don't hold your breath "squawk box" begins right now. i'm not breathing. >> don't hold your breath. ask for mr. blue >> welcome to "squawk box. we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square a day after christmas. hope everyone had a great day. i know the sorkins did >> but we have to keep it going because it is blake's birth day. >> yes >> big birthday, too >> this is frightening 18 what an accomplished beautiful young adult. >> happy birthday, blake

what happened in your christmas household? >> it was wonderful. at with my sister. >> and best gifts? >> you know, the usual what is the best gift that we could get, you know sf what is t best we could do at this point >> is that appropriate for morning television >> i got socks >> socks are good. >> i got some very thoughtful sweatpants >> i got some sweatpants >> how thoughtful could sweat pants be >> they were very comfortable. >> did you get new yoga wear >> lululemon, yeah >> see, i knew that -- i was going to get you that, but i knew someone else would. we can't just all keep repeating. >> okay. anyway, i'm andrew ross sorkin joe kernen is here, melissa lee

is here. becky happily has the day off. a quick look at futures. we have the dow looking like it would open down. a few days where we talk about things opening or at least looking like they will open in the red. right now dow would be down about 32 points. nasdaq off about 7 1/2 s&p 500 off -- or rather up margma marginally bitcoin is rising, recovering from a selloff last week fell nearly 30% at one point on friday alone a lot of people thinking whether they should get in, get out. how many people were talking about bitcoin at their christmas dinner table saudi authorities are reportedly demanding at least $6 billion from principles al-waleed to free him from detention, that is a third of his estimated fortune. he was one of several saudi

royals and government officials arrested last month. it was billed as crown prince's crackdown against corruption report say al-waleed is discussing a plan with the government of accepting a large stake in his company instead of cash as pavement for hyment for. i was doing a little texting back and forth with some folks i know >> i thought you were going to say with him >> that would be good, but people that might know what is going on >> were they also at the ritz imprisoned >> the peoplie i was texting? i don't think so but none the let's, part of the issue is what happens to him afterwards meaning whether he will continue to be able to run the company as chairman, whether gets to stay in riyadh -- apparently he wants to stay in riyadh. that is where his family is, his daughter is there. that is his home

but you'd think if after something like this, you'd think you'd say i want to get out of dodge. >> unless it is just nothing personal, just give us $6 billion and then go back but listening to that just on face value, if you have $18 billion but you're in prison, or you get $12 billion and you're out, you could let me out with i mean a lot less than 12. wouldn't you -- but then again, people that have a lot of money, he likes running his company and you can't spend all of it anyway, so it is not just about getting -- >> and i'll also say this. this is supposed to be a joke but not really that hotel, pretty extraordinary. >> where they are imprisoned >> i don't know they have room service, but it is something but the other thing that is fascinating is while initially in saudi mbs was giving credit

for removing corruption, and millennials were going crazy, they thought that was the greatest thing ever. all of this news that has come out in the past month between the artwork that he purchased and another $300 million or something on this property outside of versailles in france. apparently it is up ending the whole sort of image issue. anyway, more corporate news to tell you about this morning. theranosreceived $100 million loan from investment groups to avoid a possible bankruptcy filing. its' liz beelizabeth holmes say loan is subject to receiving certain targets. an investigation by the "journal" into its practice had led to federal probes, several lawsuits and shutdown of its testing labs new thumbs this morning on

holiday shopping kate rogers joining us with all the details. >> reporter: that's right, christmas is over, but don't expect the malls to be slowing down anytime soon. in fact shopper track says today is set to be the 4th busiest shopping day of the entire season doors open at 8:00 a.m. here and really they are expecting a ton on of foot traffic one reason is because there are a ton of deals shoppers can get 75% off at bloomingdales, target has about 70 on% off of thousands of items. best buy is marking off some commuters by $150. and amazon, you can get between 10% and 70% off of select electronic items now, shoppers actually had an extra day to get the last minute foot traffic rush, called super saturday we don't know how it faired just yet, but because christmas did fall on a monday, they did have that have a day and it was set to be the second biggiest shopping holiday in terms of foot traffic this season it was a fairly strong retail

holiday season nrf says sales with were set to grow around 4% on the high end, up$656 billion last year and on dline e-commerce sales. and of course people are returning all those gifts. on. >> people usually return about 4% of the gifts that they receive unless you're a millennial, then you return about 7% of the items that you got. >> so that is interesting. millennials are a little bit more discerning, is that the issue? >> reporter: i guess millennials are more likely to return more of the gifts but i thought 7% even is a pretty low number in terms of all the things you get, returning between 4% and 7% isn't too bad. >> i may have to change the size of the sweat pants >> that doesn't count though, does it? >> but that is a cost. do we know, what -- i would think that costs of an exchange

unto itself has to be at least a couple bucks the physical interaction of me having to deal with the other person, right? >> i guess i'm not quite sure on that one >> what do they do with the returns? >> i won't be returning anything this year. >> have you worn them yet? >> i had to try them on. once to figure out if they were the right size >> do you think clothes in the store has never been worn? >> i'll make you feel better i put on gym shorts first because i figured i'd wear the sweat pants to the gym so they had to fit over the gym shorts >> that is a little better >> but the problem was -- they are probably the right size if you weren't wearing gym shorts >> so they get bunchy. >> yes the length was fine. >> all right let's check on the markets and

get beyond this. futures indicate a little lower. 37 this morning. although the s&p is indicated up less than than a point nasdaq indicated down just under 10 take a quick look at oil kind of the same where it was. about 3 bucks a gallon depending on what you get. in you get anything above regular. there we are, $58. ten year now 2.49. an interesting level because if its going to 2 ppts 7.7 2.70 quiet i'm sure this week too quiet. and then there is the euro at 1.18 everything is now we're thinking about 2018 this is a week where -- it is a transition week where not a lot of people will be around but we will be >> and we have two great guests around

and let's check on the broader markets in this last week of 2017 profession are on of economics at nyu stern and also founder of the 7s report with us. great to see you i will start off with you, tom, what are you foreseeing for 2018, should we expect to see more of the rotation that we started to see toward the end of this year happen >> i think so. it looks like it is starting to pick up steam. and the rotation we're talking about is a sector rotation two more value oriented sectors like banks, energy, and retail, those things that have underperform underperformed you look at the last month, those sectors have out perforpe and i think that can continue this 2018. >> do you see stability for energy we saw a huge run in the price of brent even the past month or so energy stocks were more modest >> reporter: and i think that will continue because i think

that the mar get is still concerned longer term about oil. i mean we still have a long term supply problem but in the near term, you're looking at the energy spdr down 78% still year to date, so there is some value there. i think that energy is a decent place to allocate risk capital there is some value there. >> we were talking about interest rates reaching the critical level on the ten year, wondering if we will push much above that what is the biggest wild card in your view? >> the wild card politics politics are always the wild card and i would really worry about middle east politics all bets are off if the country goes up in flames. we have a major military setback. then who knows what the markets will do and what interest rates might do so politics. >> so not a misstep by a central

bank what is interesting about that statement is that 2017 politics was the wild card and then turned out to be actually a positive for the markets >> or they could turn out to be something that you wish you never had. so more of the same in that. >> but north korea too >> and the olympics in february. february 9, a friday >> you got your -- >> through the 22nd. >> so that is coming up too and the world will be there including andrew ross sorkin >> yeah, we'll be covering it for cnbc do you think though -- i mean, you tell me, do you think there will be a problem during the olympics or jitters? >> i would say jitters leading up, probably not problem but i'm a mere economist i'm raising the political questions. i wish i had answers

i just have to raise the possibilities. >> is there any bubble emerging in any particular pocket >> i'm a cryptocurrency cynic. unless they become important vehicles for international funds transfer, i just don't see the future the technology -- >> but is there anything the bubble of cryptocurrency says about the larger market or is there is a possibility that there is enough money that if something goes wrong there, it affects something else elsewhere? >> you know, i don't see the infection. we worry about a 2008 type infection. but financial institutions especially banks are better capitalized. >> also not exposed to bitcoin

as opposed to 2008, so a different story in terms of the spread of the contagion. >> that's right. >> tom, i'll pose the same question to you. do you see a bubble -- you mentioned the rotation out off technology something that is working, something that has growth, is it valuation? >> well, i think that is part of it i also think that we're maybe on the cusp of arising economic tide so in 2017, people -- and 2016 also, people funneled into tech because we kind of had middling economic growth so tech offered growth and safety. now as the economy appears to be coming on a bit stronger, you can go down the chain a little bit. you can go to banks, potentially energy and consumer discretionary because there is arising tide of growth that can help those sectors you don't need to pay the valuation premium to get the growth in tech anymore assuming this economic growth continues to accelerate of course. >> all right thanks for your thoughts, tom

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making headlines, uber now reportedly selling its u.s. auto leasing business to start unfair doum they are losing about $9,000 a car. they had been using it at a way to attract new drivers who don't have access to vehicles. remember that was a big deal at one point when they were in that business >> in the auto leasing business. >> and everyone thought that was a great thing because they were giving access to drivers, but i turned around on them. steve mnuchin gets something worse than coal in his stockings. he received a gift wrapped package of horse manure. robert strong took responsibility for the delivery. he said it is meant to protest the federal tax overhaul adding that protests really should be funny. >> and so here is a question

about that what happens to him? >> i would imagine that it is some sort of mail something offense. and if it crossed state lines, it could be federal. >> what is the statute >> you're allow dodd thaed to d? >> i don't know. i knew a reporter who literally got a fedex box with crow in it, the idea that you would eat the crow, like a dead bird in the mail >> unless you found the crow dead already, you probably -- >> that part i don't know about. >> usually you deliver the manure and then ring the doorbell and run and then they have to come out and storm oig -- that is the old -- >> how do you know this? >> that's what people do

and you stomp on it that is typically -- well, i've never done that, but i see how it works >> check this out, speaking for a trend, check this out, it is a scene from minnesota warm lake water mixed with cool air can make for a very interesting sight. this is steal coming off of lake superior water temperature was 35, but compare to the air temperature which was 9 below zero or 31 below zero when you factor in windchill. put it together and you see why 35 degrees is warm enough to produce steam. pretty cool. >> that is pretty cool only has a few more degrees to be ice if it is below 32 >> it would. >> depending on the pressure i guess. two of the biggest health care

stories in 2017, number one, cvs bids for aetna and the individual mandate which was repealed inside the tax law. joining us for a look at these stories and what is ahead, senior health care services analyst. aca rests on the midterm elections. an ending the tax pen allege it i brin penalty brings a real test and then they finally get to say the law is popular only took like nine years or whatever until it went from under water to where it is now when you start thinking about removing something, that is when it finally gets popular. is the law popular now >> it is popular i think the exchange has survived. we have almost 9 million people in the federal exchanges, barely down like 4% medicare is doing great.

so despite all the attempts, i think the power of the subsidies is really strong >> which is -- >> it is an entitlement, you can't take it away >> kind obvious statement. power of the free subsidies is strong where there be kind of a test, a man date one way or the other for what we're supposed do will the people decide how this works finally >> i think the exchanges has barely moved there is bipartisan support for managed medicaid and medicare advantage. so i think that the policy down side risk on health care stocks, outside of maybe a bit of drug pricing reform is fairly muted at this point. i'm sure there will be headline risk and the house flips and depending on what happens in the senate, i'm sure the stocks will move but in terms of really what they might do substantially, i don't think a whole lot will change.

>> as far as i know investors go though, managed care is here to stay and no matter what happens, you think that is a -- >> i think that is the place to invest i'm very bullish going into '18. the tax up side is substantial it is as much as 50% an investors are saying hey, these guys will just have to pass it all on to the consumer >> meaning what? >> 50% on earnings 25% is corporate tax reform. and then depending on whether the insurance fee gets repealed in january in the spending bill, that is another 25 if they even took half of that to the bottom line -- >> this is all priced in >> they have not moved a lot if you see considering. the companies are much more bullish than investors are which is interesting i actually felt that the companies are surprised that the stocks haven't moved that much >> every time we talk about

health care in 2017, we talked about amazon is amazon on going to going to of 2018 as well about. >> it will be speculated and there will be an overhang in-on the drug supply chain particularly i think those stocks will be pressured. the manufacturers maybe a little bit because i think that there was some pressure on the biopharma industry as well >> and your sense is amazon tries do this organically or we'll see one monday morning we'll wake up with a whole foods style announcement in the drug space? >> my call is no, they will do it organically they can do it with contracts, with mid market pbms, maybe united health. that gives them maybe 20%, 25% of the market to start with. that a strong foot hold and then they can build off of there. and if cvs and others don't want to participate and then they are left behind because the order fulfillment experience is better

for amazon, they may have to either improve what they have got or also contract with amazon i don't see the whole big -- >> you'll wake up and same day they will buy united health and fox in the same day. i mean -- right? >> they are trying to do media, health care, everything. >> anybody going to jump that separately anybody going to jump the disney thing or not >> the immediate after math of that announcement, there was a lot of people who were sitting arm the hoop t around the hoop trying to figure out -- >> when it first broke >> since then, everyone is trying to figure out the breakup fee about that. >> you think it should be amazon and comcast? >> i always thought amazon and comcast together i'd do amazon as the buyer and then amazon syndicating it out effectively different pieces, like the international assets to comcast, other pieces i might give to other people

i also think -- >> major antitrust, though, right? >> no, no, because first of all they don't have the pipes. in this case -- >> but dhee preferentially treat comcast content. >> no, no, because i'm just telling the international -- just selling the international assets to comcast if i were the banker on this deal. >> you can do the back banking on united health care. what is your fee >> it's high >> how about hospitals hospitals are merging, too that continues >> yeah, hospitals have lost the battle or are losing the battle against the payors that being said from a stock perspective, i think there is some value there because numbers have come down a lot. the estimates are achievable tax policy is huge for them as well and they can pay down on debt, some of them are very levered.

i think that will lead to multiple expansion others will do a creative consolidati consolidation. i like tentenant, universal. i like yunited health, but also anthem still very much they had a huge year, but i think there is still a bunch of up side and i'm broadcasting $20 in eps for 2020. they have a new ceo. i think she's going to drive more multiple expansion. >> great thank you. great to see you merry christmas. >> thanks. coming up, washington watch now that tax reform is done, what is next on the president's agenda nick johnston will hang out with us right after there bak it doesn't matter what kind of weather. it doesn't matter what time of day or night. when mother nature's done her worst, the only thing that matters to us is keeping the lights on for you. the hard working men and women of the international brotherhood

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welcome back to "squawk box. u.s. equity futures are a little lower as far as the dow, down 32 s&p continues to be up just fractionally 0.68 and then the nasdaq is indicated down about 12. it appears that this year's holiday season was a strong one for retailers. figures from mastercard spending pulse showed a 4.9% gain over a year ago covering the period from november 1 through christmas. and that is the biggest year over year increase since 2011. but a lot of people were feeling

flush because of all the companies sucking up to the trump administration >> you mean the dough fubonuses minimum wage increases >> that's the way that it has been written everybody that did it has a problem. they are all sucking up. wells fargo is in trouble, at&t wants to get its deal done >> in defense of this because he was the first to do it, i'd put him in a different category also because he used to come on this show religiously and say that he would do this. and he's a boy scout and so he is one of these people who i really -- i genuinely believe that he said to himself i said that we were going to do this, they did it, and i'm working my end of the deal as well >> that is good. because in the past, like when his e-mails end with don't taeks and drive, you have sort of questioned his boy scout motivation at times. you remember

>> no, i believe him on that? >> i just remember you made some sort of cynical remark pchb. >> if i made a cynical remark - remark ---he is a legitimate boy scout. >> and i was saying that for you because the cynical msm -- >> i think there were other companies that were a little less boy scoutish. how about that >> like which companies? >> warren buffett likes to say praise by name, criticize by category i'm going to stick with that this morning in a very holiday spirit >> i think trying to curry favor with the administration by raising minimum wage, that is a permanent commitment, not just a one time bonus i would not -- >> thank you >> any companies that actually raise the -- >> they wanted it so badly for so long. >> i said it is great. >> it is a permanent commitment. it is now just $1,000 right now.

>> it is great merry christmas. >> and we'rewatching shares of apple this morning according to published reports in china apple has told suppliers that the iphone x sales for the current quarter will total about 30 million compared to 50 million that is interesting. because you they had said 2 018, $1 trillion for apple. finally. wouldn't be surprised. but we said it five years ago. it should be at $2 trillion by now according to those analysts, right? and it is not there yet. it may get there, but i still think long term when you have amazon, google or -- i don't know i think i'd take amazon or google or even microsoft really anywhere you go, like i'm

at the gym or something, iphones going off all over the place everybody has one on that. there is a sound of an iphone dropping that makes a -- because we were on the train and we're not all sitting together my kids always drop their iphones because we keep buying them, getting new screens and everything and so we were on the train and we heard it. and it's like it is unmistakable and it was somebody else dropping the iphone, but it has an unmistakable sound. >> especially the x with the glass front and back >> have you ever cracked one >> the screen? like every other day it's a real problem. >> and there is a sickening feeling. i never have i've never dropped it and my charge has never gone below 60% i don't think. >> live a sheltered life >> because i get too nervous

>> charge achnxiety >> i'd be so anxious what if you have to make a phone call or receive an important e-mail or text or something? what if you're not reachable for even five minutes? scary. >> tough going president trump notching a big legislative win officially signing the swooping tax reform bill over the past couple days now. nick johnston, axios editor-in-chief, good morning. we've been trying to spin this story forward. rather than looking back, we want to understand where this is all headed and what comes next >> well, the first thing i think a week from today the president has already said he will start convening senior advisers to talk about infrastructure. something that they maybe should have done before the mess of health care and doing taxes. but infrastructure is secertain top priority for the president

what i'm fascinated about is whether he will make a deal with chuck and nancy on it. mitch mcconnell said he only wants to focus on things where he can get bipartisan assume and support. >> and which you can achuck ande in the business of wanting to assume the president now >> that is a great question. ask me in a week i think chuck and nancy are definitely interested in something that will put hundreds of bills into districts across the country and solve the crumbling infrastructure problem. but what will be fascinating to see is what they have to do first, some kind of deal on immigration with the d.r.e.a.m.ers. and if that gets contentious, i can see the president sending mean tweets toward on chuck and nancy which could make it more difficult. >> or sid and nancy. do you remember that >> no. talking about mean tweets, a little fbi drama over the

weekend on twitter >> yeah, the president had some free time. this is something that we've been a lot about the inside game and outside game as we're approaching this fbi investigation and special counsel investigation. for the inside game, it should be over soon, the white house keeping a strong face saying there is nothing wrong and the outside game where they are trying to delegitimize the investigators more broadly going after them on television, on twitter, enlist people on the hill to criticize. >> and he went after the number two guy. >> which is something -- i mean, we've never seen a president on twitter do that before i think it speaks to some of the unprecedented nature michael help said it is not normal for the president to attack career agents like that but i don't see it stopping. >> in a vacuum, i might say that you can't see that there are some things going on with this

guy? he should retire i think, right, given -- you don't think -- you think this is just a concerted effort by fox news to disparage the fbi? you don't think this guy has some conflicts that are so laid bare in the last six months? it is undeliverable. >> there is search is certainlyt to spread more uncertainty -- >> but if there wasn't there, there would be nothing to use. >> you can look at what happened after the president made the tweets, the number of career government officials from both sides of the aisle who came to his defense. >> there is nothing -- they 1450 be in the position they are in and with -- they needed an insurance policy in case this guy gets in? your eyebrows aren't raised? >> if you dig down, they were on both sides of the political aisle. and those people are out but it does spread a cloud of uncertainty which is the president's allies will use to

cast aspiratiersions across the broader investigations >> and i want you to weigh in on north korea 2018 >> keep an eye on it we haven't talked about that a lot recently i think that it is very important to continue to watch china, continue to watch the diplomatic efforts at the u.n. with nikki haley there is a lot of generals i think who are being reported as some not necessarily frightening, but interesting things about what they fear is on the horizon >> rex tillerson, in or out? >> by the end of the year? >> i'm not -- by the summer. i'm a short term trade are here. >> our reporting has said that he will probably be out sooner raefrn la rather than later, so yeah, i'd short him. >> speaking his mind usually we get different investors that come on and they say, well, i'm a little down on this, but we should still be

constructive this was just a straight call. >> bring me back in six months and see if i'm right >> we'll have the conversation appreciate it. merry christmas. >> you too coming up, you feel like bit quoin is taking over the world you are not alone. a company wants to use its block chain technology to change the way health care works. there he is. your new brother-in-law. you like him. he's one of those guys who always smells good.

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we at the imaginary friends society always have your back! block chain may prove a useful solution confronting data sharing challenges joining us is the ceo of health wiz, a mobile platform that provides customers with tools to organize and share medical records. great to have you with us. >> glad to be here >> how does this work? because you're using the ethereum technology. >> that's correct. so what we have built is electronic file cabinet for your health records on your

smartphone and we provide the tools and help people to edit their medical records, organize them and so that they can be shared seamlessly and securely on a block chain. >> so from the consumer or the user standpoint of that app, what does that interface look and feel like? does it feel different from any other app that you might have where you type in a password for instance >> no, it looks very similar to other apps we just want this app to be something that people can carry with them wherever they go, they are never left without a recent copy of their health records no matter where they are, whether they have internet connection or not. and be in a position to securely share it with people that they choose to share it with on a secure block chain >> so in terms of keeping that safe from say hackers, this cannot be hacked at all, correct? >> so the block chain cannot be hacked what we do is we put the transaction so when you

decide -- when you choose to share your medical records with someone, that transaction gets logged on block chain and the block chain cannot be hacked it is security the medical data itself are transmitted on a secure channel that is not on block chain so on block chain, you have the transaction, the record of the transaction. and that cannot be hacked. >> so the private ledger is there to keep record of the transfer how does the consumer actually have possession of those records? do they have for instance the equivalent of a private key? >> exactly so today there are government mandates in place where consumers have a right to their medical records from different places the problem is that our medical records are scattered all over the place. doctor's offices, some in hospitals. and now we have even more data with our fitness trackers. so the tool we need is to really aggregate the medical records on our phone and have them available to us in case of emergency or if you are traveling. and make it accessible on a

block chain so that we can share them securely. >> the one thing about the private key which is probably a great thing in terms of security and also a bad thing is that it is only the user who can access that private key you have possession of the private key, you own the records. if you needed on to access those records and you're injured or uchb coff unconscious, what happens then >> well, so the records are on your phone and if you are injured and if somebody gets to your phone, they can use your biometrics to get access to the phone. and himself talso the technologs available so you can still access the phone even though you are injured. the records on the phone themselves are secure, but not secured with keys. the keys come into play when you actually share them on the block chain. so on your phone the records are visible to you >> so they could access them locally on the phone got it fascinating stuff. appreciate your time coming up, living in luxury,

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. >> welcome back to "squawk box." it's a season now to look ahead to the new year. let's focus on luxury. here is cnbc's robert frank. >> reporter: 2017 was a boom year for the rich. 2018 is likely to see the frot grow even bigger boom time for billionaires the number of billionaires and millionaires is likely to reach an all-time high the millionaire population is likely to hit a record 12 million. the number of billionaires in the world is likely to top 2,100. their combined fortunes topping $8 trillion. trophy assets. all that wealth is likely to drive stronger sales of everything from art and diamonds to super cars and luxury real

estate 2018 will see a rising number of big deals at the very top of the market over 30 million might even see a new record for the most expensive home ever sold several properties on the market in this l.a. for over $200 million. and the richest man, jeff bezos to remain the richest man in the world as amazon's dominance grows, pulling even further away from his billionaire rivals bill gates and warren buffett his fortune currently around $100 billion, will likely top $120 billion, and his new rival on the rich list will probably be facebook's mark zuckerberg, who is currently worth $75 billion, but could add another $10 billion or $15 billion to his fortune. >> that was cnbc's robert frank. special night coming up on cnbc it's the premier of "the prophet" in puerto rico, an american crisis when hurricane

came in september. it cut many residents off from medicare as part of a new documentary, cnbc's the prophet, marcus lamonus profiles the volunteer doctors working to reach the island >> the question isn't if we're crossing, but how? >> not down here, but over here. we're the strongest nation in the world and we're trying to figure out how to cross a river to bring people diapers and water. 42 days after the hurricane. >> right here, guys. something somebody need help child is sick? >> the national guard isn't wastesi in wasting any time they had to cross with supplies for the family now it's our turn. >> official death toll in puerto rico from hurricane maria is now 64, but the through figure could be much more than that

see more about the island's epic struggle watch the prof it in puerto rico, an american in crisis tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. now to the weekend box office the force was with -- star wars the last jedi brought in another $100 million over the last weekend. according to estimates from comscore, and jumanji, welcome to the jungle, debuted in second place. that had 34 million. pitch perfect 3 was in third place. >> check this out. did you see any movies, by the way? >> i haven't i can't believe how much last jedi has pulled in so far. almost $400 million. it's been out 11 days. >> they say -- i keep reading that it's not -- way down from the last one, right? haven't you seen things like that >> no, it is it is. you have any movies? are you going to do any holiday movie watching

>> usually do new year's eve we go >> molly's game, the sorkin film >> you feel like you have to go to that? >> because of the namesake no we're not relatives. >> way back, you're not. >> the post is a newspaper guy i would ilike to see "the post. >> critics say that the movie that replaced -- that kevin spacey was in "all the money in the world" is speupposed to be spectacular. >> he stepped into it -- >> just to see how it was shot so quickly >> it was weird because i think christopher plumber is, like, 85 playing geddy, and kevin spacey is, like, 50 something playing the same guy >> wonder with makeup, which we all know about coming up, this morning's top stories including new numberofs holiday shopping stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

taking care of a family member can lead to plenty of questions. fortunately, there's a place to get the answers, for them and for you. find articles, tips and tools from experts and others who have been in your place. the caregiving resource center at aarp.org/caregiving.

good morning, everyone christmas is now officially in the books. we're counting down to 2018 just four trading days left of the year, and stocks pointing mostly lower this morning a full market run now straight ahead. plus, bruised apple? bruised apple. shares falling 2ers% after reports of weak iphone 10 -- i call it the iphone x why are we calling it the iphone 10 the danger of the return-a-thon if you are sending that not so stylish sweater back to the store. we have a warning for you. i have some stuff to return. we'll talk about it. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

>> good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the m nasdaq market site in times squa square >> does he call it the 10 or the x? >> the company calls it the 10 >> melissa lee andrew ross sorkin becky is off the nasdaq down about 30 the s&p now down 44. the s&p continues to trade fractionally higher. less than half a point the nasdaq indicated down 18 president trump tweeting moments ago based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular individual mandate has been terminated as part of our tax bill, which essentially repeals over time obama care, the democrats and republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new health care plan we will see.

we check the ten-year, which is right around 2.5 2.49 last time we looked 2.492 right now. the dollar $1.1851 it will be interesting to see which way it heads then oil $58 another interesting range that we'll see for next year. $55 to $70 or $55 to $40 for crude? we will know, but not -- i say it again and again it becomes more and more appropriate that predictions are hard, especially -- >> especially about the future >> those are the hardest predictions. >> just happens to be. >> right aren't they much more difficult? >> has to be >> nobody goes there anymore way too crowded. making headlines this morning apple shares are under a bit of pressure on some reports that sales of the new iphone

x -- maybe the company calls it the 10 apologies if you do. stick with me here they're apparently slowing taiwan's economic daily news reporting that apple is forecasting sales of 30 million units this quarter according to a prior forecast of 50 million units. apple has not publicly disclosed quarterly sales targets for the newest iphone, but i do want to say i love these i know i'm a little fan boy, but these little headphones -- >> great holiday gift. >> i don't know what kind of margin they get on this because i think they've got to be pretty expensive to make, but fantastic. bitcoin's wild ride continuing prices rebounding after bitcoin had its biggest weekly decline since 2013 take a look at this chart. prices this past friday, they dipped just above $1 1,000 from a high last week ran into a guy who is really doing arbitrage on bitcoin

they have people in london and new york and other places because in new york it can only be coin based. they buy on one exchange and move it around there's no computer systems to do it so it's very old school. they're typing in the order here then they're e-mailing all of the information with the keys and everything to the guys in london they are then selling it it's not like there's -- >> no room for error >> it's just very -- it's the old way of buying something across the street and then going and walking across the street and selling it >> the difference between bit snap and coin base right now is about -- looked like $200 or so. i mean, it did that all day long intill may lose a longstanding distinction this year based on preliminary sales figures samsung's electronics will display intel as the number one seller of semiconductors they've been the number one chip maker. the stock is still up 29%

overall this year. new figures out on holiday shopping according to master card spending policy u.s. holiday sales rising 4.9%, and e kmerszsales jumped a whopping -- that's the strongest holiday growth since 2011. starting off strong. the holiday closed out strong, right, on super saturday, and this is another big week zoo this is another big week 40% of holiday sales always occur between december 15th and the 25th you can't forget january because the redemption of gift cards people spend more than the actual gift card amount. a couple of things happened this year we have fewer stores open on thanksgiving day it led to a sense of urgency over black friday weekend. the lull that you have between thanksgiving and the 15th, you had a lull, but it wasn't as deep consumers have the ability to spend. retailers want them to spend in all our tracking of going to the stores, watching the web sites, the level of promotion seems similar to last year

it didn't hurt that it was cold outside. the seasonal weather helps sell cold weather goods >> is there any sense as to whether or not it's a broader base of consumers spending i mean, we've got consumer confidence at 17-year highs. we have unemployment at 17-year lows are lower middle income folks spending more this year? >> it seems like it's both the lower end and the higher end that's spending. when macy's hires 7,000 additional seasonal sales associates on december 1st, we haven't had that before. when you have had some of the lower tier retailers, like the wal-marts of the world, doing nicely also in addition to the high-end, that's encouraging now we go into the first half of 2018 yes, tax reform, but you also have easier comparisons and leaner inventory levels. it's more full-priced selling that we'll see >> in terms of the stocks, we've seen a run-up in the past month. what's factored in a macy's 20% run over the past month. a gap up 16% nordstrom up 16% in the past month. is that all in. >> you have some short covering

that's happening we had a real split personality in 2017. first half performance weak. second half performance strong i think we can keep going. typically the fourth quarter and the first quarter is the best performance for retail names >> so can you overlay sort of do the calculus here -- the ones with the strongest on-line presence, the ones that will benefit the most from tax reform both on their own reduction corporate rate as well as their consumers' reduction in rates. >> retailers are one of the highest segments with the heaviest taxes, so companies like gap, like tjx, almost on the department stores with kohl's and macy's will all et get a benefit from tax reform. you'll see the l brands and lulu lemons those companies with a lot of american exposure, that's when it will do the best. >> now there's the article in the journal questioning kevin plank being able to run lulu and plank industries >> when you have companies like

nike and adidas spending money in order to grow in north america, that's where the growth is, and underarmour, once you lose exposure and demand by the consumer, it takes a longer time to gain it back. >> is this a shoe story or everything story >> it's a little bit of an everything story i don't think of it as a shoe story because they were mainly clothes to begin with. >> there's a view among some that perhaps they stretch themselves by going too far in the shoe category, which was not their specialty, and had they focused just on clothes and maybe if they returned to that focus, they can fix this problem. >> still very much a work in progress it's the core business that's still weak in addition to the shoes. >> so in terms of what we've seen direct to consumer, are the likes of a footlocker and finish line, i mean -- is that a losing battle >> it's not a losing balgs because you have some areas of active that will are doing well. take a look at lululemon whose physical and digital is strong take a look at gap's threathlet,

which is doing nicely also whether it's gap that has type of built into it or some of the other names out there, it's impressive look at l-brands and pink and what they've done with victoria secret sport it's made a difference >> great to see you. thank you. >> happy holidays. >> ups and fedex scramble to get packages to your door on time. morgan brennan has a delivery score card and what we can expect for returns another busy time, morgan. >> yes, that's right it's almost like phase two, peak season let's look at what happened over the weekend. it's still early in terms of details. we're going to get more of those as the day unfolds coming into christmas, ups and fedex did scramble to get packages, though it would appear with fewer challenges than in year's passed. fedex sent out a service alert warning wind shear had caused disruptions at the main express hub in memphis that could result in delays. the company saying it could ek tend the delivery operations in some parts of the country affected by severe weather then it expected to have all the scheduled deliveries completed

on december 24th now, prior to that it had not planned deliveries past saturday, the 23rd, but keep in mind fedex has in years past worked well into christmas day this is a positive development for approximate s after a record thursday at its main air hub in lieu ville, it was delivering packages on saturday in some markets where weekends -- according to the "wall street journal" it repurposed several hundred office staff to help get packages to doorsteps this holiday season it's something it's done in the past, but apparently not to this extent peak season, as i just mentioned, is not over yet we have returns starting cbre estimates 15% to 30% of on-line purchases are returned versus 8% for brick and mortar purchases as on-line shopping continues to surge, so do the return shipments that is spurring big demand for reverse logistics by the companies. ups, fedex, xpo logistics and others that do specialize in it, and, actually, ups says that their busiest day for returns will be next year, january 3rd

>> do they still charge the peak season surcharge in this phase of the shipping season >> no. so ups put in those first time ever peak season surcharges. it was for very specific weeks in the holiday season. that last week coming into christmas and also the week around thanksgiving and cyber monday it's going to be interesting to see what the earnings tell us this year. >> morgan, thank you >> all right coming up when we return, you may have missed the story over the weekend. the high price of prince al walid's freedom. we'll talk geopolitics with evelyn farkas. you're watching "squawk box" here on cnbc the moment a fishs pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. (dane chauvel) sometimes the product arrives,

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authorities were demanding at least $6 million for prince a alwaleed to free him he was one of saudi officials who was arrested last month as a crackdown on corruptions reports say that alwaleed is discussing a plan with the government about accepting a large stake in his company, kingdom holdings, instead of cash, as payment for his release. a number of other saudi royals

and others were released apparently over the weekend, but alwaleed not wuf those >> not cash. that's interesting to be free he will sign over, like, a stake in his company then they don't have to sell any of the shares. >> it's a liquidity problem. >> right people work because there are so many american companies. >> he owns the biggest media company in the region. by far i thought they would have wanted that for strategic reasons i thought that's what this was all about. perhaps not. we'll see. >> that's better than -- there was some chatter before that it was liquidation of his stakes to put pressure on the markets. >> it's a laundry list of just well known u.s. brand names. >> yeah. >> remember he used to enon all the popular -- some of them -- i wonder whether they were great companies or whether he just was buying just hollywood -- strange things that he bought.

remember >> he also owns separately -- the four seasons there's a whole number of businesses >> he does, yeah joining us right now is former deputy assistant secretary of defense evelyn farkas good morning to you. >> good morning. >> just because we were talking about saudi before we get to the rest of this >> yes >> the united states and president trump in particular has had a very good relationship with saudi and specifically mbs in all of this how do you think the public and the business community and others should look at what's happening there right now? this crackdown on corruption seems to be cutting both ways in that there might be some corrupt actors, and that's a good thing. on the other side we keep hearing these stories about nbs buying that $450 million piece

of art, the chateau near ver versaille in france. >> i wonder worry about what he is buying and how he is living it's more about what he is doing dpesici i domestically and internationally. i think cutting down on corruption, yes, we have to keep an eye on that because it could be, like, taking a book, you know -- a page out of the china book we've seen chi do that as well he could be doing the same thing. again, for the united states maybe we're not as concerned we want stability in the kingdom. more importantly, i think it is what he does in the region and how he plays into the whole tension with iran. last month i was in israel, and i'm worried about what's going to happen next with regard to syria and how -- and the saudi kingdom has an important role to play, obviously, when it comes to the future of arab-israeli piece and the regional dynamic

i'm worried that he may not have all the information and may not understand the full picture in the region if i could just say one thing, just with regard to israel, we really need to be careful about what happens next because they are counting on the russians and us to somehow restrain iran and hezbollah, which i think is a kind of pipe dream >> do you see -- when netanyahu was on twitter doing a twitter thing from jerusalem over the weekend. did you see what i was talking about? >> i didn't see it >> i don't know what -- it was like a periscope style video of him, and they were talking about -- anyway, my question to you is trump in israel, what's did, and what's happened in terms of announcing the capital? >> i think the capital move had nothing to do with what's good for israel or the region or for u.s. foreign policy, honestly, because it read to me as some kind of campaign pledge.

it undercuts what we understand jared kushner was trying to do with mbs in saudi arabia and others, which was one, you know rg moving towards some public support for israel to show the arab street to say, hey, we can accept israel. moving us closer perhaps to pie peace, not getting there overnight, would have been a good move, but now with this announcement that he made, it's hard then for the saudis and other suni states to say, hey, we accept israel and show that though their people. >> we probably can't mention ez bowl without bringing up the latest what was called project cassandra and politico were you involved with that in any respect in terms of, you know, it was not an investigation because it may have hurt the iran deal?

i mean, were you part -- were you in the rooms when that was being discussed? >> i have to confess, i don't know what article you're talking about. i didn't work on iran policy when i worked in the administration, i worked primarily on russia. there was obviously overlap with syria, and in 2005 i was in the pentagon when we watched what the russians were doing and made our -- >> you haven't heard a word about this politico story, the secret about how obama let hezbollah off the hook an am birns u.s. task force targeting the -- ran headlong into the white house's -- haven't seen that? >> i confess, i haven't read the article. >> you know -- >> i do read a lot of news, but i can't read every piece, even by politico, which has published me a lot, and i'm thankful for them i will say that obviously i can't speculate on that story, but i think what we need to focus on now is there's a lot of instability.

you mentioned international institutions what i'm worried about and i have a piece hopefully that's going to run soon about the national security strategy, i think for businesses they really need to focus on some institutions and really do whatever they can to help strengthen institutions domestically and internationally. the only hope if you are a business is predictability, is rule of law, internationally and domestically, and i am afraid that institutions are being placed under assault across the board. i'm really worried internationally about nationalism. i mean, that's the biggest problem right now in europe. we've also got the old tensions playing out. we have nationalism where russia is challenging the international order primarily in europe. plus, china also, but not quite as aggressively. then we have the korean peninsula and all these other tensions i think for businesses they need to watch how institutions handle all these problems and the existing tensions. >> russia, china, north korea. the story of 2018.

which one were you >> 2018. >> crystal ball. >> russia. >> russia. >> good to see you >> thank you very much, andrew coming up, the gift of making dreams come true. we're going to talk to the ceo of make a wish found aation rig after the break. "squawk box" will be right back. the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. ♪ let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. lease the 2018 es 350 for $319 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business,

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>> this is the season for making dreams come true david williams, the make a wish ceo. the organization is in the midst of its peak season not everyone knows exactly what make a wish does, but there are children that maybe have -- what type of kids qualify for make a wish how do you do the screening and the selection? it's sad, but. >> every year in the united states, about 27,000 kids are diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition. their world is turned upside down make a wish comes along, and we ask a very simple question if you can wish for anything, you know, what would it be

while the mission is simple, what happens is it allows a kird to think about something besides their illness. it allows a family to be able to kind of come together because we involve every family member in these wish experiences, and, you know, one of the biggest misperceptions about make a wish is that if you are eligible, then you must have a terminal diagnosis. actually, that misperception is because that's the way it was for a number of years. >> it's very exciting, very positive >> how do you -- if people want to help at home, what's the easiest way to -- >> go to our website wish.org. they can make a contribution

there. we also are able it utilize frequent flyer miles if your miles are expiring, and you want to -- a lot of business folks are watching this who probably have all kinds of miles they're never going to use when they're given to us, the expiration date goes away, because three-quarters of all of our wishes involve travel. that's a very big expense, and if we can use miles for that, then any kind of cash donation goes even further. >> a lot of times individuals give in kind donations it takes the cash and stretches it even further. >> there are those who donate low basis stock. you know about this? >> do you like that? do you hate that

what's it cost for you of that i think sometimes to myself that if i were to do something like this, it would put a strain on you. not -- >> it's the processing of having to deal with it. >> we have people who can do that, and it's great because it's good for the donor, obviously. it's certainly good for the organization we're thrilled to be able to get donations of stock >> what's the average cost of granting someone's wish? >> so, about the cash portion is about $5,000 the in kind portion is about $5,000 there are some wishes that are much lower if you think about some of the simpler i wish to be a policeman or i wish to be a fireman or i wish to have a puppy or something like that, and then, you know, we might have some kids that might want to go to the olympics, and it might be a large family.

then, you know, we got a lot of work to do of those to try to do everything we can. >> are you sending a child to the olympics >> every both winter and summer oemgz. we've got one coming up that we're going to have to take a pass on because of a lot of things typically that's a wish that we grant. >> disney, they are big gives. >> huge. >> what's the value of their giving >> between $10 million and $15 million a year we have a tremendous number of kids that disneyland, disneyworld, disney cruise, meet a disney celebrity, and they are amazing. we just had a big promotion end yesterday. share your ears. $5 came to make a wish >> there was a charitable deduction that was maintained, but the doubling of the exemption means less people will itemize. that could affect middle class

giving, but it's a very charitable donation. >> we are. i think it's one of the things that we take for granted in this country that it is part of our dna to give. it's expected of corporations, individual do it we'll see it with our millenials, and one of the things people don't realize is we have also encouraged giving people who give through their wills and estates, through annuities, they said do i want my money to go to government, or do i want to go to a charity, and we receive a lot of gifts for that that's good-bye going to be kbaked as well do you know about bunching donations. because of the increased deduction, people will bunch their contributions so maybe this year you might bunch all your contributioned by double up or triple up to get over and then maybe next year you'll go quiet and then the next year and so it could create sort of an

uneven pattern of giving >> do you have any questions about the new tax law and how to -- you are better than any accountant for someone who loves high taxes, for anyone that likes high taxes and wants the government to collect, you have the best stuff you are unbelievable you know stuff that the reverse back flip that allows you to -- >> bunching is the new term. >> to find out all these -- it's all avoidance. no evasion >> to avoid this and officially give away their money. >> okay. all right. just do you have any questions >> we'll think about it. >> stay after the show be well worth your while david, thank you >> this is one of the great organizations. >> it is >> it really is. >> all week on cnbc we're opening up our annual playbook here's phil lebeau with a look at the auto sector >> auto sector

>> still, trucks and suvs will remain popular picks in showrooms close to gas prices that remain relatively low meanwhile, you can expect sales of electric cars to charge up in 2018 thanks to two high profile vehicles first there's tesla's model three which will be seen around america more often as the automaker ramps up production. meanwhile, gm expects sales of the chevy bolt to increase due to a full year of nationwide sales. finally, expect to see plans for self-driving cars to expand in the next year. waymo will start its self-driving ride share in arizona and grow it from there, while gm's self-driving cheffy volt will go from the streets of san francisco so new test drives

in new york. other automakers expect their autonomous drive programs to kick into a higher gear next year, setting up 2018 to become a crucial year for an auto industry going through a technological transformation phil lebeau, cnbc business news, chicago. worldwide spending on air travel is expected to rise 6% by the end of this year equaling about 1% of economic output joining us now seth kaplan, managing partner at airline weekly full planes. you know, jet fuel not as expensive as it was. it is a very good time to be both in the business and to be a traveller, isn't it, seth? >> it is.

>> whether you go china to newark, it takes an hour it looks like with boeing's overtures th overtures, those great jets that bombardier make. both of them are great you get on and off quickly you don't wait on the runway as long it seems like we're moving that way, right >> right you are never going to fly a cs 100 from beijing to new york, obviously, but, yeah, when you look at the larger aircraft, the

smaller of the line body aircraft of the twin engine aircraft are doing fine. the a 380 for airbus, the giant one that you are talking about that airbus -- clearly struggling yeah, it's -- corporate travellers like frequencies. for example, you know, they don't want to hear you have the biggest plane. they want to hear how many times a day can they take you from new york to london if the meeting runs late. yeah, often that means smaller aircraft, although in the narrow body space we do see airlines pushing more into the larger 737. the larger variance of the a320. kind of a dichotomy. we had robert frank on talking about how luxury is going to be even more paramount next year in 2018 and, you know, we know how well people that owned assets have done over the past, you

know, with the fed at zero 12 million millionaires. do we get more -- with air travel, or do we get more, you know, first class versus everybody else i just -- how does that play out? >> airlines are clearly a bunion it starts with air travel, and you can everything up to the sky. it's interesting we have here in the past few years seen airlines restoring certain things you think american united and delta. at least two of the three of those airlines in every case have gotten rid of free buyer every beer, wine, on long haul flights. you got rid of premium entertainment for free you know, the snacks all those types of things. in all cases at least two of the three of those have restored all that in the past couple of years. we serve free economy meals on transcontinental flights again these are airlines that now that

they are doing so well, do have the luxury to restore certain things it's never going to be the old days again where you can transport hundreds of dollars worth of baggage basically you know, what it would cost to ship it for a $39 ticket they don't think that makes sense. they have actually put certain things back that in some small ways make itation more -- >> i'll tell you the reason i like -- andrew will appreciate this, and i will admit i like the small jets because none of them have first class so you don't have to, like, try to get in first class it's so hard >> it's interesting psychology that makes people -- that curtain makes people want to do things >> upgrades don't work miles are useless. i don't wish anymore it's like everybody is in the small plane. everybody is in the small scene.

>> thank you we appreciate it >> he knows what i'm talking about. >> up next, today's top stories. plus, a warning for serial returners. check out the futures. we head to the first trading session of this holiday shortened week dow jones looking to lose about 67 stay tuned tada!

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we at the imaginary friends society always have your back! good morning welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, live from the nasdaq market site in times squa square among the stories that are front and center this hour, an acquisition in the pharmaceutical industry and that was announced just this morning. you u.k. drug maker mallinckrodt is buying sucampo pharmaceutical $18 per share. sucampo is based in rockville, maryland the deal should add to

allinckrodt's earnings immediately. also, a record run in the airline industry profitability, though, could be in jeopardy. according to the trade group airlines for the purpose america, expenses at the nonlargest airlines rose more than 8% during first nine months of this year same time revenue rose over 3% airlines paying more for fuel and maintenance and then for those of you that went to the movies, the force was too much for the competition at the box office star wars, the last jedi took in nearly $101 million. ticket sales bringing in domestic total to $400 million also, doing well, the remake of umanji and pitch perfect 3 also doing well when we return, we have a lot more coming up a big warning. you're playing the mall to return to gifts today, i am not even doing that. the details right after the break. stay tuned you're watching squawk break on

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>> now a warning on returns. >> that's right. full 10% of holiday sales are returned, and today is usually the biggest day of returns all

year, but be careful when you return that unwanted gift because you're being tracked, and you might get a one-year ban from any future returns at your favorite store that's because there's an equifax type company that rates whether you are a problem returner it's called the retail equation. its main goal is to help stores stop fraud, like people who repeatedly wear something and then return it crooks trying to get cash for stolen goods, organized crime printing fake bar codes who change the prices on expensive dumz regular shoppers who do nothing wrong, they might get caught up in this too if they return something that might match a pattern displayed by crooks. the company says 25 of the top 100 retailers use this service including best buy, victoria secret, jc penney and nike that's why sometimes you are asked for your driver's license. there are 600 million returns, and the retail equation says 99% -- some innocent shoppers might get falsely banned if that happens, you can contact the company to get your return

history and ask them to reinstate you. >> you are blocked what happens is you first get a written warning on the receipt saying you are now placed on warning. any future returns might get blocked. the next time you come back to best buy or something they'll say, oh, sorry, it's just blocked. you got to go talk to them because we as best buy, we don't do this. it will be a written warning on your receipt >> if i don't have the receipt the tags are still there i have the box >> there's a lot of message boards for people or a lot of local stations that have done investigations on behalf of the customer and said i have everything normal. i have the box i just forgot my receipt i buy things from here all the time, and they still locked me i don't understand >> you really need a gift receipt. i find it's uncuth because -- >> i'm not even sure you're

going to like it go ahead and return it >> is that what happened wr yesterday? >> a little bit. a little bit >> i wouldn't -- >> so you like gift receipt better than cash >> in a perfect world i would like everyone to figure out what the size is and everything in advance, but it's very hard. >> yoga pants that he tried on >> why did i regift them >> no. somebody else is going to wear the pants that he tried on.

>> i want somebody to buy the ones that you want >> you want the -- >> he had gym sports on underneath yeah, yeah, yeah >> thank you >> nice to see you >> merry christmas >> this was, by the way, true news you can use i appreciate that. >> sure. >> theoretically >> this is the real deal this time >> that's what i'm talking about. >> let's bring in tobin moore, toro co-founder. toro works with one of the top u.s. retailers to process returns. what do you think? have we got this that was a pretty good report from eric, was it not? >> i'm really curious as to what happens to those yoga pants. >> yoga pants. could they end up someone else wearing them i mean, is that -- >> i think there's a lot of places that can end up -- >> what do companies do when they get sent back >> so returns are becoming a -- have been but are becoming an even bigger issue in retail,

especially with the growth of e-commerce e-commerce return rates are triple that of typical returns, and so you end up this year we're going to see probably $380 billion of products alone and close to $750 billion worldwide. a major portion of that is going to happen over the next week and over the next month here >> employing back going back tof the pants, do the pants get sold at a different price or to somebody else? what happens >> those pants will come back, and they'll get checked out by a clerk initially who likely will take the return because the battleground for customer experience now is seeping to consumer returns then they'll assess is it used or not used? does it still have a tag on it based off of the different condition factors, the item will end up in a number of different places >> average cost to the retailer of the rush meaning the handling and the fact that i have

walked -- can be a good thing. maybe i'll buy something else there. what's the average cost of a return >> so it just starts at the clerk's desk and then it goes -- the goods get shipped back to a distribution center and sometimes it get cross-stocked at a ford distribution center. >> we're talking $5 an hour. >> is it consumer electronics and it has to be white or refurbished or is it like yoga pants and it has to do a sniff test, and they can put it back on the rack. >> exactly that's where we were going this entire time. >> it has to cost them something to do this a couple of dollars so you can

put it back on the shelf that's what happens to the most apparel, and retailers have a bigger challenge today when a lot of these goods were bought on-line and now you are returning did to a storefront that never carried it in the first place. now they have to figure out what to do with it, and a lot of times they can't even restock it in that store. >> i tried to fold them back the way they came. >> that's very considerate >> like origami. >> they send it back to a dry cleaner and come back and get -- >> thank you thank you. appreciate it. you were supposed to read that i wasn't ready tobin is your guy. >> thanks. >> we're talking about -- coming

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coming up, jobs, taxes, and politics in 2018 we'll hear from former cku restaurants ceo andrew puzder after the break. check out shares of apple under pressure this morning. iphone suppliers are also in the red. we've got all the details behind

those declines next. take a look at the futures right now on this tuesday session. looks like we are going to open up lower across the board. you're watching "squawk box" here on cnbc ♪ the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. bacteria can multiply to high enough levels that even cooking it will not destroy all of them. it's definitely the most important thing in my business. how fresh is the fish? where it comes from? how it gets here. the more i know, the better. sometimes the product arrives and the cold chain has been interrupted,

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zbloinchts tax reform, check market rally, check. what's next? the prospects for washington and wall street in 2018 straight ahead. >> how big hedge funds are franticly trying to get in on crypto currencies. >> unwrapping the retail story holiday shopping season. winners and losers as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >> live from the most powerful city in the world, new york. this is "squawk box." ♪

just barely down .0. the nasdaq is weak down almost 36 points. treasury yields are on the ten-year 248 now. 249. 248. got up 2.5 last week briefly, but now back down below that >> the stories investors need to know about, shares of apple getting hit this morning it this follows a report that says apple has told suppliers iphone 10 for the current quarter will total about 30 million. that compares to 50 million last quarter. sky works solutions -- they are reportedly demanding $6 billion from prince bin alwaleed he was one of several saudi royals and government officials arrested last month in what was billed as crown prince mohammed bin salamon's crackdown.

among the other market stories, bitcoin is on the rise it's recovering from a sell-off below 12,000 on friday among stocks to watch this morning, mallinkcrodt -- >> they keep giving you this story. >> sucampo's shares -- on reports that it was fueling takeover offers. brookfield property partners seeking to restructure its offer for part of mall owner ggp that it doesn't already own the offer it made last month was half in cash, half in stock. the ggp said to be wary of epg accepting brookfield's stock in its current form now to washington and trivia question what do kambucha, broadway musicals and florida citrus have in common? they all get special carve-outs in tax bill. the legislation stands not only to transform the code for large swaths of the american economy,

but it also doles out special gifts to even the most -- we have the details >> good morning, joe i have combed the tax bill, checked it twice, and now i found out who has been naughty and nice we're going to start with the beer industry here tucked inside the legislation is a provision that lowers federal exize taxes on brewers for two years. the small brewers, the tax gets cut in half. for others the taxes reduce by 10%. it has bipartisan support, but it was ohio senator rob portman that delivered this gift this christmas. it's also not just beer. broadway getting a new tax break as well. live theatrical productions, they will get to take advantage of full immediate expensing of the show this is actually a tax break that was passed under president obama and was championed by new york senator chuck schumer and

it was fired at the end of the year, and cnn has also made a stop at florida citrus farms they get a carve-out for replacing damaged plans. this is particularly important after the hurricanes that occurred this year growers have been upset. they still haven't gottin the full disaster relief backage yet, so maybe this will help tide them over for a little while, and one elf who worked on that was verne buchanan who happens to be a member of the tax writing committee in the house. these are just a few of the presents that the industry has found. i'm sure lobbyists are still unwrapping them all. back to you, guys. >> will you find anything in there for agencies, i guess, that -- like talent agent fees >> well, apparently i am still checking through all the fact lists, but apparently it looks like you can no longer write off the fee for your agent >> i don't think you're going to find anything in there >> it's good sear, joe. >> it's okay it's all right >> just calling it talent is --

do you feel weird when you say it, talent >> that's presumptive wu-- presumptive. >> it's like calling a bald guy curly. >> or skinny for an overpetition person >> former cke -- no offense, andy wrrks former cke ceo policy advisor for america first policy we've talked a lot you know what's great about getting your take. you know exactly how carl -- i love carl jr the bacon -- western bacon cheese berg cheeseburger you can speak to a couple of things that happened after the law was signed, and that is number one, some companies immediately went to $15 minimum wage that's tough on fast food. if it's federally legislated, maybe less so if you are able to do it. number two, i'm sure as a

domestic company your tax rate was, you know -- we hear that america companies don't pay that 35%. you must have been pretty close at cke, weren't you? >> well, we were pretty close once -- when i took over, we had a lot of losses. the company was in real trouble. once we used up the losses, we were close to that i would say even more importantly than whether cke restaurants, which is a franchise was paying a lower tax rate all of our franchisees are getting this lower tax rate, and i -- what i -- i have been friends with some of the people for 20 or 30 years, and when i talked to people in the franchise community, they're all talking -- they used to talk about i can't open you know, labor is going to be too high there's not enough growth. i won't have sales now they're talking about whether they can find sites to open they're all out there looking for ways to grow, new places to grow you're really seeing ab snen incentive to grow with regulatory reductions and tax reductions this bill is a big deal, and i think people are going to see that in the coming months. >> you think that you -- you saw

a couple of companies go to $15. >> yes >> the fast food industry is still an entry level position for a lot of people. i don't expect it's going to go to $15 immediately at a lot of the franchise outlets. >> i don't know if it will go to $15, but i will tell you -- you can see this driving around. if you drive by almost any fast food restaurant, and you see a help wanted sign out there they're trying to hire people, and here in nashville, i know we're paying a lot higher. the minimum walk is the federal minimum wage, and i know we're over $10 an hour for workers you are already seeing an increase in wages for people, which is what we haven't seen since the end of the recession we've seen wages stagnate. these companies going to $15 an hour for -- because economic growth supports the wage, that's absolutely the way to go i wish everybody was making more money, and if you have the growth to support that wage, so businesses can continue to grow and continue to create jobs,

that's a very positive thing i think we're seeing with the growth we're seeing employers keep for workers, which causes wages to rise. what we've seen for the past eight years is workers competing for jobs which caused wages to stagnate or something down this is a very positive sign i don't take it ill at all i think the fact that first third bank and wells fargo are going to $15 an hour because they believe they can is a very good sign. >> listening to you talk about the tax bill and then listening to, i don't know, you could talk to larry summers or chuck and nancy, i don't know, rosie o'donnell wants paul ryan to go to hell for christmas. some people -- some guy sent mnuchin a load full of manure. is it the same tax bill these people are looking at on the one hand versus the other? i mean, says if you -- depending who you listen to, it's either the biggest tax cut for the rich and this totally skrug over

everybody else, or it's an across the board -- >> how do you decide what it is? how do you not take a partisan approach to it >> there are people criticizing the tax bill obviously they haven't read the tax bill there was actually a good segment i saw it on twitter where one of the other networks, a major network, interviewed three people from across the country. a woman that made $40,000 is an executive assistant. two educators made $150,000, and a couple with a small business in california where they made about $300,000 all of them found their taxes were going down, and all of them thought they were going up i think when people start to see those bigger paychecks in february, all of this malarkey about this is a stop to the rich and it's going to hurt the working and middle classes are going to go away the real part of this bill it wasn't just giving a tax cut to people, and people needed a tax cut. that was the right thing to do, and they're going to see that, but this is a bill that is supposed to generate economic

growth president kennedy has -- rich, poor, working class, middle class. lifts everybody. >> the taxes will be lower they'll be able to see that. it will be meaningful. only 5% of americans are going to have the tax bill go up in the short-term i think, though, to the extent there's a critique of this particular tax bill, it's the only way we're going to measure it long-term is both in the growth and its ability to pay or not pay for itself and whether taxes go up later. it's a harder bill to measure in

that way in that in the immediate term, people no matter what are going to feel better. the question is whether five years when we look at all the numbers we're going to feel better or worse. right? >> that's true i think if there had been more support, if this had been more bipartisan like the kennedy tax cuts or the reagan tax cuts, we could have accomplished some of those goals. the problem with this bill was republicans had to pass it on very thin margins. you find things in the bill that you would prefer not to find i think even if you look long-term, and one of the criticisms, obviously, is that these tax cuts go away in a number of years. look, congress can change that you know, bernie sanders is upset about that as he said over twitter this week. have him come out and say, look, i'll support a bill that makes this permanent i don't think republicans would object to that you have to have people crossing the aisle to make this the kind of bill we would all like to see. i think it's a great bill, but it could have been better if there had been some bipartisan support. >> okay. andy, thanks >> thanks, gentlemen >> he so you merry christmas. >> merry christmas >> a lot still ahead on "squawk

box" this morning. the year of cyber attacks from yahoo to the mega equifax hack we'll talk to you about what to predict in terms of data 2018. then, later, why congratulations may be in order. it has nothing to do with golf stay tuned bcquk"eronching "saw he cn eet guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness,

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for more on what to expect and how to protect and predict privacy for the new year, leo tadeo. chief information officer at cytera see, i'm -- >> i read it, like, six times. >> it's also former fbi special agent. let me ask you this. what do you do with your own -- i'm curious. >> that's a tough one. i try to wherever i can use multi-factor authenticate on e-mail and certainly on my own personal devices having them as locked down as ponl. e-mail is the vektor that most

hackers are going to get locking down your account and making sure you're not clicking on any links or visiting web sites. that's the way to protect yourself >> so multi-factor just for those who are uninitiated means that you're not only having a password, but also often times getting a text message or something from the provider so there are two fornlz >> that's right. there's usually either a token or the person you are trying to communicate the company you're trying to communicate sends us a different -- >> my second question is some people now say that the texted version of the multi-factor authenticate, meaning the second password effectively that gets texted to you, that that's no longer safe. that true? >> the national institute of standards and technologies has deprecated sms as a second factor yes, that's true to some extent. it's still better than nothing it's very hard to break down an sms message and spoof it so that you can get ahead.

>> you lose any services like last pass or password managers >> i think password managers are a great idea i use one password, which is a great management tool, but that's a great way to store complicated passwords without having to write it down on a piece of paper >> doesn't that put you completely at jeopardy in that if you lose your password or, rather, if someone can hack that account and then they hacked your whole life. >> that's true if they can get into your password manager, they have access to all of your pass words. there's no doubt you just have to manage it right. >> all the multi-factor -- until the cows come home there still would have been a huge breach. >> once you send your information to a third party,

it's very difficult to manage how they protect it. once equifax lost -- once you hand your data to equifax, in most cases consumers don't even know and that's part of the reason >> what's the piece of information in all of our lives that we don't appreciate has more value meaning, we hear about these big braechz, but then, by the way, you don't hear necessarily about how that breach has impacted the individual except that you feel exposed. >> i think identity theft is still the most personal and impactful victimization from a hacker point of view if you can open up a credit account in someone's name, that affects the person's credit and their ability to -- >> there's infomercials even on cnbc and everything for all of these services that are trying to protect your identity do you know what i'm talking about? worth it not worth it >> they're all better than nothing. no particular and single company is going to keep you safe. you have to do your best, and

you have to manage your own security what monitoring does is assist you in understanding what else is coming at you, whether it's someone using your social security number or open a line of credit in your name those things help, but they're not fool-proof >> final question, liability in the corporate end. what do you think is going to happen long-term, meaning people are buying all sorts of new insurance. companies are buying different insurance products and things like that. how do you think this all plays out? >> well, liability is a little bit misaligned the impact is on them, but there's really no liability on the company holding the data it's not something that's been the -- it hasn't resulted in heavy fines or civil judgments against like equifax yet we see a misalignment there. there's a risk shift >> specific industries that are

most vulnerable -- hospitals in general haven't spent much on information security that's not what they've been focused on >> block kman, is it going to make things more secure? >> anything that is -- makes it that harder for the adds versary to spoof is going to make us more secure. >> k on. >> leo, thank you. appreciate it. happy holidays >> coming up, the business of college bowl games what i dip in ratings might mean for sponsorships we're going to talk to a sports marketing economictive right after the break. i, i, and respond 60 times faster. it lets you know where your data lives, down to the very server. it keeps your insights from prying eyes, so they're used by no one else but you. it. is. the cloud. the ibm cloud. the cloud that's designed for your data. ai ready. secure to the core. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business. yours.

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>> joining us now larry man, executive vice president at sports marketing firm revolution there's how many 40 >> i think there's 40, arpt there? >> trying to figure out what we should tell people to do whether you should sponsor a bowl or whether you should advertise on the big -- like there's the cheri -- there's the bad boy mowers bowl. does it pay to responsor an entire bowl with maybe two teams that not everybody is setting their calendar to watch or does it pay to advertise on the rose bowl >> yeah, i mean, it's two different philosophies of how you would approach it.

i mean, the lower tier bowls in today's world in the commercial environment section, it might be a good opportunity to get your brand out. >> how much does that cost for the bad boy mowers -- >> it's always suspect to how much they actually dwsh $is00,000. >> somewhere around there. i think more importantly nowadays people aren't watching commercials as much. it allows your brand to be auto television also, then you compare to, okay, if imauto going to be in the big game, you know it's a lot of money and it's extremely expensive. i think that there's two comparisons. you see some of the smaller companies you haven't mentioned or heard of doing the lower tier bowls and then the bigger ones >> it's hard to skip commercials, but there is a way to do it if you are just a little bit delayed, but then you can't look at your phone because then you see who wins you can ruin it if you do it that way much more difficult with live sports to get. >> correct you also have your logo on the

foo he would there's a lot of highlights that go out you know, once you stee your brand on the field, but, yeah, these games, the earlier part around christmas time, they're more about, you know, schools getting the opportunity to go and then as move closer to the new year, the games get obviously a lot more significant. >> is there over saturation. we're 40 now ten years ago how many were there? >> probably about half there's a lot more bowl games because it's a great entertainment programming option for the network. espn during the day. it gives them something to do. >> if you add them all up, it's higher >> the new year's games which were the big ones. >> there are four bowl games i'm really excited for, but then there's 36 that i don't know if i would even watch >> it's really hard. i think a lot of people -- you know, they find that it's very

challenging, but there are also those fans that you also have alums of the schools, and you may want to go to -- >> you do you represent -- the company comes to you and says is it worth it for me to buy ads there's a community piece that plays into it. the bigger companies, you know, it is -- where college football is today and this year being back on the traditional new year's day, for the big games, it does make a lot of sense. >> so college football ratings have gotten better or worse than the nfl 1234 >> the stories are the college

football ratings are down, but the -- if you look at total viewership and total people watching college football, it's about the same the reason why they're down is fox, which added the big ten, has added that opportunity for more viewerships across the network. cbs and espn may show slight ticks down, but fox would be up. the ratings where the story in the nfl is obviously everybody wants to talk about in college it isn't, yes, the ratings are down, but it's more because it's been spread across other networ networks >> i want to watch like i said, there's four games. i'm really excited for more than some of the nfl games. >> correct you know, that's also the product too. you know, this year you have the four of the two semis are south. three of the schools are in the southeast. that's college football heaven that's hotbed college football >> you got some great stories. >> two of the top rated college football games this year feature

georgia, auburn, and alabama it should lead to -- >> they're going to change the bowl the way they do -- you know, like in basketball like the final four. >> anyi, larry, thank you. great time of the year then march madness coming up, this morning's octostk watch stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

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>> good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we're live at the nasdaq market site in the heart of times square let's take a look at stocks on the move this morning. capital one has resubmitted its capital plan to the federal reserve after the fed identified some weaknesses in its prior submission according to an sec filing, capital one has reduced the amount of authorized share repurchases as part of that revised plan garmen has introduced a new activity tracker called the vivo fit four one of the differentiating factors that garmen hopes will

distinguish the competition, it can go more than a year without having to recharge the battery that's amazing can they do that with the iphone brookfield property partners have various options to restructure its offer to buy the part of mall operator ggp it doesn't already own. the prior $4.8 billion offer was half cash, half stock. it's wary of seming brookfield's stock in its current form. one of the proposals is creating an alternate stock in an entity that would combine some of brookfield's holdings with ggp the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed, and big hedge funds want in on the action. that's according to the "wall street journal." a reporter, special writer we don't even call him a reporter he is a special writer >> very special. >> not just any writer, right? >> gregory zuckerman is leer he is joining us now to discuss what's going on with these institutional investors. we're looking to benefit from the digital currency we have some guy that's jumping in and some guys jumping out

>> getting a little excited about bitcoin. i mean, until now they drag their feet they thought it was kind of a scam some of the smarter guys, the quantity kind of guys now are saying, you know what, maybe we can mix money on the long or short side they're doing their homework and starting to get in >> i know a couple of guys -- we were talking about this earlier. some folks are trying to arbitrage what's going on in the marketplace, but i haven't found folks that have gone either fully long or short. can you really go fully short with the new futures contracts >> it's not enough liquidity yet. that's why people are sort of on the sidelines. some are playing it, but it's not enough liquidity yet they're waiting for that to develop. if you think about it, how do they like the nasdaq crack or subprime market crack? you finally had shorts being able to express that short position some can argue that's when bitcoin also gets hurt >> who is the most interesting name you think is getting involved >> well, you look at -- they're learning about it. they're not doing it yet if they -- those kind of names get involved, then i get

excited. steve schoenfeld's money very sophisticated kind of firm. until thousand it's like verizon. ellington is looking at it of course, you you've got old shop fortress, which owns over $100 million. are they talking about crypto currency as an asset class >> want yet. no they're talking about block chain and we've got to learn about block chain. you are starting to see family offices started nibbling and doing a little bit of something and looking for ways to participate. they appreciate the importance of the block chain >> is this the action that

happens right before the train takes off or right before the bust happens >> until now obviously it's sort of south korean grandmothers driving this. >> in terms of increasing the liquidity and actually increasing the number of shorts or express shorts through futures out there. for institutions, it's not just skepticism about crypto currencies it's not in their -- they aren't allowed to invest in crypto currency, right? if you watch u walk into a pension fund, they cannot do it right now. although some have sort of this little bucket. 5% where they can do miscellaneous kind of stuff. some we're looking at in that regard others are saying, well, it's similar to something else. you can convince some board of directors that maybe can fit

under some bucket. i agree. for the average institution, there are all kinds of obstacles and barriers, and they're not quite there at all >> so it's like a chicken and egg -- for hedge funds to get bigger into bitcoin and to use the futures markets to express their views, we need the liquidity, but we aren't going to see a pick up in liquidity until we start seeing many, many more of the institutional investors participate. >> to some extent, right even if you get them allocating this kind of stuff, slowly you could get the liquidity going up, and then you get more people kind of who are looking at it from the sideline to get more interest in. there are all kinds of obstacle brz we get there >> while we have you here, considering the time saver, you have written extensively what do you think happens in 2018 >> i think he raises a lot of money, actually. the terms aren't especially investor-friendly. lock-up and such

the quant investor reigns extreme. he is not kind of this new age kind of investor, so it's sort of this love for old school investor that said, through kubis, one of his arms, he has embraced quantitative investing and that's become more important for him. maybe that's part of the allure. more focused on the shift to the quant investors that i find more fascinating and interesting. >> what happens to the old school -- as you call them -- gut investors? >> i think they had problems i think with all the information and data being produced on a daily basis, moment by moment, it used being to be, okay, i'm going to make a decision and analyze it that's been done already by the systems. it's very hard for these average kind of guys or average -- the institutions and hedge funds that are old cool investors to

compete with the quants today, i would argue. >> happy holidays. >> we were just talking to bitcoin. israel's market regulatory industries have a ban that -- this move would seek to block the listing this would impact two companies and describe crypto currencies or the technology behind them as an essential business here we have seen companies get a big boost after touting block chain technology did you hear this microcap last weeklong island iced tea >> yes >> ridiculous. >> long island iced tea. i thought that was a drink >> it is a drink they're a maker and distributor of iced tea. now they're looking into block chain, and now they're up 154% >> they call themselves that they just make nonalcoholic iced tea. >> you missed the point of the story. >> i heard it.

that is stupid >> no, no, no. talking about the -- yes >> it was bitcoin. >> got it. >> it was crazy to be bitcoin, but it's also crazy to be -- it's you're calling yourself icedtea even though it's not the alcohol -- uber is reportedly selling its u.s. auto business to sta start -- the company has been trying to wind down the business, which is losing about $9,000 per car uber has been using that unit as a way to attract new drivers bho don't have access to a vehicle coming up, the numbers are

in u.s. retail sales this holiday just did something for the very first time in more than five years. the details in a rundown of the retail winners and losers next she's nationally recognized for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated... and it puts me at higher risk of stroke. that would be devastating. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®.

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...and before starting xarelto®-about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. it's important to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know™. welcome back to "squawk box. futures right now have been down about 50 most of the -- 51 now on the dow the s&p has turned positive again, just barely less than a quarter of a point

higher the nasdaq has improved a little, but still down about 29 points in the premarket session. making headlines, this year's holiday season was a strong one for retailers. figures from master card spending pulse show a 4.9% gain over last year covering the period from november 1st through christmas eve. that's the biggest year-over-year increase since back in 2011 we're looking at some of the big retail winners and losers this holiday season and what we can expect for the sector in 2018 let's bring in sam, a senior analyst. sam, good to have you with us. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays to you you like a lot of the athletic wear makers, is it because in part they've had strong retail holiday seasons, or is it their performance in all the rest of the time during the quarter? >> yes i think what's going on is we've -- it looks like we've had a good holiday season, which will likely lift all boats to different levels, but i don't want to -- if it is athletic or not, people shouldn't be confused with healthy companies

and sort of this better health of consumer lifting all goods because i believe it's all happening to different levels. how that plays into next year is going to be very interesting >> let's start off with footlocker if the direct to consumer centralities are more successful than what they've already demonstrated, does footlocker -- is it still a winner >> i believe so. footlocker is the larnlest, you know they don't want to give up share to anybody for instance, you see adidas doing partnerships with footlocker on certain ideas. same thing with nike and so on

i think they're set up well for 2018 >> if you are a nike, let's say does it make a difference if you have that partnership with a footlocker versus an amazon, let's say. if amazon is the way people are shopping, might that be more important so, therefore, they are willing to give up that space? you know what, take that footlocker share we don't need it because people aren't doing that anymore. >> well, i think what's going on is it it's really based on how well you know your consumer. now, definitely amazon is easy to shop in, but a lot of things get very commo dot ized on amazon while footlocker knows that specific kid customer and connects -- >> nike is on amazon what percent of the product is on amazon? not a lot. >> it's more basics. there's a shoe called the monarch, for instance, which has been around for i don't know how many years, which is a $60 shoe. i mean, they're going to sell a lot of those basics on amazon. if you find jordans it's really through the third party at elevated prices.

they're not -- i don't want to say never, about the it's unlikely they're going to put jordan on amazonfully time soon because it will look too excessive. >> you read the kevin plank story in "the journal? >> yes, i glanced at it. >> your take on underarmour. >> i think they made bad strategic decisions hasty decisions when they opened up kol's and famous footwear and dsw. i think it was in response to losing sports authority this past year to gander mountain, and so i think that they have to draw very hard line in the sand as to what they're doing i don't think they can simultaneously sell that moderate channel and then also try to get academy to say, okay, we're fine with this you know, with nike, for instance, there's a shoe called the roche which is sold at dick's and footlocker and so on, and there's a shoe called the tanningent, which i believe you have spoken about on this show, which is a shoe sold to the moderate channel

they look very similar the tangent customer apie ale s buy the roche. the roche customer doesn't know the tan dem exists >> it's all high end-low end and it takes everything to the low end in terms of the impression the customer has >> the only way to do that -- the way to fix that is to sort of cut the cord. if you look at underarmour ten or so years ago when they launched -- >> it was a high-end brand >> when they launched men's noncleated footwear, they did not do it well, but they admitted it with women's apparel, and they did what's called shrink it and pink it they took a men's shirt and made it smaller and turned it pink. instead of working off a bad base, they cut the cord and restarted everything to fix it

if you don't do it, i think there's not good things ahead. there are difficult decisions ahead for underarmour right now. >> "mad money. >> lulu has been a winner because it's taken some of that underarmour share, and it's also in its own turn-around >> i think that -- i mean, there's dollar share from everybody, but, again, i think a lot of the lulu customers, if you ask them, you know, how much underarmour do you buy, it's really that core -- lulu customer is totally different. they sell similar product, but the sensibilities of the brand are different. with lulu they had the problems back in 2013, which are behind them as far as brand equity, and they had execution, which appear to be behind them right now. the whole picture is working they're there for a very narrow consumer i think people get confused with what product is being bought and how it's being sold. so is there a smaller brand that you think is on the cusp of breaking out we have these direct to consumer brands like all birds and outdoor voices they're obviously -- they're not

taking market share the way some of the other guys are just yet is there something that you look on the and go there's something going on there >> i think there's something going on i think the real question is -- these are sort of these little secrets that do very well. the question is how are you able to scale them? it's something i think nike, given their size is struggling with you know, i'm about to go to various trade shows in the next month or so, and we'll learn a lot more about it then i mean, you do see, like, little remerge ens of brands like older brands like diadora and fila and a little bit of k swiss here and there. those -- i would more expect a more established brand than out of sight out of mind to emerge >> interesting >> sam, thank you. >> pleasure. >> happy new year. coming up when we return, only four days left in 2017. take a look at the futures right now. see what's going on this tuesday morning post-christmas dow looks like there's a very tiny lump of coal in the stocking dow looks like it will open up

52 points lower. nasdaq off about 30 points the s&p 500 looking call it marginally up for now. when we come back, we're going to check in with some traders in chicago in the windy city. squawk returns after this. i just finished months of chemo. but i don't want to talk about months. i want to talk about years. treatments have gotten better, so... i'm hoping for good years ahead. that's thanks to research funded by the american cancer society. the same folks giving me free rides to treatment, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo.

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welcome back lets get back to the broader markets, cio of nation shares and cnbc contributor, you know you're very lucky your name was nations, you know what i mean? then you start a firm -- sounds big, like nationwide and all it is just your name, right >> we tried for kernen shares and that was taken. >> i would sue you up and down if you did that, scott but -- you know what we'd do, the week after christmas, right? we talk about next year. have you got any pearls, nuggets of wisdom for what we can expect will there initially be any type of seasonal thing that happens any year or is it different this time around? >> joe, i think the most interesting news about the first quarter is the news we just got about apple. they are now rach eting down expectations for the iphone 10 some estimates now shipments for

the iphone 10, as few as 35 million. we had 45 million as the estimate up until now. we see that apple is down 2.5% on that news, a bunch of chip makers getting hurt on the news. that would be horrible for the entire tech eco system i also think that something else that's really interesting is copper, copper traded as high as $3.30 a pound. that's the highest that we've seen in over four years. we've been following that for quite a bit. that's a really interesting story. it shows that somebody is accumulating a big position in copper because they expect the global economy will do real well. >> that's a cooper roof and scares -- >> the copper roof on the stock market or price of copper? what does it mean? i think it's the stock market, doesn't it >> well, i actually think it's good for the global market. >> what is the old expression that every bull market has a

cuppcu copper roof on it. you've given me two bearish things but the apple thing after barones puts it at a trillion dollars and now back below 900 billion, going to go further i wonder if that really -- i wonder if that's a bad sign that barrons says it's going to hit a trillion that's not good news with the apple x as andrew calls it -- >> it's not -- it's not good news but i'll tell you what, the fact that over the last two or three minutes, the s&p futures rallied back unchanged on the day. good news for the broad market and also look, $269 billion. that's the number that matters to apple, particularly in 2018 with a new tax regime. that's the amount of cash that they have on their balance sheets balance sheet and if they can send all of that back to the united states and then start distributing it among their shareholders, then they might

get to a trillion dollars. >> unless she use it to buy back stock. >> oh. >> then it reduces it and doesn't get -- anyway, some day there will be a trillion dollar company. it might be nation shares. maybe not. >> might kernen shares. >> out of this world movie night. and tonight on cnbc, don't miss the premiere of "the profit" in puerto rico, we'll be right back us. it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today.

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welcome back to "squawk box. we are on the chairs this morning. nasa astronauts aboard the space station had a movie night. a screening of "star wars", one of the astro knots tweeted this photo of the fun even "star wars" is going intergalactic. >> very cool. >> something redundant about being up there watching a space movie, isn't there >> they lie down and are attached so they don't float

away. >> popcorn i don't know. >> you would think -- >> that would be all over the place, wouldn't it >> and congrats may be in order for jordan spieth, appears to be engaged to his long time girlfriend this is circulating on social media. yeah, he can afford one of those big diamonds i think he has yet to confirm the news but what else koo that be? it's christmas, big diamond. that's a finger you wear it on she looks like she's very emotional about it it says congralts. >> diamonds are forever. >> look at that. >> that's nice. >> isn't it? >> it is nice. seems like a good guy. >> yes, he does. talent as big as the -- underarmour guy. >> which plays into that whole story. >> we should mention that today marks the first day of kwanza, the week long celebration honors a different principle each day

today it's unity others include collective economics purpose and kwanza was first observed to celebrate african culture 50 years ago and continues through new year's day and culminates with feast and gift giving. >> boxing day. >> that's today. we haven't talked about that. >> that has to do with returns to, doesn't it >> as i kid i thought it was boxing. >> join andrew tomorrow. i don't know who is with you but right now -- >> we're both not here. >> "squawk on the street" is next. >> you're stuck with me. ♪ >> good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street. i'm david faber, we're live from the new york stock exchange. carl and jim have the day and the week off let's give you a look at futures right now. start tr