markets now. wall street pointing to a higher open as investors await another batch of data on this final trading day of the week. talking taxes. we're looking at the big winners and losers in the massive tax bill working its way through congress. and christmas crunch time. new numbers out this morning and how things are shaping up for the retailers. it's friday, december 15th, 2017, and "worldwide exchange" begins right now ♪ good morning, and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc i'm courtney reagan in for sara eisen. >> and i'm dominic chu in for

wilfred frost. let's check on global markets because we are on this friday seeing gains, at least on the futures side of things you can see futures pointing to a higher open, the s&p up by about six points, the dow up by about 78 and the nasdaq up by about 13 points overall. let's get a check on the fixed income markets on the treasury side specifically with the ten-year u.s. treasury note, yields are 2.362%, a little lower than they have been over the last couple of days. so the interest rate picture taking a little bit more clarity given the fed's interest rate hike and some commentary about the future still, though, yields in focus, especially for those financials, courtney. >> let's look at what's going on around the world in trading. so take a look at what happened in asia overnight. mostly lower, as you can see the south korean kospi is the one outlier higher by about 0.5% the hang seng was the biggest laggard, down 1% a lot of focus on what's going on here in the u.s. when it comes to our potential tax reform bill, and that was largely the focus of the asian markets overnight, also a weaker

dollar against the yen toyota shares down 2% in japan, hyundai up 2.3% in south korea, softbank down about 2.4% for some of the bigger equity movers over in asia take a look at what's going on in europe. it was a mostly lower day in europe yesterday you can see again that is the way things are trending this morning. spain is ever so slightly positive, at least for right now, but you can see that france's cac is down h&m with disappointing sales, retail stocks among the worst performers in europe at this point. >> certainly one of those stocks we're focusing on in europe right now. as for the broader markets overall, look at the oil complex. one of the places we've been keeping a close eye on because of that brent north sea pipeline outage, wti crude, $57.26, the last trade there, up by about a third of 1%. brent crude futures, the world benchmark, just about flat, $63.29 as for the gold trade, it's not

crypto, but it certainly is one of those assets people looks towards, towards a physical commodity. gold prices up about 0.2%. comex gold at $1,259.50 the last trade there. let's look overall at the currency market that plays into the commodity trade as well. euro's $1.1793, so stronger euro, weaker dollar. dollar/yen at 112.15, weaker dollar there as well and pounds versus the u.s. dollar sterling $1.3427. and of course, we'll check the crypto side of things because it is one of the hot trades, better or worse bitcoin futures on the cboe 18,220 we'll see if the trading volume picks up remember, this is the weekend when we start cme futures trading for bitcoin. courtney. >> oh, yeah, that's right. can't forget that. it's already friday, my gosh turning to today's wall street agenda, we'll get a pair of economic reports to round out the week look for empire state

manufacturing numbers out at 8:30 a.m. eastern time, followed by industrial production at 9:15 a.m. let's talk more about the markets and the economy as we head into the final weeks of the year joining us is paul donovan, global economist at ubs wealth management, joining us live in london paul, i've got to say, as we talk about the political picture in the u.s., there's so much chat about whether or not politics has any kind of an effect on the economy overall. will it here in the u.s. and will it globally, i guess, is the big question? >> the honest answer is, no, not in the short term. politicians are not nearly as important as they think they are. economists are important, obviously, but politicians are not, not in the short term in the short term, people care about the fact, do i have a job, can i afford to buy what i want to buy and politicians don't really impact the answer to those questions near term. now on a full five-year view, if you want to talk about trend growth, if you want to talk about competitiveness, yes,

there politics and policies really do matter, but in the short term, basically, this is quite a lot of noise as far as the economy's concerned. >> that's quite funny. so, the economists matter, coming from the economist, politicians not so much. what about the central banks what about their role in global economies as we look towards potentially more normalizing of policy >> well, central banks are economists, so of course, they're important. and as we look into 2018, what has shifted? well, what's shifted is we're getting a simultaneous tightening of central bank policy i wouldn't say it's synchronized it's not really coordinated. i don't think janet yellen and mario draghi got together over a bottle of wine and decided they were both going to raise rates or tighten policy at the same time, but we've got a simultaneous move. but it's important to understand what is it central banks are trying achieve they're not trying to slow growth they're not trying to slow inflation. they're not trying destroy pricing power.

they've done that in the past with tightening cycles, but that's not their aim this time around this time around, they're trying to preserve the status quo they're trying to keep a balance in the economy so, it's a different objective that we've got with this sort of tightening at the moment. >> paul, i would say this. one of the things that a lot of these central banks have been trying to do is to stoke some kind of growth, some kind of inflation. yes, we don't really feel as though things are going to be recessionary at any given point in the future, but does it concern you from a global economic standpoint that we don't see any real signs of that growth or inflation? we know it's not bad it's just not as good as people thought it was going to be >> to be honest, you know, we're in line with average we've got average growth, we've got average inflation. u.s. inflation is not low. u.s. inflation is back in line with its 20-year average this is not a low-inflation environment. it's a normal-inflation environment. for over 30 years, ever since

paul voelker took over the federal reserve, everyone's been saying central banks have got to get low and stable inflation that's what we need, that's what we need. well, central banks have finally done it, now everyone's complaining about it i don't understand this. this is normal and i think what central banks are doing is very sensibly draining some of the liquidity, moving away from some of the excessive policy to make sure that we stay exactly where we are because where we are now is economically speaking pretty much a sweet spot. >> paul, i understand that you don't think, as we discussed earlier, that politicians really mean that much in the short term, but politicians are certainly factoring in a pretty high growth rate for u.s. gdp into this tax reform plan. what do you think about u.s. gdp in the next year or so >> well, for the next year or so, and indeed, medium-term, the u.s. is growing around trend and for me, trend in the states is something you give or take about 2.25%. there's no point being too

precise about this, but it's about 2.25%. now, i know the u.s. president has on occasion expressed belief that u.s. trend rate of growth could be 4%, even 6% i have to say, i think that is relatively unlikely. that is the source of growth rate that one would expect from an emerging market, trying to catch up with its neighbors. i don't think the u.s. is going to be trying to catch up with mexican standards of living, not just yet so, that i think is an excessive view somewhere around 2.25% seems to me to be entirely sensible assumption for growth. >> all right, paul donovan, we do care a lot about economists here at cnbc paul donovan at ubs, thank you so much for joining us, live in london >> thank you. legendary investor jim chanos talking everything from f.a.n.g. stocks to tesla in an exclusive interview on cnbc. he even made a "game of thrones" reference. landon dowdy joins us with more. good morning. >> hey, courtney good morning hedge fund investor jim chanos laying it all out with cnbc's

kelly evans, the famed short seller talking everything from tesla to tax reform, even touching on net thank you reali -- neutrality and what it means pore the f.a.n.g. stocks. >> i think the net neutrality rule combined with a bigger c g competitor in the content area will put more pressure on the content buyers, amazon, google and netflix. >> he also talked tesla. chanos a longtime critic of the company is sticking with his criticism. >> i think mr. musket and tesla has a broad, broad interpretation of the truth. you know, there have been all kinds of announcements in this company has made just in flippant comments that are public statements that turned out not to be true. >> chanos also channeling "game of thrones" while talking tax reform and obamacare take a listen. >> i think it will be, as paul ryan i think has hinted at, it

will be the opening salvos for '18 and '19 on cutting entitlements, which is medicare and medicaid again so they're going to go after obamacare in a back door, sneaky way. and we have a saying with the health care stocks, we think winter is coming we think we're about to see deflation. >> guys, you can see more of his comments right now on cnbc.com back over to you. >> thank you very much, landon i don't even watch "game of thrones" and i know that was a "game of thrones" reference. in corporate news, csx ceo hunter harrison is taking medical leave. the company says he is experiencing complications from a recent unspecified illness chief operating officer james foote will take the helm during harrison's absence it's not immediately clear when harrison will return. still ahead on the show, at least here on "worldwide exchange," we're going to talk all about the tax picture here, a look at some of the big winners and losers in the gop's massive tax overhaul plan. but first, the countdown is on less than ten shopping days left until christmas. new numbers out this morning on

how things are shaping up for retailers. stick around "worldwide exchange" will be right back ♪ what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter.

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another good day for the markets. we'll see if it stays that way into the opening bell. as for oil prices, if it's friday it must be rig counts wti crude $57.30, up about 0.5%. ice brent futures, the benchmark, $63.29, just a hair to the down side as well so we're watching gasoline stocks, baker hughes counts 1:00 p.m. eastern time today. >> thank you, dom. okay, "stocks to watch." shares are higher on reports that elliott management is preparing a new proxy fight. it's reported he wants to move john hess as ceo or shares of the energy company sales are up in premarket trade. oracle is under pressure despite an earnings beat, saying growth in its cloud computing business will come in weaker than expected for the current quarter, oracle also announcing a $12 billion buyback. oracle shares are down more than

6% in the early going. adobe shares are moving higher on upbeat quarterly results. the software company says quarterly revenues grew 25% in the fourth quarter adobe also raising its outlook for the next year. shares higher by only about 0.5% at this point. more stocks to watch here, courtney shares of h&m plunging after reporting its biggest drop in quarterly sales in a decade. the company says it plans to close more stores as it focuses more aggressively on the e-commerce side of things. h&m shares down by 15% certainly not a great day for them costco beating the street, reporting a 43% jump in online sales last quarter they also say membership renewals held steady, despite last quarter reporting they might drop and shares of waste management are higher this morning, upping its quarterly dividend and announcing a $1.25 billion stock buyback program. waste management up more than a percent in extended hours trading. well, don't look now, less than ten shopping days left

until christmas. courtney, how are things shaping up for those retailers because i know that i've done a pretty good amount of shopping just in the last three days. >> you have. >> i have. >> see, you're kind of rare, because right now we're in this lull we often see this retail lull. you see a big boom around thanksgiving, black friday -- >> cyber monday, yeah. >> that makes sense, right then people sort of feel like they've put a good dent in it, then they pull back. then right towards the end, that last weekend, you see the push higher so you're a little rare and you're helping retailers get through the lull. >> here's what i would say about the lull normally, i wouldn't do this the trader in me always looks for the lowest prices. i know that as we get closer to that christmas holiday, we're going to see that. my issue in the past has been the longer i've waited, the less availability there has been for certain inventory. >> yes. >> and the shipping was a concern for me as well sometimes they just don't get there in time. >> right. >> i don't care as much, but maybe some of the people i give gifts to do. >> right. >> so now i've tried to balance it by saying that this little lull period that you're talking

about, i hunt for prices i still only buy stuff that's on sale, but i will do it a little bit earlier than i normally would because i think that it will get there in time. >> and you've hit on a couple good themes. inventories are a little leaner this year. we saw sellouts of toys early in october, actually, some of the hot toys, both from the retailers being conservative on what they're buying and also the toy manufacturers in what they're providing to the retailers. >> but you would think that as time progresses and technology progresses and big data becomes more a part of the retail picture, retailers will be able to get their inventories a little bit more in line. and what that ends up doing is we talk so often about, you know, in the first quarter of next year, quarters beyond that, about how retailers report their holiday shopping season. >> yep. >> about how their profit margins may have been impacted by a, quote, highly promotional environment. you wonder if those inventory controls now mean they won't have as much of a pressure point on profit margins -- >> that's what they're hoping for. >> right. >> and early when we saw those big deals around the black

friday/thanksgiving week, not even just those days, the discounts were less good if you're a consumer than before. still good, but let's say the average is 47% off instead of 48% off or something like that so they are using the data to try to maintain the most margin that they possibly can. >> meanwhile, we did see some numbers coming up from the retail trade groups. >> yes, so, mpd sort of tracks all of the categories broadly. they won't tell us about specific retailers because they pay for that information, but they say for the first five weeks, sales were actually up 2% over last year it's really bullish numbers out of the first weekend, so i haven't seen anything to suggest that things aren't going well. that's not to say that retail still isn't a game of the have and have-nots. not everybody is going to do well we saw last year where the overall numbers were pretty strong, but when the individual retailers came out -- >> segments came in. >> yeah. it's pretty clear. we'll see what happens in january when that shakes out but so far, so good. and if you haven't done all your shopping yet, be careful because

we're coming up on shipping deadlines, too >> nine days, 18 hours and 47 minutes left to go. anyway, still ahead on the show, the big unveil, of course. lawmakers expected to green-light that massive tax reform bill later on today we'll have latest from washington, d.c., straight ahead. but first, as we head to break, here's today's national weather forecast from nbc's bill karins good friday morning to you, courtney and dom a little bit of cold, a little bit of snow as we head into the weekend. winter weather advisories washington, d.c., baltimore, philadelphia this is a little bit of a change in the forecast. later this afternoon we have light snow heading your way. 15 million people are under winter weather advisories. again, not a huge storm, but as we watch the timing, nothing at 7:00 a.m., but by 2:00 p.m., light snow showers from new york to philadelphia to d.c by 5:00 p.m., d.c.'s done, but philly and new york still snowing and by 9:00 p.m., it begins to exit southern new england np not big snow titles, just the timing during the evening rush hour a dusting to an inch on i-95, as

much as 2 inches in long island as well as the jersey shore. rain in the northwest, a little light snow around minneapolis. by the time we get to saturday and sunday, we track a storm in the intermountain west, and watch out for that rain throughout saturday night and all day sunday down along the gulf coast that's yr sissraoubune tvel forecast more "worldwide exchange" when we come back

no matter how the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." let's get you up to speed on the market action. take a look at the futures, where we are indicated to open

before the market actually does begin at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. you can see futures are pointing us to a higher open. the dow jones higher by 82 points, the nasdaq indicating it would open higher by more than 13 points and the s&p 500 higher by more than 6 1/2 points. and this is after a day yesterday where we saw all three and then four, if you count the russell 2000, major averages actually close negative. for the week to date, at least the dow, s&p and nasdaq are still positive the s&p, though, just barely positive week to date. so we're going to watch that through the final trading day of the week look at what's going on with the ten-year a lot of focus on the ten-year as well as the other treasury bonds around the world here. we talked about this a little earlier. this is in focus we've seen some movement, not a ton after what the fed did earlier this week because that was largely expected we talk a lot about the flattening yield curve, but perhaps this quantitative tightening around the world could help us move a little steeper as we go. all right, well, in political news, we're expecting a big, big movement here in d.c.

on tax reform today. nbc's tracie potts live in washington with the latest tracie >> reporter: hey, dom and courtney, good morning good morning, everyone at this point, we're trying to count up the votes as republicans are doing the same there are a handful of republicans who may not go along with this tax plan, and eally, that's all it takes to kill it it's not even final yet, but the government's already preparing to adjust your paycheck if the republican tax plan passes. >> the irs is already taking steps to prepare new withholding tables for 2018 -- >> reporter: that's on hold for now until senate republicans can round up 51 votes. they can only afford to lose two. there are five in question senators mike lee and marco rubio are holding out to make more of the child tax credit refundable to low and middle-income families. >> unless they can figure out a way to add to the 1,100 figure, i won't support the bill. >> we're going to keep working with them until we get the job

done. >> he's really been a great guy, very supportive. i think that senator rubio will be there. >> reporter: senator bob corker could be a no. he's concerned the $1.5 trillion plan adds too much to the deficit. plus, senators john mccain and thad cochran have both been out ill. it's unclear if they'll show up to vote. >> and why are our republican colleagues rushing this bill through? i think they're ashamed of it. >> reporter: democrats are still pushing to delay the tax vote until the end of the month, when alabama's new democratic senator, doug jones, shows up in washington and to prove just how tight of a margin we're talking about here, the vice president is delaying his overseas trip to the middle east just in case his tie-breaking vote is needed here for that tax bill. courtney and dom >> all right, so tracie, a very narrow margin, for sure. thank you very much for that update, tracie potts, nbc news. well, who are the potential corporate winners if this bill potentially passes, hypothetically speaking, of course the folks over at goldman sachs

looked at some of the stocks and companies that have the highest effective tax rates over the course of the last few years and said maybe they're the ones who could react the most, given tax reform so check this out, a handful of the names. they have 49 stocks in their "high-tax" basket. this is a sampling zions bancorp on the financial side of things with a 35% tax rate, according to the team at goldman sachs. j.b. hunt on the transportation side, a 38% effective tax rate over the last ten years. goodyear, 46% on the industrial side of things and then conocophillips, 49% it echoes a theme, courtney, about this idea, some of the biggest and most highly taxed companies are capital-intensive industries like energy and telecom and industrials. they could be ones to watch in terms of handicapping the overall figure i would also point this out -- small-cap stocks, one of the big reactionary trades in some of this tax reform headline stuff back over to you. >> very interesting. retail not as capital-intensive,

but they certainly have very high tax rates i think jpmorgan's about 32%, so retailers poised for some excitement, too, on this tax reform. still ahead, this morning's top headlines and roundup of the global markets plus, the force is strong with "star wars: the last jedi," the film setting records and it's only been open for a few hours we have the latest, but no spoilers, we promise, when "worldwide exchange" returns ♪

markets now. wall street pointing to another higher open as tax reform takes center stage we'll get you up to speed on the trading day. that's straight ahead. big battle brewing why shares of hess are moving higher this morning. and smashing records why the force is already strong as "star wars" hits theaters it's friday, december 15th, 2017, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc ♪ good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc i'm courtney reagan, in for sara eisen. dom, i hope the force is with you today. >> i am so pumped! the music alone has me riled up about what's happening for the day, not just for "star wars" and "the force awakens." you got me so excited, i couldn't even introduce myself let's check on the markets. overnight and so far this morning here in the united states, futures are pointing to

a higher open. dow indicated higher by about 85 points, s&p 500 higher almost seven and the nasdaq higher by almost 15 points this morning, and that's after we saw the markets fall off yesterday the dow, the s&p, and the nasdaq actually and the russell 2000 all ending the day lower the russell 2000 ending lower by more than 1%, the worst daily performance in over a month there. we watched that closely as a proxy for tax reform because of those small caps and the potential to move there. so, we're going to continue to watch the market, see if they can hold on to their week-to-date gains they're holding on now s&p is almost flat to slightly higher take a look at what's going on with yields on the ten-year today. of course, this was in focus much earlier in the week when we saw the fed raise rates again. that was widely expected but still something that we follow very closely 2.364% for the yield on the ten-year this morning. all right, so courtney, let's check elsewhere around the world. on the asian side of things, markets are now closed, but we did see a predominantly lower

trade in most of the asian markets. you can see the nikkei in japan off about 0.5%, the hang seng in hong kong down 1%, the shanghai nearly down 1% the standout there was the south korean kospi, off about 0.2 5% on the close on the european side, a generally negative day as well we showed you last half hour the german dax still down off about 0.33%, the cac in france off a similar amount the ftse in italy and spain down as well. courtney, a lower day. we'll see if that translates at all to slowing momentum for the u.s. side of things. we do know u.s. markets are fairly strong, the force is strong with u.s. stocks. >> i see what you did there. >> yes. let's get a check on the broader markets, take a look at oil prices, both wti and brent both higher. wti higher by about 0.6% at $57.38, brent higher by just over 0.1% at $63.39.

week-to-date, we know wti is down about 0.5% going into today's session, brent down less than that, down about 0.1% so we'll see what happens. they will be on pace for the third negative week in a row, if, indeed, we are still lower to end the week. take a look at what's going on with the price of gold we talked a lot about bitcoin. gold has sort of lost some of the focus, but we should pay attention to it. it is higher here today and actually saw the biggest gain in three weeks yesterday. so, something of note there, up about 0.7% week to date. take a look at the dollar. dollar a little bit weaker that guided some of the asian trade overnight as the dollar was weaker with respect to the yen. you can see that the euro is stronger here against the u.s. dollar the dollar is weaker against the yen and the pound is weaker against the dollar lastly, let's check on bitcoin. i mentioned it earlier we didn't show you the price we'lllook at futures for the cboe, higher by more than 9.5%, and over this weekend, cme

futures will begin trading for bitcoin. >> that's right. >> we'll have to be careful what futures market we're showing you, just as we have to be careful about the bitcoin price and what market we show. >> five bitcoins per contract. it's only one for one of the cboe, five for the cme. >> wow. >> we'll see if that drives more institutional size trading for bitcoin markets. anyway, that's the way things are setting up right now, so let's talk about the markets a little bit further with art hogan, chief market strategist at wunderlich securities art, thank you so much for joining us here. talk a little bit more about maybe the tax implication side of things. we're focusing on it a lot because it does seem to be driving a lot of the market action do you think that we are going to see a continuation of the bull are run that we've had basd upon what we know of tax reform right now? >> i think that's where it gets tricky, dom, and i think that's a great question i think the market has acted rationally starting in august when the narrative really shifted over to tax, we started seeing that

rotation out of some of the low effective taxpayers into some of the higher effective taxpayers i think you did a nice vein in the last segment just think about the rotation out of the nasdaq into the russell 2000, in simple terms, you know, to a real extent, the s&p 500 has underperformed the s&p small and midcaps and that makes sense. fjz have gotten a lift up, the transpor transports but i think typically we ramp up our expectations into this and there's some bumping around the edges, and that was yesterday. maybe we're going to lose rubio and the market sort of settles back in. it's not giving back those gains, but it's certainly getting nervous. that's where the volatility comes in once they passes, i think we've priced a good chunk of this in you might get a little sell on the news and it feels like we're setting up for that trade heading into the first part of the year then we'll move forward and shift away from tax reform with fundamentals very good. >> sounds like you think this is going to pass, even if we lose rub rubio, even with some of the

senators undecided you in the market believe we're getting tax reform >> i think rubio saw the corporate rate went from 20% to 21% and he wants to spend some of that money. that's the problem when you sort of shift this around and say wait a minute, let's spend the money on the things that are important to me. i think there is too much momentum at the end of the day and this is too important, especially for republicans in the midterm election cycle, so yeah, this gets done and we'll move it forward. the problem is, when you do it this quickly, we don't know how that's going to affect certain companies. it's hard to model because we don't have enough of the details, so it's sort of to be determined it's going to be a positive. we just don't know the magnitude. >> art, you and others have talked about this idea that tax reform or the hope of tax reform is driving a good part of the market we point out that most of the -- or i shouldn't say most -- a large chunk of the s&p 500's gains have come from just a handful of stocks, mostly on the technology side of things, and now they are starting to maybe lag a little bit and

underperform can this market next year in 2018 still do what it did over the past few years, if we don't have participation from the likes of the microsofts and alphabets and apples and, you know, the big ones, the amazons out there? yeah, it's such a great question, dom, and that's been one of our fears we said there hadn't been enough breadth and the leadership has been narrow and we've been driven by a few names, some of those you just mentioned, the momentum, and there's a reason for that a, they're growing their earnings, revenues very quickly, so it's important. but i would offer up that as tax reform, as we head into 2018, causes the kind of rotation we've seen to continue and broadens out our leadership. so if our leadership were to shift from technology, which it has been largely over the last two or three years, over to financials, which haven't been for the entirety of the cycle, that would be very healthy throw in industrials to broaden out the leadership think of consumer discretionary,

all of which would be positive to me, i think it's a healthy transition, if that's going to be the case. this market can actually do well and have a great 2018 without necessarily seeing technology be that leadership. so you know, i'm not asking certain -- what i get concerned about right now is that trade where technology's being used as a source of funds to get into those tax reform sectors, and that gets overdone in the short term, i think we've probably overdone that, especially in some of the semiconductors, and we've probably overdone buying certain financials i think that's where we see the unwind after the announcement of the tax deal getting through then we can sort of head in in a more rational fashion, head into 2018 and see where some of the missed valuations are. >> i know that december obviously cyclical is a typically strong number for a number of reasons and this tax reform is giving extra juice to the rally, but are you worried at all about any selling at the end here of the year in order to sort of be protective of the tax changes that are to come by some individual investors should the market be on the

watch for any of that? >> yeah, that's a really interesting question, courtney, and you're right, december historically has been one of our best months of the year. unfortunately, 2017, all the months are good, apparently. so we kind of threw out the handbook in terms of how things work historically this year, so therefore, i get concerned that those seasonal patterns are going to dissipate a bit this year so, i think i'd be more concerned that people have actually been putting off selling, especially at an individual level, until 2018 when they may well be in a different tax regime and a different place in their tax rate so i think that i'd be more concerned about that selling pressure sort of being a january effect where you say, okay, now we know my individual tax rate has gotten to here and for tax reasons, here are the adjustments i'm going to make to my portfolio i think that makes more sense to me than thinking, you know, people are sitting back and saying i'd better offload a lot of things in my portfolio this year when i'm paying arguably a higher tax rate than wait until

next year, so i think the pressure comes actually at the turn of the calendar. >> always interesting food for thought. art hogan, thank you so much for joining us art hogan, wunderlich securities' chief market strategist. hess shares are popping on potential activist activity. landon dowdy joins us with more. good morning again. >> good morning. shares of hess moving higher on reports that hedge fund elliott management is preparing a new proxy fight, seeking to oust its ceo, john hess, or force a sale of all or part of the company. the hedge fund which holds a nearly 7% stake in the oil and gas company, is also seeking changes to how the firm handles shareholder returns, pushing for a dividend cut in favor of stock buybacks, according to the "wall street journal," and this comes as shareholders are unhappy with hess' projection of no free cash flow through 2020 as it is primarily focused on oil and gas exploration and development. this isn't the first time that elliott and hess have gone head to head. back in 2013, hess gave up his role as chairman after battling it out with the hedge fund

take a look at the stock shares of hess are down about 30% so far this year and they're up a little more than 6% in early trading, guys. back over to you. >> thank you very much, landon dowdy. in corporate news, csx ceo hunter harrison is taking medical leave. the company says harrison is experiencing complications from a recent unspecified illness csx chief operating officer james foote will take the helm during harrison's absence, though it's not immediately clear when harrison will return. all right, some stocks to watch today, courtney. shares of jabil trading higher, better-than-expected quarterly results and offering upbite guidance shares up nearly 4% in extended hours trading. oracle is under pressure, despite reporting an earnings beat the company says growth in its cloud computing business will come in weaker than expected for the current quarter. oracle also announcing a new $12 billion stock buyback program. oracle shares, you can see, down by 6% in the premarket trade. and adobe shares are moving higher on an upbeat quarterly result the software company says

quarterly revenues grew 25% in the fourth quarter adobe is also raising its outlook for the full next year, shares up by 0.5% in extended trading. we have more stocks to watch. airbus says ceo tom enders will step down in 2019 after his current term expires he's been at the helm of the company for 14 years the change comes amid a management shake-up following multiple corruption investigations shares are slightly lower for airbus in overseas trade. costco beating the street. the big-box retailer reporting a 43% jump in online sales last quarter, though admittedly, they're starting from a very small base membership renewals held steady, despite warning last quarter that they could drop shares are up in early trading by about 2.3%. and shares of waste management are higher this morning as well. the company upping its quarterly dividend and announcing a $1.25 billion buyback. waste management is up more than 1.5%. well, courtney, coming up, today's top trending story

there is one the force is strong with "star wars: the last jedi," already setting records, and it's only been open for a few hours. we'll have a full breakdown of the massive release after the break, so don't go away. you're watching "worldwide exchgehe ocnan" ren bc ♪ when you have a really traumatic injury, we have a short amount of time to get our patient to the hospital with good results. we call that, the golden hour. evaluating patients remotely, is where i think we have a potential to make a difference. we would save a lot of lives if we could bring the doctor to the patient. verizon is racing to build the first and most powerful 5g network, with ultra low-latency that will enable things like precision robotic surgery from thousands of miles away. as we get faster wireless connections, it'll be possible to be able to operate on a patient in a way that was just not possible before. when i move my hand, the robot on the other side

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films' "star wars: the last jedi" hitting theaters today the highly anticipated film was already fandango's top advanced ticket-seller of the year, beating out the previous record holder, which is "beauty and the beast. joining us now is nikki novak. she's a correspondent with fandango nikki novak, you've got to tell us if this is as big of a deal as i think it is or that many others do as well. >> okay, it sounds like you're a "star wars" fan. i'm taking that from your cue. it is absolutely the biggest deal of the year, that's for sure it is our biggest ticket-seller. actually, 90% of our ticket sales this morning went to "the last jedi," which is really no surprise at this point number one trending story on twitter. and breaking news, it's already made in thursday night previews about $45 million. that's what they're projecting it's already made. so, it's set it's set to be probably the biggest, the second biggest

domestic opening of all time. >> second biggest domestic opening of all time. >> yeah. >> but this is a very strong international desired movie, too, right >> yes. >> what happened with the trajectory of ticket sales from here, from this opening night? what are the expectations? >> well, i think the expectations domestically were about 190. that was sort of being modest, up to about $230 million domestically and worldwide, you're looking at about $425 million possibly. you have to remember that this film is not going to open in china until january 5th, so that will affect the worldwide box office but looking to maybe -- i mean, i don't think it will be what "the force awakens" was, but it's very, very close at this point, and disney would be very happy with anything domestically over $200 million, which at this point because of the thursday night opening numbers will probably be now around $230 million domestically. >> nikki, let's talk about the

competitive landscape for this, because this is a film that maybe could have staying power with regard to the top spot on all of these charts for grosses. what is it going to go up against over the course of the next two, three, four, five weeks, or are we going to every week just say "star wars: the last jedi," top of the list again? >> well, this is, you know, they're very bold. they always open middle of december, and you're obviously going to go up against some big holiday movies you have "jumanji" with the rock, kevin hart and jack black. that's going to be a big one you have "the greatest showman" opening. that's going to be another big one. so they are competing against some big holiday films, but really, the story, whenever a "star wars" film opens, it's all about "star wars." and with "the force awakens," there was a lot of front-loading, a lot of people that really wanted to see it thursday night this one i think you'll see some legs over the holidays people are planning on seeing it with their families, planning on

seeing it, so you're not going to necessarily see the drop-off after first weekend that you might normally see in films. >> so interesting. i know there is going to be so much buzz about it, around the office here today, throughout the weekend and the season nikki novak of fandango, thank you so much for joining us very early this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> we appreciate it. i know dom is ready. he has on his cufflinks, in fact. >> nikki, i don't know whether you're watching -- >> i am. >> every time we have a "star wars" film, i always have my darth vader cufflinks on, because -- >> oh, you're doing a movie fan proud right now, because i've seen this film and i don't know if you loved "the force awakens," but this is my favorite "star wars" film to date. >> wow >> so, yeah, yeah. >> what an endorsement okay >> now, i was going to wait until the christmas holiday to see it, but now i may just go watch it -- >> you'll have to go this afternoon. >> this weekend or something i do have the early shift, so i could do a matinee. >> totally if you could get a ticket. >> you're darth vader, you can just go and get in >> come to the dark side, nikki.

the water's warm. >> never >> thank you so much, nikki. appreciate it. >> thank you, nikki. well, we're approaching the top of the hour, meaning the team at "squawk box" down at the nasdaq market site in times square is getting ready. joe kernen is in new york with a look at what's coming up, joe. are you -- >> the force is with him. >> the force is strong with joe -- >> no. >> it's not? >> no. >> not feeling it? >> didn't see the original one so never got -- you know, it's almost like in development, if you miss a certain milestone, like when you're growing up, you never really go back and get it. so, no you know, dom, i was just thinking about that, why isn't there a caddyshack, the force returns, or -- >> to be fair, they tried a sequel to "caddyshack," it didn't really -- >> they didn't have bill murray. it had rodney in it -- or no, it had jackie mason. >> jackie mason, yes. >> and diane cannon, i think so, yeah, that was -- they said, yeah, that's all that we'll do no, i wish it was. i saw the last one

i don't know becky still loves harrison ford. i don't know it's like, that's why -- you know, clint can't be dirty harry anymore, can he? i don't know at least -- >> no, but he can be gran treeceo. >> harrison ford died, right >> not harrison ford -- >> luke -- whatever his name is. >> hans solo. >> yeah, yeah. it's not even hans, is it? >> it's han, h-a-n. >> so, that was confusing to me. anyway, look at the front of a newspaper and that's what we're going to talk about today. i'm interested in the net neutrality i love home & jenkins' piece on all that, for all of the people looking at this through a like everything in the world now through a political prism. i mean, they had to evacuate the room yesterday where they were -- >> right. >> i see what the left says about the new fcc -- it's just bizarre the divisiveness in the country right now, and if you

really understand net neutrality, you -- i think a lot of people think the internet just exists, and it's there, and it's like through the ether. i've got to tell you, i read -- i wasn't going to say this, but i read this mark ruffalo, some of his quotes. so, i went back to see, you know, just exactly -- because anything he talks about, it's like, where did you go -- did you even get out of high school? because i read this stuff that he comes up with about everything and he did not i don't think. maybe -- but he went straight to stella adler, but i realize, if you understand absolutely nothing, that's how you can come up with some of these -- >> i'll tell you -- >> you're going to explain it all to us, joe i know you and becky, you guys are going to make sense of everything. >> if you build out the internet and spend billions and billions and billions of dollars building it out so people can use it, you're allowed to recoup your investment it's not a charity it's another a red cross.

>> but the opposite side of that is should the electric company be allowed to charge whatever they want? >> i'm sure you're going to hit all of that. >> my heart believes from google and netflix and -- >> that's the problem, netflix -- >> my heart bleeds yeah, the new innovators, the small companies can't get by without -- >> thank you, guys i know you're not going to let this one die you're going to continue on "squawk box. >> i'm going to watch, for sure. still ahead on "worldwide exchange," there's ten trading daysefin lt 2017. we'll tell you what to watch for in the final days.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we're joined now to talk markets. chad, we've talked so much about tax reform is it really the market's primary focus right now? >> well, domestic markets, yes and you could see a plan in place by year end. that's what our expectation is but the global markets have been melting higher, and that's based off of synchronized global

growth and earnings growth >> what do you think about the sectors that we should be watching going into 2018 as we keep tax reform in mind and the rally that we've had so far? >> so, we like -- the thematic for us is boring companies that are quite stable, so we overweight health care as well as consumer staples. you may want to perhaps look at the financial sector as well a couple of names that we like that are quite predictable -- hershey's, hormel as well as dr. pepper on the consumer staples side we do believe that they will continue to do quite well. >> why consumer staples? just a few moments here. it's been a underperformer most of the year. >> the majority of their revenues come from the united states for those three companies as well as they have stable balance sheets, so we believe they will be a key beneficiary of lower taxes as well as if the markets get into perhaps an unstable environment, they will do quite well. >> chad morganlander, thank you so much for joining us here on "worldwide exchange." >> thank you. >> that's it for the show today.

it's been quite a big one. we really appreciate you joining us "squawk box" is coming up next remeerfures mb, tuare still indicated higher, but it's friday in december let's see what happens "squawk box" is coming up. looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock.

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good morning you've probably heard this before, stocks are jumping as washington apparently moving forward on tax reform. the dow, the s&p both on pace for their fourth positive week in a row may the force be with you. the latest "star wars" film is already setting records, and it's only been opened now for a few hours. and speaking of disney, the media giant announcing a major deal, as you know, to buy fox assets, but could another player step in and spoil the end of this story, at least as far as business is concerned? it's friday, december 15th,

2017 "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ run, run, rudolph >> announcer: live from new york, where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. ♪ santa make him carry tell him he can take the freeway down ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. let's look at the u.s. equity futures. yesterday you saw the markets sitting at new highs before they turned around and ended the day in negative territory. you did see the dow hit its 70th high of the year for 2017 before it did turn down, though but check things out this morning. rebounding a bit dow up by about 82 points, s&p futures up 6 1/2, the nasdaq up by 15 1/2. there were a lot of concerns about the tax bill yesterday when mark rubio said that he would be a no unless they see more things that are expanding the child tax credit so we'll see how