welcome tcome to "street si. i'm joumanna bercetche there's a 24$24.7 billion bid f mall giant, westfield. >> the combined company will be a power. company. we believe it will be the best company on the planet. we are confident to recommend to our shareholders that having an

investment in that is a good thing. >> gemalto shares soar wild ride for siteinhoff shareholders, as the ecb held on to the company's debt despite the accounting scandal. president trump's tax plan faces criticism at home and abroad as a poll shows nearly half of americans oppose the bill, and finance ministers tell the white house that reforms threaten international agreements good morning it's tuesday, december 12th. let's see how things are opening up one hour into the trading session. overnight asian indices drifted slightly lower nikkei down 0.3%

the picture is murky for europe. the stoxx 600 is opening up -- opened up stronger, but swiftly eradicated those gains and is looking down on the day, down 1.5% let's switch to the indices and look at how individual country indices are doing. the out-performer is the ftse 100. we do have the uk inflation data coming up in about a half hour and the bank of england meeting coming up on thursday. clues on whether or not the brexit development also s will something to watch there the xetra dax is down 0.2% cac down 0.4 ftse mib struggling a bit. let's take a deeper dive into individual sectors technology, one of the leaders of the past couple of days following on from gains from the u.s. session oil and gas posting a very strong session today, while the uk north seas main pipeline will

be shut for the next couple of weeks which has helped boost oil and gas prices in trading. and the underperformers, travel and leisure down 0.75% retail struggling. lots of interesting news coming out of the retail sector this morning. one of the main things we want to talk about is those shares which are trading sharply lower in unibail-rodamco they will be buying westfield for 24$24.7 billion. >> we have been offered compelling price for securities of westfield corporation so it's appropriate to accept

that we feel confident that the underlying price that is through cash, a combination of cash and securities, properly values a business but more importantly the securities offered to existing westfield shareholders, we believe in the company they'll be investing in. the combined company of unibail-roda maco will be a powerful company so it's a good thing it's up to the share holders to keep shares, sell shares, whatever as for consideration of our company, we're confident that the recommendation is compelling >> explain what the company will be looking like. we've been crunching through the numbers, something like 100 million euros in synergies per annum as a result of the combined entity. you said a shopping mall giant what will it look like when it's

all done >> it will look like a powerful investment vehicle it has the combination of the two assets, really giving it a position in the most powerful financial markets, london and new york the four fashion capitals of the world. paris, new york, london and soon to be milan. westfield has a powerful position in l.a., the enterta entertainment capital of the world. silicon valley, the technology capital of the world if you think about where the world is going, best markets, powerful population bases, these will be the best shopping centers in those markets so we feel that would be a very compelling investment proposition and we are pleased to be an investor in there >> a lot has been made about the changing face of retail, not only in australia but this deal excludes the australian westfield assets, the changing face of retail around the world with the likes of amazon coming

into the market. was this a case of safety in numbers? >> it's not so much being the biggest is important, it's having the best portfolio is the important thing in this case, it's the biggest and best portfolio. you are probably aware that westfield has been reducing a number of assets, but recycling that capital to create the best shopping centers, such as new york, century city in l.a. or london this is a -- we've been in the business 57 years. the world has changed dramatically in 57 years it is changing quickly now clearly because of the drive of technology the assets we own and unibail own have been at the forefront of change and are relevant for the consumer we're confident that notwithstanding technology, amazon and others, these assets are incredibly important part of

the social and economic fabrics of the markets they're operating in we're confident they're very powerful, have huge customer flows and are compelling propositions for retailers and other services, restaurants, cinemas, leisure, gyms, et cetera that occupy the biuildins today. joining us is karen tso. it appears the acceleration of retail consolidation is picking up, and we're seeing that from french company taking over an australian company with a presence universally is this coming at a good time for westfield? >> i think it's somewhat alarming about the trends in the industry given why westfield has been an enormous player across the globe, not just in australia but in all different markets from the united kingdom to the united states, this is a wealthy family that has been behind the scenes steering this business the fact they are saying they can't go it alone anymore, they

need to consolidate assets still, that tells you something about how tough it is in retail, not just for the stores to some big department chains but for the owner of those mall assets westfield teaming up with a european business, it is about scale still. the stock price of westfield has been softer over the course of the past year. the pe tells you the asset has been beaten up, it trades below 10 versus the 17 that unibail trades on. it's opportunistic from the europeans. what it does create, 1.2 billion visits annually. that's the amount of shoppers going through the assets when they'll be a combined entity >> it's interesting what he said, the krco-ceo said they're looking to make it an investment vehicle because of the synergies

created. >> which is an asset that's been so well regarded you buy the stock, you keep reinvesting dividends in the stock. there's been changes in sales of certain parts of the businesses. this is just an international business mostly at this point. investors have not had to worry about the investment the question now is what those investors are getting with a unibail-rodamco buyout this company seems to be highly regarded by stock analysts the bulk of analysts have a strong buy, buy or hold rating on the company so, i think there's still quality. this would have been key in the negotiations for the family to have a quality buyer, which gets to the next point. what could spoil this deal if anyone comes in, you would think it would have to be a european player. don't think regulators will step

in at this point seems like green light for this deal at this point for i investors. >> of course we could continue to see further consolidation in that sector. other shopping malls that could potentially be taken over, is there anything else that could potentially come up? is unibail looking at this space for a while now? what will be interesting is maybe more the u.s. side there's a lot of quality assets in the portfolio based in the united states. if you ever shopped over there, you've probably been inside one of these westfield malls century city in los angeles, that's big one there's a ton of other assets across the likes of miami, different parts of the state so whether or not it's a u.s. player that comes into mix might be interesting there's already been consolidation in the u.s. rates. all this as the fed is lifting rates. we talk about disruption, the cost of capital is important here as well you have, for instance, the fed

moving on rates. more is expected next year this is an interest rate sensitive part of the market that benefited from low interest rates. as rates jump, yield investors want to know what the dividend payout will be that's not reason you have consolidation to try to derive returns from the business. >> there's no guarantee we'll see more of that in the future karen, thank you very much for that shares in cybersecurity firm gemalto are trading at the top of the stoxx 600 after receiving a 4$4.3 billion takeover offer from atos. it represents a 42% premium to the closing price last week. bpi, which owns a near 8% stake in gemalto has given its approval for the potential takeover. zurich bought the life insurance unit of australia new zealand banking group for 2.1

billion. this cements the spot as us a recall australia's top life insurance supplier and bitcoin dipped slightly after hitting a fresh record high continuing the recent surge, the cryptocurrency hit a high on monday it has drawn in millions of new investors sparking concern among regulators that it may be a bubble. futures for bitcoin now trading on the cboe futures exchange have been steady with low volume 237 contracts were traded on monday compared to 3,956 on the first day of trading futures contracts for march 2018 were quoted at $18,110 with volume again low the ceo and cio of tatton

investment management joins us it's fascinating this conversation about bitcoin i came in this morning and was disappointed bitcoin was only down 3%. we're used to the double digit swings how are you thinking about cryptocurrencies here and whether you see the full potential and is it something that will stay with us or just a craze and a tulip bubble as many critics in the market have been calling it >> i think the pricing that we see in the cryptocurrencies is certainly looking very much like a bubble not very real and here to stay we've seen it before in 2013 let's not forget back then the currency went up 100 fold. so far it's gone up 16 fold this year so, could go higher. who knows. you can't value it that looks like it what we're more interested in is the underlying technology, so

blockchain our concern is people buying into bitcoin think they're investing into blockchain which is something different >> we're seeing many non-institutional clients and businesses are looking at blockchain technology as a means of evolving businesses and cutting costs. you heard that from the likes of ubs, who are introducing blockchain technology in the back offices nhsannouncing they are looking to use blockchain technology i was reading in your notes that you're saying not all blockchain technologies are the same. and there's certain things investors need to be conscious of when investing in blockchain technology can you tell me about that >> it is a bit of a hype and a craze at the moment it seems just putting the stamp, blockchain, on some sort of technology, some marketing departments may feel and think that all of a sudden it makes their latest development far more attractive. people need to look into is this

really using blockchain or just using the craze more interesting. >> what does make it a valid blockchain investment? what criteria are you looking for? >> it has to be a distributed ledger it has to be that core element of blockchain where it is held everywhere, just as the blockchain technology subscribed we're excite exciquite excited funding, one of the providers, calistone are now speaking of launching the registration of the fund units through blockchain technology. >> just going back to the bitcoin discussion the expectation was that the launch of the future would attract a lot of new hands to the market those who traditionally wouldn't have had access to the bitcoin as an underlying asset to trade what we've seen is that there were good volumes on the first day of trading, that dropped

substantially. only about 127 futures traded in total. do you think this future is really just going to be a flop not many people will buy into it >> no, i think it's a good thing to have the future on the bitcoin. it increases accessibility and liquidity. let's face it, trading in bitcoin is not quite as straightforward as trading in the future therefore that should make the whole market more liquid and lively >> stay with us. if you want to choin join in one conversation, join the show by tweeting us at streetsignseurope@cnbc ahead, president trump's decision to recognize jerusalem does not fit with his strategy in the middle east, that's according to former u.s. secretary of defense robert gates. are from his first-on interview in few moments

signs. steinhoff german listed shares are trading higher after fighting an accounting investigation. steinhoff dropped 82% last week after revealing possible accounting problemi ins that cod affect $7 billion in assets and unicredit is increasing its dividend payout ratio. the italian bank also confirmed it's on track to meet 2019 targets and is pushing ahead with the drive to sell down the portfolio of nonperforming loans. shares in italy's ubi banca traded lower on reports that the central bank called for more ambitious targets on npl reduction. the ecb asked the lender to explain how it plans to off-load nonperforming loans portfolio by next march the spanish government is set to reduce its stake in bankia in a rapid sale 7 % will be sold from spain's bank bailout fund for 820 million euros. the spanish government owns 66%

of the bank which it held since 2012 it's set to be a busy week for european banks due to announce interest rate decisions on thursday ahead of that the fed is expected to announce a hike in rates at the conclusion of its meeting tomorrow investors will look for hints about the pace of rate increases next year and beyond the ceo and cio of tatton investment management is still with us. it appears the fed hike is a done deal at this point, more than 95% priced in the market will be looking for clues on the dot plot going into next year. expectation that the pace of hikes may be increased do you have a view on how fast the fed will go in 2019? or 2018, i should say. >> i think the main message this week will be yes, rate hike, change in language, no they will try to keep it as calm

as possible so as not to upset the apple cart before christmas. i think there's too much focus on the dot plot, because actually inflation pressures may be less pronounced than the markets currently expect we would suggest perhaps there's not much change in the dot plot, not much pressure for more rate rises than the currently three envisioned for 2018. >> i guess the top talk in the u.s. is tax reform there's been many estimates on whether that tax reform will have an impact on growth going forward. originally the white house council said it would add 3%, 4% a year now analysts are impacting growth as little as 0.25% for the next couple of years how you are thinking of the impact on tax reform as an

investor >> that's the one really interesting wildcard and point for the fed to comment on. if the tax reform goes through in its current format and in a timely manner, yes, it could have an impact on the economy and markets, and there could be more inflation pressures so i would expect some language in the fed statement to say that now, undoubtedly, if we get that corporate tax cut, it will have a positive eps impact on u.s. stocks so all of a sudden they may not look quite as highly priced and highly valued anymore as they do at the moment. there are many who are suggesting that currently the full extent of that tax cut is not really priced into the stock market i have my slide doubts there i would be happy to see u.s. stock evaluations a bit more solidly underpinned if it comes through. >> what does it mean for rotation within sectors? what we saw last week is beginning of rotation out of

growth to value stocks, that that sort of has begun to change towards the end of the week. is that a major theme as well in terms of how people look for opportunities rather than at an index level, that you want to drill down into individual sectors. >> that's the very long, overdue trend that we would like to observe. normally once the economic growth broadens out and tax reform would help that, that you see a rotation from growth into value. it was encouraging last week to see the beginnings of that unfortunately it immediately stalled to the middle of the week and retreated towards the end of the week. yes, that trend could actually kick off and be quite interesting for investors who are otherwise increasingly looking at the u.s. market in a bit of despair because it's so highly valued. in the value area, there's still quite a lot of stocks which are not as highly valued and may make good sense for investment if that trend comes through, and

there's still a few ifs and buts in that. >> i will switch gears a bit japan has been a major focus of yours. nobody is talking about the bank of japan. the data is looking better the nikkei staged an amazing performance the last couple of months i'm curious to hear your thoughts on japan. i know you're optimistic about it in your notes where is your optimism coming from >> first and foremost, it is because japan's work force is finally growing again. it's not growing because of demographics, but it's growing because they're pushing more of the work -- of the population really into the work force so much increased participation of women, and there's now an increased participation of elderly people as well that for the first time is really giving positive impetus on the japanese gdp which has stalled for so long and very

much because of the demographic issues that japan has. now, the other important thing to note this week is that actually you're seeing signs that it's coming through just this morning or last night cpi was coming through stronger. >> thank you very much saudi arabia's main sovereign wealth fund is looking to cash in on the movie business as the kingdom lifts a ban on cinemas. the public investment fund has signed a memorandum of understanding with amc as the kingdom looks to diversify away fromoil. coming up, british prime minister theresa may's optimistic about brexit, but has a firm line on a trade deal with the european union we'll look at the latest on the talks after this break my friend susie cracks me up. but one laugh,

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australian company with a 24$24 billion bid for westfield. >> the combined company will a powerful company we believe it will be the best shopping center company on the planet we are confident to recommend to our shareholders that having an investment in that is a good thing. >> gemalto shares soar after atos bids 3$3.4 billion fr the french security firm a wild ride for steinhoff shareholders, as the ecb held on to the company's debt despite the accounting scandal. president trump's tax plan faces criticism at home and abroad as a poll shows nearly half of americans oppose the bill and europe's finance ministers tell the white house that reforms threaten international agreements

let's take a look at uk inflation data which has come out. the november numbers up 2% for the month, 3.9% for the year, slightly expectations. expectations were for it to jump 4% cpi has also jumped. up 0.3% a month, 3.1% on the year that's an interesting one. at 3.1%, that means that carney will have to write a letter to the chancellor explaining the deviation away from more than 1% away from the target of 2% the bank of england did say in october they were expecting inflation numbers to peak come october and november this is 0.1% higher than the inflation print we got last month. carney will have to write a

christmas letter to the chancellor explaining the deviation. let's look at how u.s. futures are trading going into the open. s&p 500 up -- pointed to open up 6 points higher. dow jones looking to open about 57 points higher no surprise there, but u.s. equities did post another record high in trading last night s&p 500, dow jones, and nasdaq technology sectors still doing very well. let's switch to european markets. let's look at the picture there. ftse 1 00 in the green, up 0.1%. just a touch below the 7500 mark xetra dax looking firmer versus where we were this morning things have turned around a bit. cac is up 0.1% let's look at foreign exchange all eyes on the u.s. dollar. the fed hike is potentially coming up on wednesday expectations are for the rate hike to go ahead, more than 95%

priced in. euro/dollar trading around the flat line, just a tad below that 18 mark dollar/yen, 0.1% weaker. the cable, sterling/dollar, trading up at 1.3362 strig slightly stronger on the day. inflation data and the bank of england meeting coming this thursday now, just got a flash on psg group. the shares in the group have turned negative, down nearly 3% after reports that steinhoff are thinking about stake disposal. so, that is more repercussions from that steinhoff story we've been following this week the psg shares are down 3.7% now, theresa may has told parliament that the uk will only pay its brexit divorce bill if

it can secure a trade with the european union there will be a fresh round of talks focused on the uk's relationship with the eu the conservative leader said friday's break will you on the irish border bodes well for the second phase of talk >> is a new sense of optimism in the talks. i fully hope and expected that we will confirm the arrangements i have set out today in the european counsel later this week this is good news for the people who voted leave who were worried we were so bogged down in the negotiations, torturous negotiations that it would never happen it is good news for people who voted remain who were worried we would crash out without a deal we will leave, but do so in a smooth and orderly way >> joining me is john mills. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> just to quote the prime minister, she said yesterday

that the deal was good news for those who voted leave and good news for those who voted remain, and the intention is to leave in a smooth and orderly way do you agree with her assessment of friday's deal >> i think there's still problems down the track. but what happened over the last few days is positive i think we're more likely to finish up with a reasonable deal that both people who voted for leave and remain would be happy with >> of course, the market has interpreted it that way as well in the sense that the possibility of a hard brexit has been erased. most people are looking towards a more soft brexit approach. do you think perhaps the uk government by going ahead and pushing for the regulatory alignment and announcing a final divorce settlement aamount, that

perhaps makes negotiations for phase two more difficult >> i think phasetwo negotiations are going to be tricky there is still quite a bit tension between alignment, which i think makes a lot of sense for everybody, where you're talking about common standards for electrical goods, this kind of thing, and whether that then washes over into free movement of labor, which has been a big issue, as i'm sure you know. how much we pay into the eu budget, all this kind of thing to what extent we can negotiate trade deals without party countries. it depends a lot on the extent to which the finished deal constrains britain because we're in the single market and ways in which people don't want. >> then again they have said many times, you have said many times, the uk cannot cherry pick the bits of the single market they want to keep and walk away from the bits they don't want.

do you think starting from a standpoint of, yes, we'll have regulatory alignment for parts of the uk, does that not make it more difficult in the future for the uk to walk away and say actually, no, there's parts of the agreement we don't want for the rest of the uk >> that's exactly where the tension will be on the trade talks. if britain agreed that we would comply with every aspect of the single market, i don't think there's a problem about getting a trade deal i don't think that's what most people in the country want what most people want is to be able to sell to the european union to sell to the single market, but to have some flexibility about the way in which we organize affairs, and not to have the single market imposing the same sort of resouth africa shtrictin companies that don't trade with the eu >> david davis said that they're looking to work towards a canada plus plus plus type trading agreement. what does that mean exactly?

the canada agreement is largely about goods rather than services i think in terms of the goods, goods are not a major problem in negotiations it makes sense to have alignment as much as possible across the peace. it's the other elements of the single market that will be more problematic. like free movement of labor, like how much we pay into the budget, to what extent the single market imposes regulations on companies in the uk that are not trading with the european union these areas are where there is more difficulty. >> the uk economy is mostly services oriented. you can come to an agreement on the goods side, but there are a lot of questions about what the economy will look like if there's no agreement on services >> that's right. because the canadian agreement doesn't cover services much at all. this is the big area where the negotiations are going to be more tricky. at the moment we have not got

really a single market in services in the european union so we're not starting from a terribly high base but britain is very dependant on service exports. you're right and if we're precluded from selling to the single market, that's really a big issue. >> you are a big advocate of the leave company. what sort of trading arrangement would you be happy with in the long run >> i think that the proposal set out by the prime minister, she's outside the single market, outside the european economic area and the customs union, but as comprehensive of a free trade deal as we can negotiate with the eu 27 is possible. that's the outcome that would satisfy remainers and leavers to the maximum extent >> one of the big shock announcements that came out in the last couple weeks, the obr

growth and productivity forecast that came out of the uk budget that sent some shockwaves through the system what hope is there for the uk economy if the obr is saying the growth will be lower the next few years and that's why the uk is still in the transitional deal with the eu >> it's worth saying these low growth rates were accomplished while we were in the european union. it's not entirely a brexit issue here i think the british economy is unbalanced but one factor in the negotiations with the eu 27 which is critical and doesn't get remarked on much is that if you take the whole country's balance of payments deficit, almost all of it is with the eu 27, not the rest of the world. we have a balance of over 120 billion pounds with the european union. what's happening with that

>> how do we reduce it >> the exchange rate is too high we need to sell more goods the amount of services we sold to the eu has hardly gone up over the last five, six years. the balance of payments in goods has gone down and down that's what we need to rectify we need to produce more goods, industrialize and rebalance the economy. >> you say the exchange rate is too high we see what happens to uk inflation. it's higher on the back of the first wave of the depreciation we saw after the referendum vote last year. if the currency does go down, and you can tell me by how much it needs go down in order to correct that deficit, doesn't that put the bank of england in an awkward situation because they will be faced with imported inflation and a weak growth outlook that is stagflation. >> i think if you had a lower currency, you would have a better position in terms of growth i'm not sure devaluation

produces inflation as much as people claim the real issue is if we have a huge balance of payments problem, we have to do something about it you are much more likely, i think, to close the gap on the trade if there's more sale of goods and services the price sensitivity of goods is much higher our problem is that we got an exchange rate at the moment which works for services but not for industry that's the big problem we got. we depend on manufacturing to pay our way in the world that's the bite we're in >> thank you very much for that, john john mills, thank you very much for your thoughts on brexit and on the pound >> thank you. the european oil majors are react together latest pick up in oil prices and eu leaders say they will not support donald trump's recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel. israeli prime minister benjamin

netanyahu paid a visit to european union headquarters on monday looking for similar endorsements, but the answer was a firm no. it was the first visit by an israeli leader in 22 years now hadley spoke with former u.s. defense secretary robert gates and asked about trump's controversial decision >> i think was ill-advised not quite sure if there's a strategy behind it or if it's the fulfillment of a campaign promise made the problem is the tension of the administration to the palestinian problem and the willingness to devote extra time and energy to it, the involvement of the president's son-in-law in meting with the partie parties, i had the sense of thinking that something may be possible in terms of moving forward on something that multiple presidents have failed to achieve unfortunately i think this

decision probably significantly setting back that effort in major ways. >> look at what's happening in the region i speak to arab leaders. they tell me there's a shia crescent now that extends from tehran to damascus to beirut and reaches through yemen and into bahrain. they're worried about what's happening in the region. we've seen a change in the foreign policy of countries like saudi arabia and the uae do you think this is dangerous >> well, i think we have seen this growing conflict between the shia, led by iran and the sunnis led by saudi arabia for some time. but it clearly has intensified just over the last year or so. the truth is i think when president obama signed the nuclear agreement with iran, he should have made a speech that day saying this agreement has nothing to do with our

willingness to push back on iran's aggressiveness in the region, its effort to spread influence, its effort to destabilize the region the irony is the ayatollah gave that type of speech to the effect that the nuclear agreement will not effect any of iran's behavior in the region. so i think the united states, from the signing of the agreement, signaled to the iranians we were not going to be aggressive in pushing back against their activities in the region that's one of the things that the new administration, the trump administration has done, which frankly is one of the reasons our relationship with our friends in the arab world as well as with israel have improved over the past ten months, it's a willingness on the part of the united states to work with allies and pushing back against iranian aggressiveness and interference in the region. >> that was hadley gamble speaking with robert gates you can get the full story on cnbc.com feel free to e-mail the show

the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com of course, you can follow us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc or tweet me directly. alabama voters may be ready to deliver an election surprise that could impact the fate of the republican tax cuts. we'll bring you the latest after we'll bring you the latest after the break. i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that whole process. the order data, the weights of the items, everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping label everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now we're ready, bring on the orders. shipstation. the number one choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

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welcome back to "street signs. a new poll shows the republican tax bill does not appear to be picking up additional support. a reuters poll shows 49% oppose the tax package and 31% are in favor. a poll at the end of november showed similar numbers. finance ministers from spain, germany, france, italy and the uk sent a letter to the trump administration warning that tax cuts could undermine trade. the finance ministers are concerned that the tax overhaul could be used by trump to pursue an america-first trade policy it was september to steven mnuchin

and gary cohn. a treasury spokesperson responded saying it appreciates the views of the finance minist ministers. u.s. senate candidate roy moore embraced president trump' agenda on the final eve of his campaign rally he was joined by steve bannon. polls suggested his democratic opponent could pull off a surprise victory in the heavily republican state as moore faced allegations of sexual misconducts. jay gray has the latest. >> the final rush to the ballot box in alabama, less than 24 hours until polls open, and the two candidates have two very different strategies >> i want to make sure people hear from doug jones >> reporter: the democrat is crisscrossing the state, shaking as many hands and talking to as many voters as he can. while pointing out republican roy moore has not.

>> it only goes to show he cares more about his personal agenda than the people of alabama. tonight moore returned to the campaign trail for a rally with republican strategist steve bannon >> we explored the temples built by the democrats and republican party in this country. they have idols has do not hear us or see us. >> reporter: moore did not answer any questions from the media and hasn't since many women accused him of dating and sexually assaulting him years ago when they were in their teens. something he continues to deny >> i did not date underage women or molest anyone >> reporter: debbie wesson gibson said she met moore when he spoke to their high school class in 1981 and they dated for 2 1/2 months >> it's not appropriate. it's creeper i did not have that sense at the

time. >> reporter: she calls moore a liar and unfit for the senate, and now another voice is weighing in. >> hi, this is president trump, i need alabama to vote for roy moore. it's so important. >> reporter: a robocall from trump is making the rounds in alabama. like jones, in the final hours in this campaign jay gray, nbc news, montgomery, alabama. james peter cook is from american enterprise institute and joins us from washington, d.c. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> just starting off with the alabama vote it's interesting that donald trump has thrown so much weight behind roy moore, despite all of the allegations surrounding him. why is this vote so important for the president? >> roy moore's supporters, evangelical christians, are also president trump's core base support. the president's approval ratings

are low. he needs to keep that support. so they like roy moore, so he will be for roy moore. also he still wants this tax reform bill passed if they lose that senate seat, it makes it tougher to get it past they probably would not seat roy moore if he wins that race until january. either way they want this thing passed as soon as possible so it's not dependent on that election outcome >> do you think it will have bearings on the midterm i election next year if roy moore loses the seat >> either way democrats are going to win this. because, one, they actually win the seat, then they get a senate seat in a state where they have not held statewide office in 20 years. and if roy moore wins, every single democrat is going to run ads against republicans saying they're the party that's supporting child molesters that's a pretty rough ad to run. democrats will run that.

what already looks like it will be a tough midterm for republicans, they have to defend a lot of seats in the senate the president is unpopular this is just another factor helping democrats possibly retake the house and maybe retake the senate. >> james, i want to talk more about tax reform, and you said in your note that the longer the bill remains alive the more the opposition will build against some aspects of the reform bill. from that perspective, do you think they'll rush to push it through by the end of the year so the trump administration can claim victory in terms of passing something this year? >> i think they want to get this thing done by the end of december, by christmas that's always been part of the strategy there's a lot of controversial parts of this bill especially how they want to pay for it they want to get rid of the ability to deduct state and local taxes. that's a very tough sell in some states so the longer that bill sits there, the longer the opposition

will increase, whether to that particular feature, whether -- how they'll change the taxation of investments, which was not an issue earlier, which is now an issue. all these different moving parts, the lobbyists will kick into gear and this thing seeps over into january. then i think this bill starts having real problems time is of the essence >> i want to ask a bit more about the implications the tax reform will have on the growth outlook. originally the expectations from the white house economic advisors were that it would add 3% to 4% to growth over the next couple of years. many independent think tanks are saying it will add something to the tune of 0.25 or 0.5% max to the growth economy how much of an impact is this tax reform bill going make on the economy? is it just a political win at the end of the day

>> right so, the administration, the treasury department put out an analysis, i use that word loosely, yesterday saying that the tax bill will add about 0.35% to growth every year most private estimates are far lower. they may be 0.1 or less. there's a big difference certainly the consensus is this will effect growth incrementally. but the administration says this will take growth to 3% once you add in growth from regulatory reform so there's two huge -- there's a big gap between both those >> we have to stop there thank you very much. what will voters believe, i'm not sure >> thanks for your tugs.hoht that's it for today's show i'm joumanna bercetche "worldwide exchange" is up next. zar: one of our investors was in his late 50s

right in the heart of the financial crisis, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. it really scared him out of the markets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65. having someone coach you through it is really the value of a financial advisor.

stocks hitting record highs as the central bank kicks off its final meeting of the year. comcast is out the media giant dropping its interest in 21st century fox assets and raising the red flag on bitcoin. one of the earliest investors in the cryptocurrency is starting to get worried it's tuesday, december 12, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now.