would do this. north korea is known to do these kind of attacks not necessarily typical like even one country usually corporate espionage or defense department information and typical things. in this case it could be over this movie and loudly decried publicly they're going to take action against. >> christmas day release. thank you very much for joining us. >> i don't know if it's any good. we'll see. >> cost $35 million to make. we have to leave it there. thank you for joining us. >> "closing bell" starts right now. hi and welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly e vanl kelly evans a stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffith. any gain for the dow jones industrial average is another new all-time high. not so for the s&p although virtually there now.

2072 and change for a new all-time high. the nasdaq continues to march ever higher today up about 17 points right now. we're just about 5% now away from nasdaq 5000. >> 5%? >> yeah, right? but think about how long it's been. march of 2000 when it hit that mark and signaled the top of the internet bubble all those years ago and not close to that level since that time. and we're wondering getting closer whether this number is making some investors nervous now. >> hmm. >> thinking that's the completion of this bull move. right? >> we'll debate it. we have a pair of heavy hitting ceos ahead. joseph swedish as they change from wellpoint effective here and here to ring the closing bell and changing the ticker symbol and talking obamacare impact. plus international paper's new ceo mark sutton in his first

interview since taking the reins ago. so a lot to talk to them about. and again, more to get to ask, to see what they got out of this meeting with president obama. interest dog see that poll during "power lunch" a couple of hours ago. is president obama pro-business? and ceo of alint air. >> that's coming up in a couple of minutes. >> i mean. >> can we go to hawaii for the interview? >> heading toward the what ryan islands. >> a lot of them coming from china. we have a lot to talk to him about. the dow up and nasdaq, too. the real story of the session, frankly, is when's happening with oil. aaa out with more figures showing another 15 to 20-cent drop by new years and the debate of negative and positive on the u.s. economy continues. a quick look at the russell, as

well. outperforming everyone today. the small cap index up about 10 points or almost 1%. >> much to cover in our "closing bell" exchange today. jack bourougiasian, we have steve liesman and rick santelli with us, as well. once we show you rick, there he is, steve, let's start with you. a rather upbeat beige book today but the markets did absolutely nothing with it. >> i think a lot of this stuff's dialed in. you had the ism services number, fourth largest on record. the internals were good. this week, the ism manufacturing and the thing is those vehicle sales numbers may take the shine off traditional holiday spending and still spending by consumers in the holidays. the data's been pretty robust. putting together looks like at the moment of current data, cnbc

wrap it up data, 4% growth in the second and third quarters back to back. and we're doing about a 27 and now might edge up and all eyes on the friday jobs number. i forgot to mention the adp number. shy of the estimate but that came in again above 200,000. so the data's good and i think the market knows that and expected. >> larry, what are you buying here? there's a boost to fourth quarter growth numbers and concern that comes home to roost next year in the form of slower growth for some of the production areas of the u.s. what do you think are the ways to play this trade? >> absolutely. look. it's clear that investors are in denial of the consequences of lower oil prices and putting it in context, there's winners and losers in this. clearly some of the losers are impact of high yield and cap x. you get a benefit in net importers of energy. places in asia like india and

japan that are net importers, countries but also areas of the united states that are net importers beneficiaries so we see the cyclicals are a better opportunity than the defensives into next year. better value. foreign over domestic. better value. opportunity. you have to rotate the portfolio into 2015. that's what's so exciting of what's happening. >> "squawk box," our colleagues were at the ceo summit in washington today. and among their guests was larry fink, ceo of black rock and euphoric of the lower oil prices. here's what he had to say and then your reaction, everybody. >> spectacular for india, china, japan, american consumer and for europe. this is going to help mario draghi and the europeans. in terms of restabilizing the european economy. i just find it shocking that narrative is so negative and this is an incredible tax cut

for americans and everywhere else around the world. >> do you agree, keith fitz jer snald. >> absolutely i do. i think my numbers show the average american family gotten $1,100 boengs effectively from the fact of lower gas prices at the pump and could have still lower still and takes pressure off the wallet. makes yellen's and draghi's job easier. i like this a lot. >> and, rick, there are plenty of people concerned because you get a big boost to gdp right now but then going forward it starts to slow some of the strongest parts of the u.s. economy. and maybe it's not quite as exciting once people adjust to gasoline prices in $2 instead of $3 or $4. are we overlooking the drag it will have next year? >> we need to take the green aluminum hats off and look at the world honestly. yes, i agree with larry fink. i disagree with larry mcdonald.

i don't see a dark side to this. woe to the high yield players that ignored the obvious. tightness in spreads. coming back to haunt us, so be it. i don't see anything like the credit issues of '07 or '08 developing because of this but i would also say a dose of reality in another way as many including "wall street journal" pointed out health care costs, this isn't about obamacare, this is about actuary and accounting. since '07, health care insurance has increased at a rate of 42%. so, you know, i understand why the holiday season might not be looking so good. that money has to come from somewhere and i think as nice as it is the dropping energy prices help the middle class but they try to balance the budget every week. >> something to talk with the ceo of anthem coming up. >> absolutely. what you're saying is

underscored showing that wages didn't go up that much because nonwage benefits, for example, were. i just want to bring it back to the question then. okay. if you have the health care thing as a factor and drag on income in the drop of the economy with the oil thing, does that move the fed out of the picture next year in terms of rate hikes? >> rick makes a great point. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> rick makes a great point. it's the lower soes yore economic, the middle class struggling and very little benefit from lower interest rates. the oil tax cut will do for the middle and lower class what lower interest rates did for the upper class so it actually narrows that wealth gap. >> well said. >> it's significant. if you're walmart, this is a gravy train for you because that's the customer base at target. they'll benefit of this. >> i want to know if airlines stop charging for bagging fees. >> what's the excuse now?

>> we'll talk about that. jack, welcome aboard. we haven't ignored you to this point. i'm going to guess you like the drop in oil, as well s. there a downside to that, though? >> bill, you know what? i see it as a win-win. in fact, i love saying this. i agree 100% with what rick just said. that's exciting to say. >> wow. >> all right? the reality is right now i don't see any downside to this. look. you know, we talk about the big explosion and revolution in the heartland, remember, what's happened there, you have seen the quintupling of property prices there and other things that started to unfold and all of that is coming back down to earth so what i think we should be doing with this drop in oil is counter intuitive. >> energy investment has gone to 4.5% of gdp in this country. that doesn't sound like a lot but in the past decade -- >> energy -- >> it's worth raising the question of what happened to the

regions, some of the jobs and all these assumptions that we're making that everything's great next year. >> may i make a comment on that? >> wait. we're talking about a boom and bust cycle. it's going to happen. we can't keep it from happening. the reality is that one of the things that we want to see is lower energy prices. which, by the way, is good for everybody. >> kelly? if i could pipe in quickly on this. think about how dynamic the u.s. economy is. it's allowed it to come through the challenges it has. we're not strictly an oil producer. we are not strictly -- >> on the way to being the world's largest. >> we are but it's simple. you know this. which is to look at the oil trade balance. we are still importing more than we are exporting or more than producing and so the issue is this. as long as that trade balance is negative, that lower oil prices on net are a benefit to the

nation. it doesn't -- you're absolutely right. there's some areas of the country that will absolutely be devastated if it keeps down and keeps going down but right now, first of all, i don't think the people that sunk the wells are idiots. they counted on a lower price. that's one thing. growth comes off the top but the american economy is dynamic. we have a lot of consumption and production. >> i totally disagree. >> ben fish out of this. >> larry? >> did not anticipate the price coming down. they sold high yield debt that they can't pay back. they did -- >> now you're getting into the area -- >> the consequences to this are with us. ripple effect of cap x and that's going to go out the window. >> steve? >> and all of the -- >> making manufacturing go through the roof and going to make every business -- >> that's right! >> going -- >> hang on. hang on. >> a meeting of the committee of doom here? >> i don't understand this.

this is a very interesting -- this is a very interesting dilem dilemma. with a massive price adjustment is relocation of the marketplace. >> right. >> you will have the stronger players coming in. they're going to use it for an opportunity to consolidate. guys with debt pay for that. they'll go out of business. the stronger players -- >> steve, you asked for that. >> economic darwinism. >> hang on a second. >> steve, you asked bill dudley yesterday about the leverage and acknowledged there's overleveraged portions and said it's not systemic. >> why do you think it's high yield? higher interest rate. why? they have taken higher risk. >> junk. >> the issue is not -- catastrophic. i don't like hearing people say there's no negative to something when it's been such an important part of -- >> the question, kelly, is about the emphasis. >> the savers and ended up bankrolling the experts. >> but, rick, what i don't like about it is that this potentially delays the

quote/unquote normalization even more. i want to get -- >> i think you're underestimating technology, american technology. first of all, fracking wells are like old-school oil rigs. they don't last as long. it's a short-term investment. >> high prices tend to be the cure for high prices and low prices are the cure for low prices and pension funds haven't begun to exit all the investments. >> wait until we export with a republican congress. >> kelly, let me press you on this idea here. are you saying that one should be overall negative about lower oil prices for the u.s. economy and for u.s. stocks? is that your overall conclusion? >> no, no. not at all. it will condititribute to the n for yield and would be nice for in a world the oil price able to drift down and support long term instead of threatening --

>> for 200 years oil is doing this. 200 years that's oil. >> last word. >> one of the things to pay attention is geopolitical issues to come out of this. putin who we have been bashing now for a couple of months and last couple of years for that matter is in a desperate situation. desperate leaders do desperate things. if you notice all of a sudden he started to arm as bar shan. that's one of the downsides of what we're talking about here. so if there is something to watch for, that would be it. >> we have to go at this point, guys. i will since you mentioned vladimir putin leave you with art cashin's line of the day. he said what do vladimir putin, crude oil and the ruble have in common? they will all see 63 next year. >> that's why we love him. >> two, three, four. you got that one. good discussion, guys. >> thanks, everybody.

>> see you later. thanks very much. meantime, we move higher here. all-time highs for the dow. >> yes. how many times we said that this year? keep an eye out as the dow is up 25. nasdaq adding about the same. s&p up 7 points to 2073. coming up, a brand-new anthem. one of the nation's largest health insurers changing the name and back to anthem from wellpointe effective today. the firm's ceo speaking exclusively with us before ringing the closing bell here at new york stock exchange. that's in a moment here. up next, hawaiian airlines ceo speaking with us exclusiv y exclusively. will it trickle down to cutting airfares and the fees? you should see, by the way, his stock price chart. we'll be right back.

gains for the market today, not great but enough for an all-time high for the dow. record territory for the s&p, as well. nasdaq up 21 points. still trying to climb out of that hole it created for itself on monday. >> the top level picture doesn't tell the whole story, especially right now.

keeping a close eye on oil prices, watching the steady decline. look at this three-month chart. oil prices down almost 30% in that time frame. >> airlines as you can imagine are loving that. we'll show you a chart of hawaiian air in a moment. see a relationship of oil down and hawaiian air higher and the ceo with us today. they've been holding investor day here in new york city. joining us in the cnbc exclusive, we welcome you. thank you for being here. >> a nice lei. >> we have one for each of you. >> well a luggage fee. >> a tradition. important one rather. you give this one to kelly and a quick peck on the cheek and embrace. >> there are rules of anchors doing that. i'll hand it to her. i'll accept it from you, as well. >> oh boy. >> the stock's at an all-time high.

>> it is. >> it's boomed in a last few weeks. is that all energy prices? >> not all energy prices. energy prices help in a really big way. for us, every one-cent change in gas is $2.4 million to the bottom line. so there's -- it would be a gross overstatement to say that isn't an important part. but at the same time, our whole business model has really come together in the last year and we're looking forward to a terrific 2015. >> how good is this quarter? i can't ask with a straight face with the lei on here. what point do you guys have to get out there and say, look, we are talking about a significant advantage over our current analyst estimates, for example. >> well, we keep our analysts pretty well informed and guidance is generally pretty accurate and not so much of catching the analyst out but we have been publicly saying that so long as fuel stays low and

demand where it's been, all of the other things that we have done should lead us to much higher margins than in the past. >> speaking as a customer, though, not of hawaiian air per se but a flier, you know, the industry's had to raise fees elsewhere to make up for the decline of traffic over the years since 9/11. so we have to pay for baggage now. you know? all these other fees that we have to pay. with energy costs coming down, would it behoove you as a gesture to public to bring some of those fees down at some point do you think? >> well, you know, pricing whether it is airfares or whether it's things like baggage fees and the ancillary charges are set by the marketplace and interplay of competition. frankly, traveling today in north america is a very, very good deal. and that is despite the fact that we have seen an enormous explosion in number of taxes on

our industry often adds disgu disguised as fees and obliged to hide in the traffic price. i think we have controlled the cost. >> so the answer is no. >> well -- >> short answer. >> the short answer is going to be it depends on the competition dictates. >> her's rex tillerson this morning from the ceo summit talking about where prices may be going in terms of the oil price from here. >> keep an eye on the fundamentals. in terms of what happens with demand. getting economic pickup around the globe and get an increase in demand to take up the excess supply, likely some correction on the supply side by some players, hard to say how much that will be. and when it will become material. and so i think it's something we'll be watching the fundamentals. that's what sets this price. >> what we didn't hear him say was the low could be $40. >> right. >> at some point. >> yeah. i mean, we very much sort of a

taker of the supply demand dynamic in the energy market. into our business. reduced volatility. we're not speculators in the price of oil and lower fuel prices are really good for our business. and go largely to the bottom line. >> goes without saying. >> how expensive are the hedges? are you regretting them right now? >> no, not really. because there's volatility in the oil market and we have seen it go up as often as we have seen it come down and for us it's about taking some of that volatility and risk off the table. >> mark, by the way, we had to take them off. they were wrecking havoc with the microphones. we appreciate them very much. we have breaking news. president obama's immigration executive order, we have hampton pearson with details. what's going on? >> texas is leading a multi-state challenge to the president's executive order.

texas and 16 other states filing a lawsuit in southern district federal court challenging the president's action. among the states joining in that lawsuit, mostly in the south and midwest, alabama, georgia, idaho and indiana. abbott, the attorney general, greg abbott, that is, of texas, attorney general and the governor-elect, arguing that texas could be uniquely hurt by the executive ord we are the large border with mexico. as we know, that executive order by the president could legally shield as many as 5 million people from deportation. this is the first multi-state challenge to the president's executive order on immigration. texas and 16 other states filing a lawsuit in federal court just in the last few hours. >> and, hampton, thank you very much. mark is still sitting right here. mark, if you don't mind, what has the net impact as a ceo of obamacare been to your business?

>> obamacare has had a pretty muted impact because we're chiefly located in hawaii and hawaii has its own state regulations around health care. which in many respects sort of overlay the obamacare regulations and obligations. >> so there wasn't much new in it. >> not for us. in general, across the industry, though, i think probably larger impact elsewhere. >> thank you. >> thanks, mark. see you later. still record territory for the dow and the s&p. doesn't take much. any positive close for the dow, s&p up 7 at 2074. >> coming up next, wait until you hear how a bond fund manager is outperforming by 5%. we're back in 2. we believe outg the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you.

so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. the pain felt like my feet were on fire.e pain. i had these very burning, needle-like sensations. i knew i needed to see a doctor. my doctor said, "let's try lyrica." lyrica has helped relieve my pain. it's known that diabetes damages nerves lyrica is fda-approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions, or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eyesight including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or skin sores from diabetes. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet.

don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. having less pain... it's a great feeling. ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac.... ♪ ♪ look here, daddy, i'm never coming back..... ♪ discover the new spirit of cadillac and the best offers of the season. lease this 2015 standard collection srx for around $359 a month.

dow's up 32 points right now. dominic chu stepping in tracking movers for us here in the u.s. dom? >> that's right. not much of an upside and session highs right now. jcpenney lower after goldman sachs downgraded them to a sell from a neutral saying competitive changes in the industry may prevent it from achieving the multi-year financial goals. shares down almost 3%. biogen rising on the heels of positive trial data for alzheimer's. and then taser lower after jp morgan analyst downgraded to a neutral from the overweight based on valuation.

shares down 2.5%. corning gaining ground and raising the quarterly dividend by 20% to 12 cents a share and announcing a $1.5 billion share buyback program. shares up by nearly 3% and ending with walgreen. boosted by strong prescription drug sales. the shares up there by almost 1%, bill, kelly, on the day's trade. >> thank you very much. we have more breaking news right now. this time involving drugmaker cenofi. >> cnbc learned a lawsuit is filed against sanofi from cnbc.com's dan mangum reporting this. the ceo and other executives were involved in what's known as kickback schemes, paying pharmacies, hospitals and doctors and other parties to prescribe its dibtsz drug over competitors. now, this lawsuit was filed by a whistle-blower saying that she was fired for uncovering the

schemes. you can learn more on cnbc.com. back the you, bill. >> all right. meg, thank you very much. keep us updated on that story. we continue one of our favorite segments here. we call it "beat the street." where we talk to a fund manager outperforming the benchmark over the previous 12 months. >> today it's the leg macy brandywine bond fund. a mouthful. the barclays, only up about 1% and joining us now is jack mcintyre, manager for that fund. great to have you here. welcome. >> hi. great to be here. >> my first thought when i red about this, i think you are in the top 2% of managers performance this year and frankly the sector hasn't done that well. even in terms of relative to the benchmark, talking about a couple percentage points on top of it. congratulations but why is this

tough a space as of late? >> well, you know, if you think about the drivers of the global economy, we are marred in this noninflationary growth and monetary policy i think by and large biassed towards stimulative. it is not getting traction right now so but the key is that as long as the markets focusing about liquidity and i'm kind of talking about global monetary policy. and even if the fed tightens, global monetary policy is biassed tomorrow stimulative and should get a little bit of traction and add in lower energy prices and i think 2015 is setting the stage for more growth globally and certainly kind of an i think more of a contrarian view. >> i think larry fink agrees with you. we've been covering the ceo summit in washington all day. larry fink, of course, the ceo of black rock. here's his forecast for interest rates down the road. we'll see what you think of it.

>> bonds stay in a narrow range for sometime and force the behaviors of different central bankers and very low range and maybe the new range in u.s. treasuries is 2% to 2.5. maybe not 2.5 and 3%. you may see between now and year end if i'm right and a bunch of insurance companies needing to cover the gap and bonds tick under 2% again. >> i assume you agree but what do you do about it and maintain your performance in 2015? >> yeah. okay. solar ri talked about treasuries. i think treasuries probably stay range bound but so our universe is global bonds and here i'm not just talking the books but opportunities. mexican bonds 6%, 7%. south african bonds. so, you know, and this is along the lines of what i think larry was talking about. there's global capital from

japan looking for yield and, yeah, some of it into treasuries and still some opportunities in some sovereign bond markets away from german bonds, japanese government bonds and u.s. treasuries. >> before we go, jack, what are those if you give people a couple of ideas, places specifically you are looking here. >> and i think it's key. because you are not as individual and probably won't want to buy south african bonds and part of a portfolio, it's a great way to be positioned. you know, again, i think the dollar's going to continue to be strong versus the euro and japanese yen and contrarian play is dollar weakeninger ha versus currencies i mentioned. >> thank you. continued success. appreciate it. >> great. thank you. appreciate it. >> those of you listening on satellite radio, the ticker symbol is gobsx.

>> half an hour to go here. the dow moving high sbeer the close and now up 37 points. the s&p adding 9 points for its part. the nasdaq with a strong session, as well. up about half a percent. anthem ceo speaks with us excluollusivlue excluesively. the name change starts today. we'll talk about that. obamacare and a whole lot more so stick around.

take a closer look at your fidelity green line and you'll see just how much it has to offer, especially if you're thinking of moving an old 401(k) to a fidelity ira. it gives you a wide range of investment options... and the free help you need to make sure your investments fit your goals -- and what you're really investing for. tap into the full power of your fidelity green line. call today and we'll make it easy to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity rollover ira.

welcome back. if you're trading today and having trouble finding the wellpointe stock ticker, you are not alone. the company is going strong and just got a new name and look. >> there it is. wellpointe changed to anthem, inc. and trading under antm. and that's how it's doing today, up a fraction now at $129 and change and with us now at post 9 and cnbc exclusive we welcome joe swedish ringing the closing bell coming up here in a little while, as well. >> great to be here. thank you. >> a rebranding, consolidation of the brand. >> that's correct. we really are focused on building a new brand identity and many markets we serve across the country, specifically a less

complex engagement with the market. trying to deliver on our customer's expectations. they want clarity, simplicity. our sense is that rebranding ourselves in terms of how we are known best in the markets we serve is a phenomenal opportunity to really improve our engagement in the marketplace. >> tyra banks isn't after you. antm is america's next top model. >> i just heard that this morning. i'm -- well, let's just say, i'm struggling with it but i think i can get by and maybe we'll talk about it. >> there you go. >> your company has benefited to a great degree from obamacare. >> yes, we have. >> number one in terms of -- >> enrollment, yes. >> anything to change about this? what do you think about the thoughts from the republican majority now in the house and the senate that they would love to repeal obamacare? >> absolutely. i certainly understand. you know, the continuing desire in terms of repeal, replace

proposition. let's just back up. we made some very big bets regarding so-called obamacare. we analyzed through consumer preferences. analytics what people want in terms of engagement in and around so-called obamacare. we offered 1,000 new products in the market in enrollment last year. we call version 1.0. we believe moving to version 2.0 and enrollment is an active development right now, we are going to meet expectations. we feel very strong that we'll have an equally good outcome as we did the first version where we captured over 750,000 lives, roughly 10% of all the enroll lees. >> a quick question on cost, though. especially right now. people are concerned that when they enroll this year, the prices are going up and the range of 10% and now documents of the white house indicating this people all the toe enrolled on a cheaper plan and knock them out unwittingly and not find out

until january. are you satisfied with what's happening on the pricing and availability front? >> i can speak for our company and what we have offered this marketplace. this year, all in across the country and looking at maybe upper single digit which we feel very good about. obviously, highs and lows regarding variation and all in single digit. we think that's a reflection of the analytics, very significant and beneficial pricing we administered the first time around which allowed us to i think go to market with effective pricing on this phase. >> a big trend in health care these days is wellness programs at major corporations of a carrot and stick inside a health care plan to get employees to take care of themselves. you don't want to smoke, you know, and you want to exercise and go to the doctor more often. >> right. >> and your premiums go down. now the eeoc is suing, they sued a couple of small companies and

now honeywell saying that maybe their wellness plan is not voluntary enough. it is more compulsory in that part. dave coat, here's his response to that and then you respond, as well. >> we don't refuse anybody coverage and the whole point is why should people who don't care about how they're living, why should they being able to take advantage of the people who do care and are doing something about it? you have the people saying i have to take care of myself subsidizing the people that say i don't care and doesn't seem right. >> are these wellness programs keeping premiums down or or not? >> absolutely. let me first say we as an employer in excess of 48,000 associates have wellness programs integral part of our health benefit portfolio. number two, as a health plan, we provide wellness support to all of our members, all of our kes hers.

i have a conversation with ceos across the country. they view it as a very necessary part of their offerings to associates who choose to make very significant life style choices that better their wellness and well being. >> does the eeoc have a point in the way some of these are add sminsterred they're compulsory and that if you're not taking care of yourself we won't take care of you? >> well, my sense is giving what i know about our offering to our members, our employers who use wellness programs that they, in fact, are not denying coverage. they're rewarding associates for improving their lifestyle, their well-being. >> waying more for it if you don't. >> you will be rewarded with incentives given what you've chosen to avoid in terms of adverse effects on your health and well-being. let me close by saying that it is integral to health benefit

portfolio and viewed as necessary. can't speak to eeco and where they're -- what path they have chosen. my hope is it's an integral part of the health benefit plan. >> joe swedish, good to see you. >> thank you. >> they're bucking to get you upstairs. >> great to be with you today. thank you so much. >> ceo of anthem here at the big board. 15 minutes to go before that bell is rung. looking at the dow up 40. s&p about 9. nasdaq 22 and a strong day for the russell here. home builders with a boost of plunging oil prices you say? well, we'll explain whether they are or not. and then later -- >> this 2% to 3% growth range number feels like it's perpetual looking at next year it looks like more of the same. some of wall street's top pros tell us if they agree with walmart ceo that the economy is sort of meh. be right back.

welcome back. taking a look at homebide ehome now across the country. >> diana olick with the story for us.

diana? >> builders depend on transportation, getting materials and labor to construction sites. not to mention the cost of running machinery. cement mixers, cranes, gas-powered tools. low earl prices are a huge benefit there. now to the not so basics. materials, roof shingles, pvc plastic pipe, paint, toilet seats. costs for materials manufacturers go down but do they pass that on to the homebuilders? david crow at the national association of how manybuilders says manufacturers are not going to change their pricing for short run dips in energy costs. we don't know how long it will be, right? first they pocket the savings because they want to make sure that these lower costs are going to last. so, names like sherwin-williams, masco, mohawk, may see expansion modestly much more than homebuilders themselves. one last theory is lower gas prices reverse the new urbanization we are seeing. bring buyers back to the exurbs.

it's less to do with gas and more to do with the fact that wealthier buyers are in the market right now and they can afford to pay what we call the location premium. the first time lower income buyer who would want the cheaper homes out not so much in the market right now. kelly? >> thank you. 12 minutes to go here and continuing to watch markets and gauge the fallout. 41 points higher on the dow. a strong, pretty strong performance across the major indexes. coming back, california warehouse to washington bureau, morgan brennan testing out fed-ex's overnight delivery service as the shipping industry faces its busiest time of the year. remember the wine on the show yesterday? >> yes. >> yeah. we find out where it ended up when we come back. stay tuned. 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.

as we all know, ordering online is an instant, quick and easy but getting the package to the doorstep is sometimes a different story. >> mother began brennan placed an order at wine.com yesterday in northern california and today at the washington bureau to

receive it already. hi, mor again. >> hey, kelly and bill. that's right. we shipped this wine.com package overnight to see how the carrier is gearing up for peak holiday season. we started in berkeley, california, at wine.com's distribution center. four bottles of wine carefully packed for transport to oakley before overnight to fed-ex's world hub in memphis better known as the matrix. most express packages pass through. 500,000 sorted each other in december on 42 miles of belts with 250 cameras tracking everything. from there, this morning, the box to dulles, virginia, and then trucked to washington, d.c. for the last sorting. before we signed for it here at cnbc's but owe. 2,800 miles. six stops. five cities. two airplanes and three trucks.

so basically, everything from logistics to weather has to go right. needs to go right for a package like this to be delivered. it's why fed-ex employs 15 meteorologists and pouring billions of dollars over the last years to upgrading the network. i have a special delivery here for "closing bell, specifically gary. your silver oak 2010 is safe and sound and bringing that to you coming back to new york. guys, back the you. >> it's near and dear to the closing bell staff i'll have you know. you probably knew that i guess. thank you, morgan. great job. >> see you later. my hats off to these guys. >> multiply it by hundreds of millions of times again and again, right? we are coming down with the closing countdown. after the bell, as the naz gak marches toward the infamous 5,000 level again, we want the know if you think it would be a sell signal. it signaled the top 15 years ago. our live poll opens shortly at

cnbc.com/vote so get ready. ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac. ♪ ♪ look here, daddy, i'm never coming back... ♪ discover the new spirit of cadillac and the best offers of the season. lease this 2015 standard collection ats for around $329 a month.

about 3:30 left here. art cashin said a billion dollars to buy on the close and may see little move higher here. this is the dow today. kind of inching along. i defy you to show me where the beige book came out. usually you get some volatility but that wasn't the case today.

2:00 eastern time with a couple of hours left in the trading session, that's where it came out. market did absolutely nothing with it. a rather upbeat assessment, by the way, of the economy. it's at the close here that we moved higher and we are in record territory here with the dow up 36. john manly with us, bob pisani, as well. the beige book, upbeat and comes at a time when oil prices are going down and seems to be the goldilocks time for the economy. >> goldilocks time for the market for sometime. things just good enough to need more help and not enough for problems. this is a good environment. the fed is accommodative for a while. i don't see that changing and earnings are coming through. >> but i always feel like there's a however coming at some point, right? >> something dropping. >> somebody else waiting for the however that provides the other side of the market because i know this is not going to last forever. st. matthews said let tomorrow worry about itself. >> amen to that.

bob, there was some weird trading midday today. >> i'm talking to trading desks to figure it out. we put up campbell's soup maybe intraday. all of a sudden, a number of stocks at noontime, show it. look at this. all of a sudden boom on heavy volume. recovered again and then all of a sudden caterpillar. you don't think they're connected. you can see suddenly just shoots up and then sort of cams back down again here. very strange patterns. cablevision. i could go on and on here. put it up for me. look at this. boom. all v-shaped. something, one of two things happened. some kind of trade program trade executed. either wall street firm changed the recommendations, buy and sell lists for 2015. that's possible. but more than likely, looks like misexecuted a program and dumped volume on the market, a little bit by accident. talking many times normal volume

for a number of stocks. a professional doing a trade wouldn't do that. too much volume. spread it out over a long period of time. looks like somebody just messed up here a little bit. unfortunately when somebody can hit a button and instead of executing something in two hours but it's two minutes, you can have this kind of thing happen. that's my guess. >> i was in texas at a conference and a biggest concern if not the biggest concern of individual investors is computerized trading. you know? they feel like it -- the individual doesn't get a deal in this market because of the computers out there. >> i have to say, with that sort of thing, i think it is like drug dealers shooting drug dealers. i don't want it to happen but i'm not involved. buying this as an investor, what i'm supposed to be, i'd rather wait two minutes to see if it corrects itself. >> you want an al go rythym. for you, one dollar. >> i'll give you a bridge.

>> not brooklyn. >> thank you, frick and frack for joining us. enough to put the dow and s&p in record territory. the daznasdaq 5 away from 5,000. here's hour number two. see you tomorrow, kelly. thank you, bill. welcome to "the closing bell," everybody. i'm kel rily evans. dow jones industrial average with a gain of about 30 points into the close. 17,900 now breached. 17,909. s&p adding about 27 points. nasdaq up 18 to 4774 and talking later about that 5,000 mark and what that might mean. meantime, let's get straight to it. with the panel, cnbc contributor

stephanie link, chris whalen and our very own sarah eisen and brian kelly. welcome, everybody. stephanie, what did we learn today? >> we learned that the economy is continuing to show improvement. i think we are getting over yesterday's auto sales, really very good. that's really, really good. we got today's ism non-manufacturing survey with new orders up. we have truck sales november truck sales, second best since 2005. i mean, some really good stuff here an i think most importantly we had oil prices stabilize and oil the stocks have led for the last three days and making people feel more comfortable. >> we found out where they were on black friday. the dealer lots. >> yeah. well, or before. i mean, i think auto sales have a life of their own. they really do. >> financing thing? >> weak retail and then auto sales going great guns. this market as i said before

about interest rates, low oil as stephanie was saying. money from everywhere else on the planet. you add it up. the economy or at least parts of the economy is doing very well. housing decelebrate rating, though. >> beige book today a line about new york city real estate softening a big saying that rents are down year on year and they're so high and come up so quickly. >> the indices, one of the founders of case-shiller showing red. even in boston. northeast markets not moving around a lot showing down price movement. >> the beige book was pretty healthy. employment ganls across the board. relative optimism and adding to the list of better data, adp worse and then above the 200,000 mark and important for friday's job report. >> revisions higher. netted out. >> the big gains in the small and medium-sized businesses. >> everything but housing.

>> i'm going to declare a moment here an i want everybody to weigh in, including you, brian kelly. the cycle switches from a commercial construction one. you look at -- >> absolutely. >> commercial is everybody's favorite. >> non-residential construction data points really quite ama amazing. look at fastenal today, really kind of a give you a good indication of mid american industrial manufacturing. mainly not nonresidential. >> that's right. >> daily sales, up 15% accelerated in the month. >> putting on risk. >> that's exactly right. >> anybody with a portfolio, you disagree? >> no, no. i agree but i think that shows when's going on in the market on the whole because a lot of these commercial deals are international buyers. we have seen flagship properties go and starting to see that looking at japan, looking around the world. where are you going to put your money, where's the capital flowing? flowing into the u.s. capital

markets commercial real estate and the economic news today good. housing being down is probably in a perverse way a good thing. worst thing for the market would be a rapid rise in interest ratds. >> by the way, coming to housing, we have come a long way sort to speak. the typical home price i think from the same case-shiller of october $313,000. >> that's right. >> that's an all-time high. we want it that much higher from here, do we? >> no, no you don't. but the key thing is availability of credit i think is constraining this market a lot. and so we're going everywhere else. i think unfortunate because it really means that americans are going to have to be renters. by and large. >> did you see speaking of availability of credit corporate bond sales $3.75 trillion in the u.s. alone. >> we need to repeat it three times. >> isn't that crazy? >> yes. almost $4 trillion. what does that say to you? >> pemps companies looking ahead

and seeing higher interest rates on the whorizon and using the window -- look at medtronic and raising huge amounts of money. >> a marker of commercial lending, leverage loans, i think that's the next problem. been good reports until press about this. not enough. >> let me get a stupid question. >> doing leveraged loans and oil. think of lower oil prices. >> what's difference of leveraged loans and -- >> i'm talking about businesses. >> got it. >> shale oil. these sorts of things. banks focused much more attention now on business lending as opposed to consumer lending because the regulation. >> stephanie and brian, i don't know if you caught it, the beginning of the last hour a bit of a debate over whether people were appreciating the risks to the economy from this collapse in oil prices. >> right. >> and, again, not that there

aren't a lot of benefits but are there negative consequences, as well? >> i think it's a positive. and i think that's one of the reasons why auto sales were so strong. looking within the numbers, the truck sales, suv sales were off the charts. i mean, up 20% to 30%. gm and at across the board. chrysler. and then again you look at this -- these class 8 trucks, big trucks, up 93% in november year over year. >> doubling. >> very, very telling to me. so i think that's very good. i think so it's good for those sectors clearly and good for the consumer and seeing the benefits oil stays this low. probably more in the first quarter because we have just -- just happened. >> i know. still happening. in fact, aaa saying we'll see another 15 to 20-cent per gallon decline by new year. tough get to oklahoma. $1.99. >> it is amazing! but the one thing i've been saying for weeks now is be

careful what you wish for because start to look at when's happening with slumberberger today. laying people off. texas, certainly fueled by the energy boom and then high yield you were talking about. a huge portion of the high yield market is in energy. so again, be karg careful what wish for and probably stabilizing in oil now. >> i keep flipping around but larry glazer with a good point of extent of best thing for inequality in the country because it's a huge tax break if you will for lower income portion of the country and lower rates are better for the higher income portion and brings me to walmart ceo today on "squawk box" and still cautious on this point and coming from the ceo summit about the economy in this country. >> this 2% to 3% growth range number feels like it's

perpetual. and there are customer that is are under pressure. trying to stretch it to a next paycheck and we still see the pay cycle play up. first of the month, the demand goes up and numbers are better. next year it feels like more of the same. >> sara, this is the moment he was saying perhaps to buy the walmarts of the world. the beaten down, struggling consumer names throughout. >> the low income is the slowest to recover and why names like walmart and target and consumer staples with the middle to low income restaurants a big part of this story fallen behind and haven't seen the gains of home depot and the jewelry retailers thinking about that gas tax for the consumer it definitely helps the walmart customer the most and did sound cautious as you said overall. about some of the other problems in the economy weighing them down. described it as a perpetual i think he used the word economy. >> i thought all the ceos

sounded down beat. i'm thinking 2%? looking at the economic data and thinking, it doesn't feel like 2%. >> they've been brned. they and everybody calling for higher interest rates and finally and just not seeing it. >> that's the underlying growth. population is .6%. 2%, 3% is pretty good. something that moves 90%, you have to be worried about this. >> we don't want to be up 7%, 8% with inflation. 2%, 3%, that's quite manageable but to your point of the low end consumer, they really need something else to offset not seeing the growth and the wages. >> wages. that's what everybody points to. >> so that's why the gas tax is information. >> brian kelly, what do you think the wage piece kicks in here? >> it hasn't yet and i don't think it will unless there's some regulation to change that because there's no incentive for companies to do. i would watch that, though, because that will be the trigger

for anybody who's thinking it's big inflation and that's the trigger. watch that carefully. >> absolutely. all right, guys. thank you. leave it there for right now. brian, thank you. stick around and catch brian kelly at 5:00. by the way, mr. kelly with a big released. "bitcoin big bang" and plen toy read about in there. congratulations, brian. >> thank you. >> all right. nasdaq is on fire this year. now about 300 points off the all-time high. investors who remember the dotcom bubble, getting nervous now about nasdaq 5,000 again? that's remember when things went south in the year 2000. talking about that next. we want the know whether you think that level could spark a selloff. weigh in now. the poll is open. also ahead, the bourbon industry is booming. makers cashing in with the third product in the distiller's 60-year history and this has a lot more booze in it.

the company chairman joins us later. stay tuned. location. location. (shouting) location. here's the location that matters the most. here. or here. or here. it's wherever this is. to get customers to come here and stay here, you're going to need an app that connects to all your systems. so they can bank, shop, do what they need to do, and you gotta do it fast. before the competition does. it's tough out here; you better be on the right cloud. today there's a new way to work.

and it's made with ibm.

welcome back. let's start here with dominic chu and a quick market flash. >> kelly, what we have is

disney. walt disney company up a third of a percent in the after hours session. this after the board of directors declared an annual cash did i have depend of a 34% rise over the same time last year. so an annual cash dividend amount of $1.15. they basically upped the dividend and also point out that this is the company's 59th consecutive dividend payment to shareholders and shares a focus. already a dividend payer and dow component upping by 34%, the annual dividend payment. back over to you guys. >> wow. thank you. nasdaq inching closer to that 5,000 mark again. last time hitting that level is march 10th, 2000. intraday high of 5023. that's nearly 15 years ago. we all know what happened next. now, would nasdaq 5,000 be a sell signal for investors? let us know what you think and we'll bring in david garrity

with the panel. 15 years in the making but does nasdaq 5,000 mean anything to you? >> we have to look at the base level in terms of earnings and from that standpoint we have certainly consistent growth, a better mix of companies generating higher profits and arguably given the macroeconomic outlook of lower oil and interest rates, probably in a situation here and probably going to accelerate economic growth in 2015 and carrying into 2016. so in that respect, the fundamentals would probably favor moving through nasdaq 5,000 and probably have a 15% to 20% upside for nasdaq in 2015. >> wow. and that's so in other words saying it's not a sell signal. it's a buy signal and partly because the nasdaq of today isn't like what the nasdaq of 2000 was. >> certainly. the composition is far better in terms of companies producing earnings and granted companies are coming public not necessarily profitable. we can look at some crazy valuations for some private

companies like uber and basically a glorified cab company. beauty is in the eye of the beholder and overall nasdaq and the macroeconomic picture, you know, interest rates are low. likely to stay low. inflation is not an issue. economic growth accelerating, driving earnings. >> perhaps the excesses, chris, the private markets and not the public ones. >> i think so. think about it. we're not producing -- you mentioned uber. the quality's better than it was in 2000. but how much better? sure we have more earnings but steph, i would be interested to hear what you think of this? >> we have a lot of companies in the nasdaq very reasonable. think about microsofts and intel. >> apple even. >> look at cisco. you're looking at kind of a nasdaq at 25, 30 times forward estimates versus 2000. to david's point, you get better

earnings over time. david, i wanted to ask you about revenue growth. if the economy continues to improve, you expect then i'm assuming to see revenue acceleration and multiple expansion or just looking for just better margins and control and better profitability? >> i think the point of earlier before the break that, you know, with the oil tax in effect the tax coming down, in terms of income distribution, you have an opportunity for broader segments of the population to take the discretionary dollars and use it for improving the technology that they own and obviously revenue growth off of that, household budget realoe case can acceleration and a situation here where the yield curve levels and the curve itself stays low, you know, obviously positively sloped, might see improvement in terms of multiple putting on the earnings and looking at acceleration in terms of economic growth and probably would cause the market to pay

up. >> sara, the fact that the nasdaq is back to a level that seemed to crazy and stretched, perhaps the only real lesson from that if anything it is not japan, the nikkei and in 1989 has never gotten close although this year lately it's making a big of a comeback and is that part of the takeaway? >> part of it and sentiment into the discussion which is vastly different than it was going back 14 years ago on the stocks on the nasdaq on technology in general, you don't have the euphoria that you had and that's a consistent theme in this rally for the s&p, nasdaq and for the dow jones industrials. perhaps a reason to climb this wall of worry. going back and look at the biggest percentage gainers in 2002 in the nasdaq and monster beverage and keurig green mountain. >> priceline is one i was going to ask about, as well.

david, is it safe to buy the broad index or even back to march they were talking about the bio tech sector and how outsized the valuations were, is there concern that could be building up again heading back towards 5,000? >> i would say sort of looking at things seasonally, probably a rally into year end and then a bit of a pullback in january and then earnings and look good and people's outlook for first half of 2015 is constructive and, yes, safe to buy the index. >> thank you. by the way, as we were asking people at home whether they think the nasdaq is a sell signal, 57% are saying no. so take that for what you will. the nation's top ceos meeting in washington today and speaking to cnbc "squawk box." head of blackstone says with $2 trillion in cash, companies start wheeling and dealing. >> in the normal m & a cycle you see companies buying similar

kinds of businesses. that make sense. where they can take cost out and get positive synergy that part of the cycle is what's going on now. so is international paper eyeing any deals? well, we'll speak exclusively to the company's new ceo coming up and also on that big summit in washington. and she broke through the glass celling. sallie krawchecks says being more diverse could be better returns for shareholders. we're back in two.

welcome back. over to dominic chu here for a quick earnings alert. >> we have weaker guidance in the after hours trading here. aeropostale. third quarter loss in line with estimates. fourth quarter loss coming in more than expected. the shares currently you can see down by 4% and then pvh, the company posting better than expected troft eed profits and light. the stock currently you can see there down by .5%. guess is posting weaker than expected third quarter sales and a weak fourth quarter and full-year guidance number and trading down by a quarter percent in the after hours trade. back over to you. >> thank you. for now. conference in san francisco, chair sallie krawcheck is there. she joins me now exclusive from

the event with cnbc's julia boorstin. hi to you. sallie, tell us, so many other pressing issues for corporate america why you think gender diversity should be the top one. >> well, not the top one but up there. what else do you know if we increase in this case diversity to grow the economy 9% and more women, more diversity leads to higher returns on capital, lower risk, greater innovation, greater client focus. the power of diversity is to great that diverse teams outperform other teams. >> your company elevate has a fund to invest in companies that have diverse boards, diverse leadership. what kind of results have you seen so far? >> it is really days because we relaunched it back some months ago but, you know, better good results early than bad results early. what we wanted to do is finish

the thought because we have seen all this research. which quite frankly people ignore and say research is research but what are the stock results of this? right? how can women and millennials looking to put the money for a good run and have an impact, how can we do that and how can we expose and really show the good performance of the research comes from having those diverse teams? >> you want to show diversity is not about the right thing but the smart thing for results? >> both. but, you know, back in the day when i was a baby research analyst, i always used to go in and meet with portfolio managers, traders, your viewers and did question in every single meeting was, is the management team any good? and i hate to say it but i used to say, ah, sure. how do you know? i met with them for 30 minutes or i saw them on stage. or they sound really smart on the earnings call. this is research. this is research that goes to the heart of the issue all

investors care about which is the quality of management and it's one of the few funds that invest behind this. >> chris? >> it's chris whalen. talk to us how you measure this, talk about the research. what exactly are the criteria you're referring to? >> yeah. well, for the fund, what we do is it's a let's look at the facts, ma'am. rather than us saying, gee, we think that company's doing better things in diversity, we look at the results. we start with global and go down and the percent of the women on the boards, percent of women in senior management teams, woman cfo or coo and major ones are women on the boards, women on the senior leadership team. takes a lot of work to get there. the result for the companies in the fund, their percent of women on the boards is third. for management team, 23%, 24%

versus 11% for both globally. significant outperformance on those numbers. >> do you have a broader concern of getting boards to be more functional and to look at size, look at other criteria? when i see a board in double digits, i consider that a red flag just, you know, as a financial professional. >> well, that's a different issue, right? i'm talk of percent of boards and not the people on boards. that's a different issue which we're not addressing the fund and when's the optimal size of the board? we could have a very big glass of wine and talk about the experience of functional and dysfunctional boards and we probably shouldn't do it on air. >> when do you think the boards of the majority of the companies out there are going to see an increase from a third women over time? how long do you think it takes to see substantial growth? i think a third is kind of disappointing as an investor myself but i get your point in terms of what you're looking for. what kind of growth do you see

and when? >> well, remember, the average in globally is really the low teens opposed to 30%. these are the one that is are doing the better job. look. this is part of what we're trying to do. by highlighting the issue through elevate, by talking about the issue, by showing the research, highlighting and showing and exposing the performance, where people say, geez, maybe what was interesting in theory, you know, i'll get to it later, you know, and by the way, i have a board position open. but, you know, my -- the guy that looks just like me is really super terrific for this position rather than doing that to really highlight and show the results is one, one way of helping move this forward. the truth is if it were easy it would be easy. if it were just the result of having a better pipeline or good intentions, we would have been there 30 years ago. it's not easy. it takes a lot of things. >> the other part of your business is this network. you charge people to be members of a way to network and meet

other women in business. what are the results there? and what's the business potential for you running this? >> this is an interesting one because as i started to think about this issue and this opportunity of advancing women in business, looking at the business opportunity, networking matters. i don't have to tell you. i don't have to tell many of your viewers. networking is unwritten rule of success in business and so that business proposition is to bring these women together so that they can -- not just get to know each other and have that glass of wine we were talking about, but actually, to share information. it's little bit of what we see here at this fortune conference of relationships of formed are what matters and in fact the network really interesting. the women who joined the network stay in their industries longer than the average. it's really quite notable. >> great. kelly? >> and thanks very much, sallie. final question as we pivot to talk about 2015 and the work, do you see an environment finally of higher rates of, you know,

does this country look more of the same next year with these falling oil prices and everything going on or a real pivot? >> in terms of the economy or the markets? >> yes. exactly. the macro outlook here. yeah. if you don't mind. if i may. a general question here on the landscape. >> no, of course you may. look, you know, what i think we have to watch is geopolitical risk stepped up. the markets are volatile because of it and uncertain because of it. on a steady state basis, i think things feel fine. our women are reporting the economy is fine. you know? their businesses are fine. they're growing but you have these points of significant risk around the world and we have seen very easily whether it's the risk of cyber attacks, very concerning and picking up, geopolitical risks, these things can come out of left field and hit you, so a baseline i think just strong -- >> the leadership, i was going to say. great to have you on the

program. julia, thank you so much this afternoon. we have breaking news now on the airbag recall with our phil lebeau. when's happening, phil? >> chrysler is expanding the recall of faulty -- vehicles with faulty airbags. this time another 149,000 ram pickup trucks. 2003 adding vehicles registered in seven u.s. states, southern states. alabama, florida, georgia, hawaii, louisiana, mississippi and texas as well as five territories. this is the second automaker today expanded the recall of vehicles with takata airbags. earlier today honda said it will do a nationwide recall of the vehicles with takata airbags and, kelly, capitol hill today, they said, nope, we are not doing a nationwide recall ourself. back to you. >> that's right. that's right, phil. thank you for reminding us and bringing us the latest news on that story. phil lebeau. sending or receiving a gift of amazon this holiday season,

there's a good chance the box was made by international paper and the new c eo tells us what kind of packaging demand he sees this holiday season. and here's some proof positive about how hot the bourbon industry is. maker's mark with the third product in 60-year history. this bottle will have a 114 proof. that's a lot of alcohol, people. the distiller's chairman emeritus will join us. and did north korea lead the hack attack of sony? it may be soon answered. we'll bring you the answers later. new cadillac.... ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac.... ♪ ♪ look here, daddy, i'm never coming back..... ♪ discover the new spirit of cadillac and

the best offers of the season. lease this 2015 standard collection srx for around $359 a month.

welcome back. president obama meeting with some of the country's top business leaders today in the lengthy question and answer session. john harwood was monitoring things and joins us now with the details. hi, john. >> reporter: hi, kelly. the president spent a lot of time with the business roundtable executives and topic they're especially interested in, corporate tax reform. the president repeated what he's been saying for a couple of years now which is that he's interested in doing it but only if it doesn't cost the government money. >> what we're not willing to do

is to -- 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. >> reporter: now, of course, that makes it controversial within the business community because some executives would benefit of lower ratds and others to cost them through the loss of deductions. >> in the short term, there are going to be some 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 streamlined, more sensible tax system? >> reporter: and of course, this's aside from the complication of a deal with congressal republican that is

don't care as much as the president does about making it revenue neutral and more interested in a lower top rate than the president is. the odds are long against this happening in the next two years but the president this meeting today tried to keep alive whatever slim hopes there are. >> thank you. that's our john harwood in washington. my next guest was in that room today. joining me live from washington, d.c. and here in a cnbc exclusive in his first interview as the new ceo of international paper, mark sutton, welcome to the program. >> good afternoon. i'm happy to be here. >> what did you make of the president's comments today? >> i think what was most important to me the president very engaged on several topics important to the business community. trade policy, infrastructure, integration. it was a very engaging session and hopeful that things are worked out, especially on corporate tax reform. >> sounds like a longer term initiative but you have the

holiday season to worry about. what can you tell us about the demand you're seeing moving through black friday and cyber monday? >> kelly, we make probably 1 in 3 boxes that ship products all over the country and we have coming out of the third quert and continued into the beginning of this quarter and hopeful that the holiday season is strong. online shipping that you mentioned is a fastest growing segment of packaging and 20% a year. >> what is it that you're shipping? >> well, think about consumer nondurables. the types of things average consumer is buying and for the holiday season today that can be almost any type of product so getting it to market first, to the distribution center and then repackaging and then to the homes is types of things and all that broad range is what we package. >> it says you are the largest boxcar shipper by rail and you've been elbowed out or certainly paying higher fares

because of the demand for crude capacity over rail here. as oil prices have fallen, are see any impact in terms of freight rate right now? >> oil prices lower is better for our company and takes a little while to flow through to the transportation costs in rates and then surcharges of diesel and then seeing if oil prices are at the level some benefit of that. >> again, as we have been saying, it's happened so fast and hardly had time to see the impact but give us a for example looking to 2015 of what impact if oil prices stay here has on your business? >> there's puts and takes on in our business. plus side, obviously, lower transportation costs and in some cases lower input costs because of our suppliers cost go down. but again, it depends on why oil prices go down. if it's because global demand goes down, that's an offset for our business so we have to wait and see and in general lower oil prices are a positive for us.

>> final question. on cap x, you guy vs a lot of plant that is are big ticket projects. how much are you considering for next year and people are looking for these companies to be putting this cash to work in infrastructure and in cap x generally. what are your plans on that front? >> cap x is split among regulatory and maintenance and expansion. we spend well over a billion dollars a year on cap x and expect the same next year. we'll spend more if we have more demand. >> does that mean that that goes before looking at potential takeover targets? m & an is a hot target here. >> that's our sustained cap x. >> all right. billion that will help. mark sutton, thank you so much. ceo of international paper. newly minted we should add and been there for 30 years. forget about smartphones, new battle is streaming devices.

roku the most popular device but in a big surprise, chrome cast overtook apple tv. bourbon, the hot new spirit. maker's mark has caused infighting. well'll tell you why it's so special and talk to one of those family members coming up. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2.

soviet strongman, that strength may be getting zapped and readers of cnbc.com can't get enough of it. time to welcome managing editor allen wastler. >> we have a great analysis piece up now looking at putin's nightmare seems to be coming true because you got the declining ruble, you got inflation, rising prices and then the price of oil is plummeting. remember, putin, he made his name in the russian republic on the economic boom and rush why's going to be a mover and shaker and everything. fascinating analysis. the readers are eating it up. 120,000 people read it. >> from russia? >> no. from russia with love, right? >> yes. >> number 2, a little piece by eric chemy with a look at when's going on in the private equity markets and essentially the wave of activist investors like carl

icahns and changed the game in private equity and you remember you used to do an lbo, pay off management, pay out the proceeds, move on. that game disappeared and the firms are trading with themselves. which is making a little bit of a bubble in the private equity market and as people wondering what might happen and that piece is eaten up by readers. >> yeah. putting that capital to work. >> exactly. and then finally, what might be my favorite piece of the day. from north korea, if your name is kim jong-un, stop using it. nobody is allowed to use the glorious leader's name. if you're already named that, you have to change your name. or change your birth certificate. people love that story, too. so there you go. >> yeah. it's not the only thing in north korea. thank you. plenty of stuff over there on cnbc and sony formally naming north korea as the source of the cyber attack that exposed sensitive files and made unreleased films public and trying to keep the studio from

releasing "the interview." we'll have more on the story when we come right back. you can bring back a lot of things from a trip around the world. but you can't always bring back customer data. because many customers don't like it when their data moves around. can i go now? if you're going to do business globally, you need a cloud that can keep your data where it needs to be. today, there's a new way to work and it's made with ibm.

welcome back. sony will officially name north

korea as the perpetrator of an attack on the movie studio forcing employees to work with pen and paper. imagine. the hack leaked five unleased films to the internet and coin sided with the attempts to stop the studio of releasing a comedy of "the interview." tv news men recruited by the cia to kill north korean leader kim jong-un. great pr for the movie you have to say and also a pretty serious issue and i want, chris, you and everybody's thoughts on this one. >> i think sony staged the whole thing to pay attention to this movie. >> to the movie? >> no, look. it's a serious issue. north korea's chief industries are counterfeiting and other bad things. i mean, they don't do anything in a normal sense to create prosperity for the people and sony, the thing, the north koreans, it confirms once again that that whole asian area, china, north korea are a problem. i think when they misbehave, just go out, go to the points in

the pacific and shut them off. >> i feel like this isn't going to end well. >> the u.s., believe me, if things are really bad, i bet they could count the points. >> what's more scary is fbi warned the fbi warned this mal is out there and other businesses need to be aware of it. perhaps we haven't seen the end of it. >> these are hostile acts. >> are we equipped to talk about it in that language? >> you have to ask our politicians. >> yeah, steph? >> that i don't know. china is spending an awful lot of time trying to control corruption, trying to control these kinds of issues. north korea is not even close to it. i think this whole thing is going to be an interesting theme for 2015. cybersecurity from an investor point of view. i really think you have to own a package of a lot of these various different securities. and just package because they are all volatile.

i bring it back to investment. with the proliferation, it's only going to get worse. we're hearing more and more of these kinds of issues. a year ago it was target. now it's sony and this political -- >> it's an investor issue on the flip side where it's a risk for certain companies like retailers. douglas mellon was asked about it this morning. it's one part of the business that i'm not strict and i don't control costs. i let them spend as much as they can because that's -- >> and that's why i think it's such a big deal because what they're doing internally may be fine. it's not sufficient for these really advanced cyberattacks. you need these specialized companies with specialized services to be able to handil it. even then, they decent it. >> think about the difference between corporate america which in their case can write a bit of a blank check and just our national purse if you will, where the strings are tied very tightly. >> look.

at the end of the day you have to spend money on this. government sponsoring this activity, criminal organizations who have organized this. i've had to get two new debit cards this year from bank of america in both cases because of fraud. it's a huge cost. it's embedded in the system. >> we're all going to need a drink. if you like bourbon, you'll love this. maker's mark has released a new bourbon. it has a much higher alcohol content. it's so limited that the chairman emeritus was only given two bottles of the new product. when he was caught giving one to his ofriend, his own son cut hi off.

bourbon. it's continued to outperform vodka and other spirits and the proof is in the barrel. it's in its -- maker's mark is bottling a new bourbon with a higher alcohol level. uncut, unfiltered and limited availability. they are calling it cask strength. we're getting an exclusive first look at this bottle with bill samuels jr. welcome. >> thank you. >> is this some you've brought

or is that all strictly -- >> brought it in and i was sent -- >> this is it? >> i was the one that resisted the longest. finally my son and the master distiller said everybody that comes to the distillery, we let them slip in the rack house and thief out a little bit right out of the barrel and they say it's unbelievable. so finally i get hit in the head 500 or 600 times and someone said why don't we bottle a little bit of this up. and we did. it's caused an incredible craze. i mean like nothing we've ever experienced. >> 117 proof? >> as it comes out of the barrel -- >> 60% alcohol. is this even legal? >> well, yes, in small quanti quantities. but you have to behave. >> do you think this would have helped the relationship between mitch mcconnell and president obama? >> i'm from conditikentucky and known mitch a long time and

there's no one that respects the tradition of the senate like mitch mcconnell. i think you're going to see things work. >> are people interested in the alcohol content or is it the flavor and distinction there? >> what's happened is the american people are starting to enjoy and appreciate flavor. and not just in spirits. it's good for us and not so good for vodka, not so good for white wine. good for red wine and really good for restaurants that aren't chains. so it's about craft. it's about tradition and good taste. and what i was arguing about is high proof alcohol takes a little adjusting to. but this stuff is amazingly approachable. >> how expensive is it? >> well, it's not cheap. i've got grandchildren i've got to get through school. >> do you have to raise the price as demand goes up? >> this is a little complicated. this is -- we have one brand. we've got to forecast for six

years. everything we make is essentially sold and it takes six years before it gets through the warehouse process. as we let some of this out it ta takes away from the other and commitments we've made to distributors. so it's limited for a practical reason. we've made commitments. we'd have to break the commitments. but the reaction, the response has been so overwhelming. >> and it's helping kentucky not only your corporate parents but -- it's really creating this whole thing where guys on these bachelor parties go bourbon tasting and -- >> chris? >> bill, talk about -- >> do you go? >> i would love to. >> or bachelorette. >> seems to be a renaissance in brown liquor, and i think also there's so many different types of bourbon and other varieties who are doing extensions of their brand, different varieties and flavors. is that partly why you've done that to respond to this or -- >> responding to approximately

400 bartenders over the last 2 1/2, 3 years that tell us it's the best high proof spirit they ever put in their moulth. and even a dummy like me will figure out if the dogs like the dog food, let them have a little. >> if i walk in and order a glass of this, what is it going to run me? >> probably $11, $12, $13. >> just for a glass? that's not bad. i thought $50 or $75. >> so we're talking pricey, but not -- >> i think a bottle of -- we've had some for sale at our gift gallery at though distillery. some of our very best friends would know where to find a bottle to take home. >> and you can maybe send some to the white house. >> i'll try. >> samuels jr., thank you for coming by. great to see you. >> it's a pleasure. >> might keep this but it might be too dangerous. "fast money" is coming up. what's on tap? >> everybody is looking for the

next biotech play. rbc names this company one company to own into year end. they just did a deal to acquire dishen muscular dystrophy drug. >> i want to know the p/e ratio on that one. >> well, high. >> thanks. "fast money" starts right now. i'm melissa lee. tim seymour, pete najarian, guy adami. some of the year's biggest winners are showing signs of slowing down. tesla, yahoo! u.s. steel and apple. let's kick takeoff with tesla. the stock has rallied since september 4th but since then down about 20%. >> they cut their numbers. what was interesting about that, they cut their numbers in half but left their overweight target and $320 price target