hi, hi, everybody. good monday morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm susan li. >> i'm carolyn roth. these are your headlines from around the world. u.s. futures are pointing higher shaking off the junk bond market jitters that sent stocks into the red on friday as investors are trying to position themselves ahead of the federal reserve. third avenue reportedly gives its ceo the boot just days after the firm liquidates its junk bond fund and bars investors. also on thin ice, the chief executives of yahoo! and dow chemical.

boast are under pressure from activist investors urging the company to take a new direction. apple and taylor swift shake it off when it comes to their differences and reach an exclusive deal to debut a film of the pop star's world tour. good morning, everyone. it's monday. a very busy week for markets potentially. we could be seeing the first fed hike in roughly a decade. almost with the new "star wars" movie coming back online. a pretty big week. in terms of the markets, the ftse 100 up by 0.1% very much shrugging off the negativity that we saw in the asian trading and that we saw in the u.s. last friday. the xetra dax bouncing back to the tune of 0.1%. european markets had a pretty awful week we're down by 4%. because of the junk bond market jitters and the job in oil prices.

asian markets look like this. china outperforming 2.5%. why? in part because the trifecta of data. retail sales industrial output, et cetera, that was at least or better than expectations though elsewhere we're seeing a little bit of softness. off by 2 perfection percent and the nikkei down by 1.8%. still we saw a little bit of safe haven flows into the u.s. >> the yuan as well. that hit a 4.5 year low. that said it will begin publishing a new trade weighted yuan weighted index. closely watched domestic business sentiment survey. it showed resilience. let's talk about u.s. futures. we came off the ugly, ugly week on wall street. we saw 3% declines really across the bored when it comes to single day drops. we'll gets to that in a bit. let me show you the u.s.

pictures. we are priced above fair value. the implied open is telling us that the s&p 500 up 1200. dow jones industrials called higher. 103 points higher. let's show you the ugliness in the selling from the s&p for instance. we saw the single worst day for the s&p 500 since the end of september and for the week we are down some 4%. pretty much in line with the losses that we saw across the three big indices like the dow jones industrials and the nasdaq as well. when it comes to yields because this is going to be in focus this week because we're expecting a tectonic shift, they say, when it comes to the dollar index, when it comes to treasuries. that's what we're looking at right now. the front load of it in terms of what they expect from the federal reserve this week comes in the two-year note. the short end of the yield curve. 91 basis points, folks. the ten-year note has more to do with safety seeking and risk

aversion since the ten-year note. the yield is only at 216 basis points. we're not getting any closer to 3% despite the fact that most expect a hike sometime this week from the federal reserve. the oil pricing, we are rete retesting global financial reserves. we're trading at $35.41 a barrel. brent crude, i don't need to tell you, we dipped below $40 last week per barrel. drifting lower. 37.60, carolyn. people are looking, again, for the lows for some support for oil pricing. >> absolutely. now third avenue has forced out long-time chief executive david barse according to the wall street journal. it follows friday's announcement to bar investor withdrawals from the high year bond fund. a security guard at the firm's new york headquarters told the journal that bars had been let go and is not allowed

back into the building. let's talk through all the market noise and joining us live from philadelphia, earn any cecelia, chief executive officer bryn mauer trust. let's tackle junk bond spreads then we'll get into the federal reserve. this is supposed to be the week in ten years when we get the first "star wars" movie and the fed rate hike. your concerns about third avenue? >> yes. i think the concerns about third avenue extend certainly beyond third avenue. this has been a liquidity driven market. liquidity both in terms of equities if you take a look at 2015, the stocks and the s&p 500 have driven the performance while most of the market is down. in terms of the bond market,ly qu quit at this is an issue. the extent to which we will have to see. if you go back to 2008 and reserve fund when they broke the

buck, this has negative implications not just for credit and liquidity but also for the industry in general. >> yeah, but, you know, we've been talking a lot about this, ernie. the risk spread between junk bonds and risk free rates, does this come as that big of a surprise? >> not at all really. wif we've been in a situation where interest rates have fallen dramatically over a period of six years, very unusual. artificially driven low by quantitative easing, operation twist. basically zero interest rate policy. so there's been a quest for yield and a search for yield in the search field. investors have assumed more risk. this is not unusual. it started in the energy sector. we've noticed this for quite some time, and then in the last several months this has spilled over. that is, the spreads, high yield spreads widening out has spilled

over into nonenergy credits. not just energy, not just capital spend ago soesh yated with energy, but also into some other areas. this is not a surprise. certainly liquidity issues certainly are paramount and will drive what goes on in the markets coming forward. >> even if you say it's not a big surprise, it is very, very easterly simil eerily similar to 2007 and 2008. should the fed be hiking interest rates in this environment when things are so shaky, ernie? >> your point about 2008, 2009 is actually excellent and i think this is what investors are looking at. this is the concern we have. that is, again, it's not an isolated event. reserve fund is not an isolated event. it portends concern to all the money markets and concerns to not only high yield junk bond funds but the fund industry in general.

we do not think that this means that the fed will change gears. they will hike rates we think 25 basis points this week. we think this is overdue. they've said they would be data dependent. the data domestically supports a rise in rates and actually if they did not raise rates, the implications actually would be more negative and the markets would assume more problems. so we do think we'll see a 25 basis point hike this week. >> right. >> as the fed said, we think the rate hikes will be slow to grad zblul finally, ernie, how do you want to play the markets in 2016? what do you like? >> well, some of the areas we like are health care and in health care specifically not so much the drug related but more the instrumentation side of that business. we think drug pricing will remain in the cross hairs. certainly in terms of the budget deal that was passed in november we think certainly defense and other infrastructure plays will

be very important going forward. there are certain areas of technology that remain very attractive to us and we think that in the main, diversification staying with companies with strong balance sheets will be the best thing going. one of the things we like to look at are return on domestic capital. going back to this third avenue issue with the focus on credit, on quality, on liquidity, we think that will be a key in selectivity in 2016. >> ernie, thank you so much for your insight. appreciate it. ceo at bryn mawr trust. yahoo! is coming under even more pressure. kenyan capitol sent the board a message saying to find a buyer for the some of their company.

the journal says its plan would slash yahoo!'s work force by 75%, replace marissa mayer with an operations ceo and add a strategic partner to help navigate the tax issues with its agent assets. yahoo! announced it was shelving plans to get rid of the alibaba stake. wall street journal is reporting that the activist investor who runs third point capital is pushing the timing of the $130 billion merger with dupont which was announced on friday. loeb supports this deal and he sent dow a letter on saturday. he wonders whether this was rushed before the expiration of a stand still agreement that would bar him from speaking publicly. dow's board fully supports the

merger. now the board of ten year energy has voted to replace ceo suki. "the wall street journal" reports the board made the change after re-evaluating suki's plans to expand beyond the business. he will be replaced by neil shear. in a statement icahn says he fully supports cheniere's board. we have a victory on worldwide exchange because carolyn has agreed to watch the first "star wars" movie ever. >> i have. >> ever. >> thank you, husband. still to come on the program, "the force will awaken" tonight when the force premiers in the united states. does the movie have what it takes to challenge hollywood's biggest blockbusters? we'll get more from los angeles right after this.

these are the headlines. fed in focus. european markets brush off an ugly session in asia. donald trump retakes the top spot in a new poll, but ted cruz is nipping at his heels. and "star wars" fans get ready for a world premiere in los angeles.

after two weeks global leaders have cemented a deal which aims to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius by the end of the century. at agreement which will come into effect from 2020 was greeted by standing applause and whistles from delegates representing almost 200 nations at the cop 21 meeting in paris. we heard from the u.s. secretary of state and appearing on nbc's "meet the press" john kerry, he was asked about the lack of legally binding mechanisms in his climate change agreement, and he told chuck todd that shaming politicians into complying seems to be effective. >> it's the most powerful weapon in many ways but it's not the only weapon and in fact we think there are other powerful weapons. president obama understood and, believe me, he's been really committed to getting this done, and it's his leadership in america on our own climate action plan that gave us credibility here and the president has been able to do that without some of that

enforcement mechanism but by setting policy. here we set policy. 186 countries came together, each submitted their own plan for reductions according to their capacities. we have a mandatory legally binding reporting mechanism, chuck, and that reporting mechanism requires people to retool their plans every five years in order to do more than they might be doing and meet the goal. so i believe -- people understand this issue. this is not a question of just doing it because it seems nice or politically it's good, it's because it's having a profoundly negative impact on nations. they need to respond -- >> right. >> -- and that's perhaps the most compelling reason of all. >> you say legally binding. okay. so somebody doesn't comply. again, is it -- what's the -- what's this law that you're going to hit them with other than international shame?

>> there's a mechanism that is being set up within this structure that will promote compliance and you will have nations within that mechanism working with countries in order to help bring them on board. you don't always need a slerge hammer. if you can provide people with technology or you provide them with technical assistance or you've discovered a new means of reducing emissions more -- at less cost, more efficiency, there will be a huge sharing of these kinds of experiences through the reporting mechanism of the agreement. >> quick look at the market reaction. europe's renewable energy players are trading higher. italian utility company, the spanish rival gahesa and they're all in the green. solar world and sma the big jest

makers. we're going to change gears and have a bit of fun. did you watch the opening monolog on "saturday night live"? i did. i quite enjoyed it. will ferrell resurrecting his george w. impression on this weekend's snl. the comedian lobbing jokes at many of the gop candidates. it's so screwed up i could even run. he took special aim and saved it all for the front-runner, donald trump. >> then you've got this knucklehead. with the hair. and the 100 foot wall. bring that picture back. i'll tell ya something, whenever i get in a bad mood i picture his big fat orange oompa loompa face.

welcome back. we have a new nbc wall street journal poll showing donald trump still leading the gop field with 27% support. he retakes the top spot from ben carson who led the last survey which was taken in late october. now the big news story is that texas senator ted cruz jumping into second place with 22%

support and up from a mere 10% in october. so let's bring in nbc's tracie potts who has the late fres washington, d.c., tracie? >> reporter: he's seeing a huge pole and in iowa. the caucuses coming up in less than two months. it will be the first big test of who the voters prefer on the republican side. right now ted cruz is leading that stake by 10 percentage points in addition to being in striking distance of donald trump in our national poll. so it is a big story for ted cruz, but what's also interesting out of this, we've got some brand-new numbers as of midnight, just a few hours ago, on match-ups with hillary clinton. both ted cruz and donald trump failed to beat her in those match-ups, cruz loses by about 3 percentage points, trump by 10, but what's interesting here, the lower ranked candidates, ben carson who's seen a huge slide in the last couple of weeks and

marco rubio are both able to beat hillary clinton by a few points. rubio does better than anyone else in the field against her but they're not at the top of the republicans right now. >> ted cruz, unlike many of his other rivals, has actually held back on criticizing donald trump on muslims and i think he's trying to speak to the conservatives and get some support from those that support donald trump right now. >> reporter: yeah, no question about it. this is a fractured party. he's trying to bridge that gap. he has held back even when trump made the comment last week about muslims, he said, that's not my plan. i'm not going to criticize trump. here's what i want to talk about. that's what his approach has been. it seems to be working for him. the numbers show he's surging. >> not the case when it comes to donald trump, right, tracie? he's going on the attack now against cruz. >> right. you have donald trump saying, well, okay, so ted cruz -- his

response to the surge by ted cruz is, yeah, i don't think he has the personality to get along with people the way that i do is what trump said. then you have even ben carson questioning his experience in the senate saying, well, senate experience, that's not really what's going to get you elected. you have marco rubio saying, you know, we work together and i respect him but he's had the wrong vote on a number of key issues like defense and supporting defense. that's a big one for republicans. now you have within the last 24 hours donald trump, ben carson and marco rubio all lashing out there at ted cruz which goes to show the importance of these numbers. he is surging and now his rivals are paying attention to that. yeah, all ahead of a gop debate once again on tuesday night. tracie potts, nbc news. we should point out that donald trump says about ted cruz, a little bit of a maniac. what do you think of that? >> it's not surprising, is it? if he's trailing him in the

polls in iowa, you would think he's coming out fighting. his way of fighting obviously. >> ted cruz is a little bit of a maniac and doesn't have a good tempt per temperament. apple music winning a deal with pop star taylor swift to be the exclusive home of a concert video from her recent world tour. swift turned only 26 on sunday, my goodness, she tweeted a trailer for the video saying, thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. i have a little surprise for you. the video will air on december 20th. swift going head to head with apple. she put her album "1989" up on apple music after it vowed to swift and some independent labels that they needed to pay the artists during the three month trial period. apple shares, higher by 3/4 of 1%.

taylor swift, 26 years old, so influential, right? she can take her music off spotify, she can take her music off apple music and make people capitulate. >> just like adele. adele and taylor swift could rule the world. they have significant sway over the two streaming companies. idc in boston, they said this video deal with taylor swift and apple sounds like a very significant win for apple precisely because competition is so incredibly fierce between the likes of apple and spotify. some of the subscriber numbers, roughly 6.5 million paid users. that and an additional 8.5 million people were participating in a free trial. spotify has roughly 2 million. >> barclays has cut apple's

target price. music and streaming live event. the european tour has announced that rome will host golf's ryder cup. it's the third time the tournament has been hosted on the continent. will she stay or will she go? yahoo!'s ceo marissa mayer has someone else calling for her resignation. we're looking at a slightly higher start to the trading session after friday's selloff.

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hi, everybody. good monday morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm susan li. >> and i'm carolyn roth. >> they're shrugging off the junk bond jitters that sent stocks into the basement on friday. third avenue gives its ceo the boot just days after they liquidate the junk bond fund. yahoo! in the news and skating on thin ice. the chief executives at yahoo!, dow chemical both under pressure from activist investors urging the companies to take a new direction.

apple and taylor swift shake it off when it comes to their differences and reach an exclusive deal to debut a film of the pop star's world tour. now isn't this interesting as we kick off a new week here monday across europe. we're looking at gains despite the fact that we had the worst week on wall street since august. talk about shaking it off, right? the cac 40 up 1%, the german dax up .4 of 1%. the ftse 100 up 1/2 of 1%. the asian stocks, there were some concerns or jitters. we saw china outperform.

we got the tankan survey. it looks like there's some domestic resilience. better than expected domestic numbers. the floor isn't as weak as some people expected, carolyn. >> u.s. futures taking their cues from the european session rather than the asian session. the s&p 500, up by 10 points, the dow jones up by 78. the nasdaq could rise 27 points. this is after we saw a pretty heavy selloff last week. the s&p down 3.8%. the dow off 3.3. the nasdaq off 4 all culminating on friday. the worst since september on the back of the junk bond jitters and the continued drop in oil prices. speaking of oil prices, crude was off 12% last week and volatility for crude price was also spiking. brent crude is at 37.41.

off by 1.34. wti crude, 35.28, off by another 1%. susan. let's take a look at some of the other top stories on this monday morning. yahoo! coming under more pressure today. kenyan capital sent the board a message on friday urging them to find a buyer for the internet business. kenyan is one of the biggest 15 shareholders. we heard from hedge fund spring oil asset management fund. spring owl, they want yahoo! to slash its work force by 75%. they want them to replace marisma ri marissa mayer. yahoo! said it was shelving the

plans to get rid of the alibaba stock. these are things we've heard before, right? but it is, i guess, comes at a time when people are questioning yahoo!'s future and its strategy going forward because they had the spinoff lined up, alibaba stake lined up 15%, $32 billion, and they had to retrace because they didn't get the okay from the i.r.s. that this was going to be a tax free deal. a lot of people are saying, hey, maybe, marissa mayer's time is up. she's telling us she can't handle the top job. >> the big question is do you give her an additional month or two or three months specifically? this is a pretty tough situation for her. she's just given birth to twins last week. she says she's going to unveil more details of the restructuring next month. one month be isn't a whole lot of time. >> yeah, but, you know, what was interesting in that interview on

last week on cnbc was richard webb, the chairman of yahoo!, he did point out that he thought the stock was under valued. when you tally all the components up, yahoo! japan is $8.5 million. alibaba, it's worth $32 billion by itself. throw in the core business, that's 0 to $8 billion, i'm seeing mainly 4 as a stock. a lot of people say it's not priced where it should be. >> it's taken a huge hit and no one knows how much the internet business is worth. let's talk about dan loeb. they want them to remove the ceo. he's questioning the company's merger with dupont. loeb supports the deal sent dow's board a letter on

saturday. he's wondering whether this transaction was rushed before the expiration of a stand still agreement that would have came to expiration this weekend that actually barred him from speaking publicly about dow chemical. a spokesperson telling reuters that dow's board supports a merger and fully supports andrew livrist. we have news from shell. it sees reduction of 2800 jobs after the bg deal. it's giving us an update on that. they still expected for completion in early 2016. they say an additional 2800 jobs will have to go. they expect the bg restructuring will be required to restructure the combination. it's in addition to the previously announced plans. >> so it looks like job cuts are

continuing across the commodity spectrum. let's talk about entertainment because this is set to be a huge money maker. the newest chapter of the "star wars" franchise will be revealed tonight. "the force awakens" remears in los angeles. analysts are forecasting one of the biggest openings of all time as julia boresen reports. "star wars", "the force awakens" monday night. expectations for the weekend may be off because even if the force awakens ends up being the biggest movie of all times, it may be hard to break records. no film has opened over $100 million in december. take a look at the two biggest movies, avitar and titanic. they grossed $2.8 billion and $2.2 billion respectively. openings were relatively modest. $77 million opening for avitar

and $29 million opening for titanic, why is that? holiday shopping keeps people out of theaters as does holiday travel which peaks a week before christmas. less than half the students are out of school on the film's opening day. it reports it's sold tickets before the premiere. they're expecting 2 to $3 million in box office tickets. they expect the opening weekend 170 million to $200 million in the uchblt s. alone. jurassic world set the all time high with $208 million but that was in june. people have been lining up in holiday a week in advance for no other reason to be part of the action. there's no question there's a huge amount of buzz about the film but it's the weeks that follow opening weekends that could make "the force awakens" a

record breaker. back over to you. >> let's head over to new york. we have the managing editor and box office media. daniel, we had to wait ten years for new "star wars", ten years for the fed to hike interest rates at the same time. let's say there's a lot of hope, a lot of expectations. what to you would be a good opening weekend? >> to me i think anything around the $200 million range is going sort of match the potential. we're tulgly thinking around 223 million ourselves for the opening weekend, but let's not confuse potential with expectation. i think it has a potential to become the biggest opening weekend of all time but let's not put that expectation on it. i think the film can be successful without breaking every record. >> you can say that, but there are a lot of expectations. people have already been pricing it in that this is going to be the biggest, highest grossing

film of all time in north america. >> yeah, our praking reflects that. we're looking at around $790 million in north america alone by the tracking we've been performing on the film up to this point. >> daniel, how important is the international box office results for how successful, rather, this film is going to be? only without international we'll get to, what, 230 million, that's the number that you floated before. it's not negligible, is it? >> no. the international box office has grown so much over the last five years. you mentioned it's been ten years since the last "star wars" film. "star wars" hasn't had a chance to come out during the time of the overseas box office boom that we're currently having. a big studio film can expect to have anywhere between 2/3 to around 40% of its total global box office coming from the international market.

china, for example, is a huge market that was nowhere the size that it was today back when the last film was released. >> you also talk about the age of the blockbuster vertical. what do you mean by that, dan zblel. >> well, we used to think of blockbusters as tent polls, right? a big film that all the other studios can hang their hats on. they have the self-contained universe i like the marvel universe that have sometimes two films during the summer. we see "star wars" is going to have several films throughout the next coming years, different spinoffs, et cetera, where audiences are interested in watching not only one narrative but different facets of that self-contained world. that's something new for hollywood. >> daniel, thank you so much with that. susan, should i be watching this new movie first or should i be

watching the old ones snirs. >> no, no, no. you're not trying to reel back from watching your first ever "star wars", right? this is a go. we're going. >> i'm not sure if this movie should be the first one. do i need a little bit of background? >> no, get your feet wet and we'll get the box sets for christmas next year. >> okay. we're going for a quick break. taylor swift and tim cook, a match made in heaven? apple is making a big bet the pop star's millions of devoted fans will follow not only to the ends of the earth but also to apple music. we'll be back in two.

welcome back to the show. apple has come quite a long way from when it was essentially giving taylor swift the cold shoulder announcing a major partnership with taylor swift. let's head out to landon dowdy with all the details. >> good morning. apple has won the exclusive deal with taylor swift for the world tour. she celebrated her 26-year-old birthday. she tweeted a trailer and said, thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes. i have a little surprise for you. the video will air on december 20th. she says an interview about the

video will be on beats 1. apple is also using taylor swift as a marketing tool and will be able to use her name and likeness in stores where it will also have taylor swift branded itunes cards on sale. the deal is between apple and swift herself. apple music was launched in june as apple's attempt to carry its dominance of digital music into music streaming. in october ceo tim cook said apple music had more than 6.5 million paid subscribers and an additional 8 million were participating in a free trial. analysts believe apple music will get a large following. few think it will eclipse other established streaming services such as spotify. in june taylor swift said she would put her album, "1989"

after they vowed to pay artists. she pulled her entire catalog off of spotify and refused to put "1989" on any streaming service. she's not the only artist challenging the streaming service business. adele's album has been withheld from spotify and apple music. >> i'm going to pick up here, landon. i'm just wondering. i was sifting through my taylor swift catalog. >> shake it off. >> shake it off? >> the little dance move. you can't beat it. >> show me. what's the little dance that goes with it? >> only if you'll do it with me. >> we'll do it later on. my favorite is we are never, ever getting back together, ever, ever. >> it's a classic. >> landon dowdy, cnbc headquarters. let's talk about twitter. twitter is warning some users state sponsored hackers may have

tried to access sensitive information from their accounts. the company says there's no evidence that it actually happened. a canadian nonprofit group cold hack received a notice from twitter on friday in which it said that hackers may have been trying to get information. they've started warning users about possibly being targeted by state sponsored hackers. grab another cup of coffee. it's time to get back to the holiday shopping. today is green monday, a term coined by ebay to mark its best sales day in december. the third biggest shopping day in december. $1.6 million was spent last year. walmart is rolling out some of the deep online discounts from black friday including some hdtv figures and "star wars" action figure yoda. good monday morning, folks.

let's get to the headlines today. the fed is in focus. u.s. futures are pointing to a higher open as european markets are brushing off an ugly session in the asia pacific. shell announces a further 2800 job cuts as it combines its operations with bg. donald trump retakes the top spot in a new poll over the weekend but ted cruz is inninip at his heels.

welcome back to the show. quick look at european equity markets. we're seeing lots of green on the charts. the ftse 100 up and even bigger gains for the cac 40. why? renewables are higher on the back of the paris agreement. we seem to be shrugging off the negativity that we saw in asia and in the u.s.

a little bit of bargain hunting after we fell roughly 4% last week. 3% down for wall street last week as well. checking in on the implied open, looks like we are called above fair value. just in time for some recovery on this monday after the huge selloff we saw on friday. biggest single day percentage loss for the s&p in two months' time. the sta&p being called up 10 points. the nasdaq looks like we are gaining 30 points or so. third avenue has forced out long time chief executive david barse. it follows friday's move. a security guard at the firm's new york headquarters told the journal that barse had been let go and is not allowed back in the building. but looking ahead this week, yes, it is all about the federal reserve.

now if you believe the markets liftoff is almost guaranteed this week, but differences still lie in how fast central bank chief janet yellen is ready to raise rates. subsequently a new poll in the ft, "financial times" expect two hikes of 25 basis points each. 39% expect three rises and you have the 30% who are looking for four rate increases. that's one every quarter in 2016. alan joins us. they're calling this a tectonic week if the fed does go. your expectations? >> wow. the day is finally here. we've been talking about this for five, six years. it's going to be interesting to see when it it's finally done. this is priced in. this is a dong deal. you saw a little bit of unwinding on friday. a little bit of flushout that often happens. we'll see if we can respond.

the s&p holds the 2,000 level. technically last week was not good. let's see if it can turn itself around. >> what are the markets selling as? what's been priced in so far? >> well, looking at it here, we've had a long time to discuss this event. i look at it as a positive. analysts are looking for rate hikes. we haven't had anything to drive the market because earnings season is over until after the new year. there hasn't been a catalyst. everyone's been worried about lower energy prices. the only people hurt by lower energy prices are the producer producers. we don't have to talk about the rate hike. >> alan, let me play did he havevilhav have -- devil's advocate. the vix was up last week 46%. commodity prices are still under

so much pressure and we're seeing an earnings recession as a result of that. we are seeing very lilly quit at this -- very little liquidity. >> you found a lot of holes in her plan. it's more symbolic. it won't have any dramatic effect. now you're looking at the chicken or the egg. do we not raise rates? it's an eternal question. i think this is something that needs to be done just from a symbolism standpoint. the u.s. economy is still doing very well. gets better every quarter and all the fundamentals remain solid. low inflation, low energy prices. you can't be dependent on the stock market to make your decisions. the stock market reacts to what the financial situation is. >> alan, do you think a dovish hike is adequately priced in by the market? >> yeah. the vix had a breakup of 20.

traded between 12 and 20 for the whole year. you get the vix plosions. that breakout targeted 28 on the up side. we got to 25 and some change on friday. these things happen from time to time. you also saw a selloff in treasuries. that's also an indication of flight equality. you're seeing a little bit of recovery. those are the key. if you look to see if the vix can go back below 20 and the treasuries can come off the recent one-month highs. >> vix currently at 2439. thank you so much for that, alan. alan knuckman. i'm carolyn roth. >> i'm susan li. good monday morning. u.s. "squawk box" is coming your way next. announcer: sunday's your last chance to save big

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good morning. fear factor, remember that? oil prices under pressure, that's one. a mess in the junk bond market, that's two, and a fed meeting just days away. however, u.s. equity futures are still pointing to a positive open after an ugly week last week. unhappy activist. dan loeb wants dow chemical ceo andrew livrist out today after they announced a merger with dupont. no bad blood here. apple music announcing an exclusive deal to have taylor swift's "1989" concert. i saw that concert.

unbelievable. monday, december 14th, 2015. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ ♪ live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." ♪ ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. it is the hottest gift in 2001. now amazon is pulling some hover boards from its floor a mimid concerns of safety. there are fires with them. there you can see it at the mall. first, let's get to the markets. the s&p coming off its worst week since the middle of august. last week the dow was down by more than 3.3%. the nasdaq was