike up. what accounts for all of this information? we see sudden spikes down and up in several of the stocks on very heavy volumes. i believe this is probably related to some wall street firms changing its buy and sell lists. that's the only thing i can think of. this is the end of the year. a lot of firms have lists, lists of high quality dividend stocks that they refresh and they change. they send them out to their clients first to be able to make the trades. that may be what is going on here. i have a suspicion that one of the wall street firms is doing that. i have an idea. i have a call into one of them that might be doing it. >> are you still with us? if so what do you make of that?

>> absolutely. to speak to bob's point i was a former program trader in a former life. i can tell you about that list he is talking about. >> we don't hold that against you. >> please don't hold it against me. we have people who trade baskets and sometimes maybe those lists can be forced into the market meaning you buy indiscriminately no matter what the conditions are or sell. that could be a mistake or strategy. what we do know is that computers make up a very large portion of this market and a lot of that computer driven could be one of the causes for some of the big spikes up or down. this could be part of a basket that is not sector specific or industry specific overall. something to pay attention to. interesting that those spikes all occurred right around noon right around the same time of day whether they were up or down. count down to christmas on.

just 21 days to go this year. the shippers are trying their best not to repeat last year's delivery debacle. yesterday "power lunch" brought you inside fed ex's express network. today we will show you the final delivery of our wine.com shipment. we made a good choice there. did it make it on time? as we head out for a quick break more on the squawk box ceo summit and check out cnbc.com for full coverage. customers are still under pressure. they have a health care bill to pay. they need to pay down some debt which is happening a little bit. they shift around a little bit but no doubt fuel prices are helping. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family,

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the best offers of the season. lease this 2015 standard collection ats for around $329 a month. welcome back to "power lunch." check out shares of abercrombie and fitch. the company reported lower than specked sales and cut the full year forecast. the stock rebounded after the

company said it expects turn around efforts to bear fruit by next year. it did warn of a tough holiday quarter as it discounts heavily shares up by about 4.5% after hitting the 52-week high the stock is still down some 35% so far from those highs. back over to you. in this hour of power glakso smith cline confirming a plan to cut hundreds of jobs in the u.s. in attempt to restructure operations. josh lipton gave us the latest on day two of apple's anti-trust case. and breaking news, sony will name north korea as the party responsible for hacking and leaking unreleased movies online. thank you. shippers are trying to avoid last year's delivery debacle. "power lunch" went inside fed ex's express network to see how

things work. morgan brennan is tracking one shipment's trans continental journey. >> reporter: six stops, five cities, three sorting centers, two airplanes and three trucks that is the process this package went through. we will break that down when "power lunch" returns. coming up at the top of the hour we have "street signs" a lot of commence from the leaders of the world's largest retailer and largest publicly traded oil company. also fascinating stats of what consumers do with their money when gas prices plummet. and also the report. we will speak all about it. make sure you join us top of the hour when "power lunch" returns after the break. so we're transparent about the fresh wild seafood we sell. and the species we don't. independently rated for sustainability. traceable from dock to store. sent fresh from over 50 u.s fisheries

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i'm just looking over the company bills.up? is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. we want to keep an eye on two riets both down with overall market both have some business exposure in places like texas. back over to you. shippers trying to avoid the same delay problems that they had last year.

morgan brennan is in washington tracking one shipment. she followed it all the way across the country. >> reporter: that's right. we shipped this wine.com package across country via fed ex express overnight delivery to see how the parcel carrier's network is operating during peak holiday season. this journey started yesterday. >> that particular bottom currently retails for almost $4,000. >> picking the wine. as you can see there is a lot oo choose from. we settled on four bottles from california carefully packed up to get them there safely. so now our wine which is in this box is ready for 2,800 mile journey across country overnight. off to fed ex in oakland where it hits its first round of sorting. >> it will be loaded into a container and depart on our outbound priority overnight flight. >> reporter: this facility is busy but nothing compared to the

next stop, memphis. middle of the night but no sleeping here. ground crew greets the cargo. this facility is known as the matrix, miles of conveyer belts, millions of packages a day. most fed ex express shipments pass through here including ours. now east coast bound to dulles. it is on to the nation's capitol for the third and final sort. here it is. at least from the outside it looks like it is in one piece. now loaded on to the delivery truck our wine goes out to its final destination, cnbc's d.c. office. >> it has arrived safe and sound. >> reporter: so as you can see this is a very involved process with many factors that have to go right including weather. i have been waiting for this moment all day. we are cracking this box open. we are going to start cracking these wines open, as well. we have four of them to choose from. >> you deserve it, morgan. >> you need to share that with

harwood, cutty and the team down there. >> that will do it for "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins after a quick break. requires precision and anattention to detail.g it takes knowledge, hard work and a plan. at baird, we approach your wealth management strategy that same way. as an employee owned firm we have the freedom and resources to create customized financial plans built to last, from generation to generation. we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

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latest read on the american economy. will we be one step closer to the first federal reserve rate hike in more than eight years? >> hello. ahead of the beige book the dow is holding at a record high. let's get straight to steve liesman with the beige book. >> thanks very much. the federal reserve in the beige book saying the economy continues to expand cht this is a pretty upbeat beige book going along with better economic data. the con tacks telling the fed they are optimistic about the current state of the economy and outlook. one reason is because consumer spending is advancing in most districts. retailers told the fed they were upbeat about the holiday season. one reason for that is lower oil prices. it was seen as a boost to consumer spending. it was noted that in a couple of districts suv sales picked up. phil lebeau has been reporting on that. what is happening to oil drilling? they are saying i