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tv   Squawk Alley  CNBC  November 6, 2018 11:00am-12:00pm EST

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8:00 a.m. at facebook headquarters in menlo park, california, 11:00 a.m. on wall street "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ good tuesday morning i am carl quintanilla with jon fortt. contessa brewer back with us at post 9 this election day full team coverage on midterm elections and how to best position your portfolio. bob pisani has the market covered. julia boorstin has more on facebook's election day test on manipulation, and scott cohn has a look at gubernatorial races
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across the country today we begin with bob pisani from the floor with today's action. >> hello there am i the only one that has a problem with the consensus on the election and markets overall? consensus is the house will be taken by the democrats and the senate stays with the republicans. gridlock is traditionally good for stocks, and that's true, but not clear it will be that way this time around a lot of benefits have come because we are not in gridlock environment. that's how tax cuts got through and it helped earnings there's little chance that trump tax cuts will be rolled back with a republican senate, but also a chance they'll be made permanent with a democratic house. that could be a problem or stimulus may be hard to come bias well. many believe the republicans will be concerned with a buildup in deficits which will leave little room for stimulus spending, particularly infrastructure projects that everybody wants and nobody can agree on how to pay for. if there is a slight downturn in the economy, the president will
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try to blame the federal reserve for raising rates and put the fed in a box, make it difficult for them to back down. another problem for the markets. and the democrats will certainly launch a long investigation into the president's finances trade tensions will likely continue and rates are rising ben snyder of goldman, sachs in a note to client acknowledges he knows u.s. equities performed well following midterm elections, regardless of the outcome, although this could be less likely in the current environment with less potential for fiscal policy easing this is a very different environment from november, 2017 when tax cuts were imminent. that's my point, carl. another point is remember, everybody said we're going -- tax cuts happened because we didn't have gridlock now everybody says the markets go up because we do have gridlock which is it. i think it is a problem going forward. >> good one, bob thanks. bull market is not going anywhere, despite recent correction, that's the verdict from billionaire investor, founder of fisher developments
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ken fisher who joins us in a cnbc exclusive what a treat for us, ken good to have you back. good morning >> great to be with you, thanks for having me. >> love to get your take on how you think the midterms effect everything and also the fact that we're going into midterms having wobbled a bit in advance and certainly seeing volatility spike. >> so we've had a lot of history in the past of volatility before midterms, sometimes we have it, sometimes we don't, but one of the points i always make is that we are in a unique time that's consistent with history as opposed to inconsistent with history, in that if you look at the midterm election quarter, it's been positive 87% of history of the s&p 500 if you look at the subsequent first quarter of the next year, it has been positive also 87% of history. and the second quarter of the ne second year has been positive,
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which i sometimes refer to as the 87% miracle. but if you take the three quarters together, when one of the quarters is negative as this one might be because of weakness in october, it's still been true that nine months overall has been positive, 91% of history, regardless of whether we had gridlock or not. it's really about falling uncertainty because going into a period we ask what about this, what about that, if the democrats this, and if the republicans that the outcome of midterms is falling uncertainty, markets like that. we've had a big global correction where america has done better than the rest of the world. sentiment is dour outside america and things are pretty positive >> in other words, the event happens, one fewer uncertainty for the market to juggle then we can move on to focus on
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things like what, trade and overall global growth? >> and of course there's the endless nonsense today is the beginning of the presidential campaign which is kind of unfortunate in a lot of ways we kind of sunset, sunrise, midterm elections, presidential election it is kind of a sorry state in terms of continuity of political turmoil, but the fact of the matter is leading indicators are high and rising over most of the world with a few exceptions like britain and japan where they have their own individual problems, one associated with brexit and the other continuous stupid policies, and then you've got the fact is people worry about all kinds of stuff this year there's inordinate amount of talk about flattening yield curve in america but if you go to treasury's website, you can do a historical depiction of yield curve now versus other point in time
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today's yield curve is steeper than any single year in the back half of the 1990s which was a roaring period. >> so where does that leave us when we get further into next year when indeed the 2020 presidential gear up is in full swing and i guess we've got to start worrying about things that are inevitable for the market to worry about, trade, entitlements, after first term promises, what happens with actually delivering on what the economy needs? >> well, my point has been that tariff faiears are overblown it is a total tax of all of the things proposed by any country anywhere in 2018, amount to approximately 4% of one year's global gdp growth, so it's been making mountains out of a relative molehill. but the fact is what i think we
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do is we get past the corrective period we have been in with two minor dips in the u.s. market and bigger dip overseas and move forward into continuation of the bull market that is far from a nebulent stage and far from seeing anything that would kill it. >> have you made investment picks based on prediction for the outcome of elections if the democrats win, are you expecting the fed to pull back, away from rate hikes somewhat because of slower growth or are you positioning yourself in a different way if the republicans manage to maintain their majorities in both houses? >> i've never had much confidence in central banks to engage in very intelligent monetary policy at all, i have always been a big fan of milton freedman's teachings, but the fact of the matter is i don't think they'll be different whether the democrats take the house or don't take the house. i think we'll see a continuation of the trend we have had
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throughout the back half of this bull market of leadership from big, high quality growthy companies, tech on one hand and big tech in particular, big pharma, to a lesser extent consumer staples the two big engines, health care and technology move forward i think getting past the corrective period. >> and as we get to midterms and parse results tomorrow and days that follow, how much of a risk do you think the fed poses to growth going into the december hike we think? >> i don't really think it does. i've always been of the view that what's really important is the growth of the global quantity of money and that's driven by the shape of the global yield curve while our yield curve has gotten a little flatter, it is adequately steep and the
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non-u.s. gdp weighted curve has gotten a little steeper. and in today's world and you intuitively know this, big banks can move money country to country at the push of a button faster than we can think about it, so the money flows on a global basis, not on a u.s. only basis. and i don't think the fed individually has as much power as it thinks it has or most people think it has, because we really live in this global world. >> well said definitely true. ken, going to be a fascinating night. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. and when we come back, facebook's leelection day test. a lot more "squawk alley" is ahead. i can't believe it. that grandpa's nose is performing "flight of the bumblebee?" ♪ no, you goof. i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico.
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today's midterms a big test for facebook as the company deals with election manipulation julia boorstin is live in los angeles with more on the social network efforts they're trying >> reporter: they are trying and disclosing what's going on facebook disclosed another effort to manipulate voters on the platform ahead of the election, an election that mark zuckerberg said is a test of protections facebook put in place following manipulation by russia in the 2016 elections they identified and blocked 30 facebook accounts and 85 instagram accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic
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behavior they say they're investigating whether they're linked to the russian based internet research agency this comes less than two weeks after facebook announced it found and shut down 82 pages and groups and accounts linked to iran facebook is saying typically we would be further along with our analysis before announcing anything publicly, but given that we are only one day away from important elections in the u.s., we wanted to let people know about the action we've taken and the facts as we know them today facebook is committing to transparency as well as better communication across the company with the war room as this year it doubles a security team to 20,000 facebook policies continue t draw fire, they identified a dozen ad campaigns in which energy, insurance and other industries mask the fact that they were paying for political messages facebook does require political ads to accurately represent the name of the entity or person responsible but it doesn't actually check the names that
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are listed it is not just facebook. twitter tells us it is looking for malicious accounts sharing disinformation in an automated fashion which is a violation of its policies we have to see what transpires over the course of today back over to you >> julia, thank you. and apple and amazon both rebounding after being hit hard yesterday. both down nearly 4%, single-handedly dragging the nasdaq 100 into the red for the session, but they're reversing that trend today with the index higher this morning. timothy lesco, so amazon is up 40% year to date down 13% for the month apple is up 20% year to date, down 9%. is this maybe a good thing, stocks not just heading straight up and finding equ--
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>> people are paying attention to fundamentals a little more. we are fine with the market consolidating here, particularly in technology, creating opportunities to add to positions or buy positions, but otherwise seem like they're out of touch for awhile. >> brent, you liked amazon's quarter overall, people that were hoping for lots and lots of profits and strong guidance were a bit disappointed what was the main thread through this that you think was important to pay attention to? was it aws, the overall retail momentum >> i think there's a combination of factors working in amazon's favor. the retail business continued to take share gains, commerce, you have ad business going to the quarterly run rate of 50%. you have ews, the undisputed heavy weight leader in cloud every company we work with in silicon valley is moving to aws in some form or fashion. that gives them the ability to
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experiment in retail like they did yesterday with free shipping in the u.s other retailers can't afford that so high margin businesses continue to offset lower margin businesses, and margins continue to go up, even while shipping costs and employment costs are going higher i think the big head wind, it has been the outperformance, the magnitude of 30% growth into the low 20s, and the breadth of the market is led higher by a few names. i think you're starting to see some of that come out and go into other sectors outside of technology, but ultimately we think amazon is in a great position over the long haul and there's not anything to be concerned about over that long haul short term, yes, given magnitude of the run and given the valuation, there's a little bit of pause, but we don't see any fundamental issues in the near term. >> tim, this is a cynical view
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circulating regarding hq 2 search, if they go back to what had been their two largest cities in new york and d.c., whether or not they simply played these cities to get access to data about real estate, about urban planning, things they can use for their own purpose down the road. how much weight do you put into that >> i don't put a lot of weight that they use that to get data to use in the rest of the business seems disingenuous to put out that much information to so many cities and choose two of the largest. but at the end of the day as shareholders, you want amazon to work what's in the best interest of amazon users and shareholders i think that's just people looking to try to find some chinks in the armor. >> can we talk about apple, seeing it rebound up 1%. they put forward some rather more restrained guidance for the fourth quarter going into who will ta-- holiday sales
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how concerned are you about the issues >> i am not the lead apple analyst, the tech team covers apple, we like the story i think the bigger concern from investors is just reduction of unit numbers from the forecast, but we continue to believe asp is continuing to build, services business we are bullish about what they're doing around creating an ecosystem of software that co-exists with hardware, and that will continue to keep people on the platform again, i think the issue at apple and amazon is similar. these are unbelievable stories with great fundamentals. they've obviously been the lead horses in taking the market higher with returns they've had year to date, and it is not surprising to see a bit of a pull back. i don't think anyone should be too concerned about what we are seeing across the fundamentals for either of the stories. >> tim, how are you putting the drop in apple and slight rebound in context today >> well, we have been long term
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bulls on apple, holders a long time we did not see the announcement as all that troubling. certainly less information is going to cause a concern on the street and by no longer providing unit sales i think that's going to provide a few quarters of volatility, but in the long run apple is becoming a consumer products company and a services company, and in order to do that, they need to stop focusing so much on iphone and focus on the rest of the businesses so long term bullish, pull back in stock gives you an opportunity if you didn't already own it to add or build on them, and still the stock is up 20% year to date, and trading at a discount to the market. it is not exactly priced to perfection at this point >> and back to amazon as we close, what do you think they have to do in cloud to maintain, protect their lead they have the re-invent conference at the end of the month. you have microsoft trying to do an open data initiative which
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could squarely threaten them you've got google and others trying to make a move. what does amazon have to do partnership wise or acquisition wise to firm up their position cloud. >> they've dominated in the infrastructure ias segment of the cloud. they haven't moved into platform as a service or applications or software the global software service is over $300 billion. they're a small fraction of that market we think over time amazon goes into applications, move upstream, push harder into security there's going to be a number of initiatives we think will shock the market over a period of time it is hard to understand when. but if you look at the share they have among the software industry, it is still small. 75% of companies move to cloud, but only 10% have work loads there today. we have a long ways to go, even in the long way of that
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infrastructure layer, we think they'll keep moving up in the application layer over a period of time. we don't think they have to do that today, right now. again, their overall shares of cloud market are still very small. there's a lot of runway. we do not see microsoft or google catching them >> i'm sure microsoft and google would have something to say about that, but point taken. thanks coming up, a tale of two cities why amazon is reportedly splitting the hq project. and look at wti. it is down 1.77% on the day, the lowest level since april more "squawk alley" after the break.
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good morning welcome to "squawk alley." look at shares of semantic,
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spiking 20% after being halted reuters reports that a private equity firm approached them about possible acquisition, sending other players in the space higher look at shares of fireeye higher on the session carl against the backdrop of the midterms, two interesting stories to get on as states try to attract business investment amazon hq 2, and foxconn facility in wisconsin. amazon is reportedly picking two locations, crystal city, virginia, and long island city, new york courtney reagan has more on the decision to split that project hey, court >> reporter: good morning, carl. here we are in long island city, new york according to "new york times," it is one of two locations amazon has chosen for its hq 2, the other is crystal city in northern virginia. now, new york city we know was on the final 20 list, but beyond
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that, amazon declined to comment other than saying we will know the final decision by the end of the year the company looking for a total of 500,000 square feet of office space for a total of 50,000 employees, plans to spend $5 billion over two decades on that endeavor this western part of queens is one subway stop from new york city it has a diverse population of 61,000, but employees could easily get here from both long island and manhattan the employment rate in new york city is 4%, slightly above the national average the "new york times" cites sources that amazon executives met with andrew cuomo two weeks ago, separately spoke with the mayor, bill de blasio. "new york times" says governor cuomo said to reporters i am doing everything we can.
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i would change my name to amazon cuomo if that's what it takes. incentive packages are certainly part of the decision, so are things like availability of employees. the cost of living transportation we know this area of the country is quite expensive while we have an extensive public transportation system, including ferries to manhattan and subways, the governor has declared a state of emergency for the new york city subway another question amazon may be asking is what about regulation, new york is known for a lot of red tape that could make some things harder, so they may be looking for some assurances to lower the barriers we will have a decision in a couple of weeks. >> i had no idea this is what we've come to, naming rights for governors. maybe it is the trend of the future courtney, thank you for that. meantime, 36 states will choose governors in the midterm elections with republicans having the most to lose. currently holding nearly 75% of the gubernatorial seats. scott cohn is in battleground
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state georgia with more on the races. what are you seeing, scott >> reporter: well, a relative lull in dekalb county polling station. there was a line, but a lot of early voting this is the home of one of the most closely, bitterly fought governor races in the country. republican secretary of state brian kemp just in the last few days, leveling allegations that the democrats were trying to hack into voter registration systems in the state, the democrats denying that former state legislator stacey abrams accusing kemp who runs the election apparatus of voter suppression. but the candidates are also talking business competitiveness issues in america's number seven state for business, based on our 2018 rankings. kemp saying he will take a chain saw to regulations stacey abrams who would be the first african-american female governor saying this would be a way to make the state market it as an inclusive state, an area where they lose points in the
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study. of the ten top states for business, five states with republican governors, five states with democratic governors. and take a look at the map there are 36 states choosing governors tonight. of those states, 26 governed by republicans. republicans have the most to lose, but democrats have an up hill climb the head of both parties' gubernatorial committees say they're going into this with what they hope is a winning message. >> what we talked about is let's look at the results. what states are best rated as a place to invest, best educational outcomes >> we're going to restore democracy and jobs in america, get people health care that's a winning message that's what we're going to do tonight. >> in addition to the 36 governorships, 6,000 plus legislative seats, 160 statewide ballot initiatives, and $76 billion in state and local bond issues the most in more than ten years. guys >> scott, so many eyeballs on
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the georgia race if neither kemp nor abrams get 50%, we go to a december runoff? >> that's right. this may not be over yet it is shaping up to be a very tight race that could be what happens this battle is not necessarily over yet >> scott, i wanted to ask you about another race, wisconsin, where scott walker is in a tight, competitive race to win re-election. "the wall street journal" has a story out that foxconn may have to bring over workers from china to fill its factory in racine county, wisconsin. this is a situation where walker had claimed this, it was supposed to be the legacy and something that he could brag about and win re-election and instead he is barely mentioning it he is cho environmentalists are pushing back looks like nonpartisan legislative fiscal bureau in wisconsin says it will take
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until 2045 for taxpayers to recoup the investment. how much is this playing a role in thegovernor's race in wisconsin? >> reporter: it is playing a big role, contessa, not the role that scott walker envisioned when this was first unveiled i was just in wisconsin last week listening to the final arguments in the campaign ads. the democrat is talking about foxconn. scott walker is not. the subsidies, $3 billion going in were a record, now told it is closer to $4 billion, and there's a worker shortage in wisconsin that we talked about so it is definitely an issue it is a very tight race. evers is using what is supposed to be a big feather in scott walker's cap against him >> so it sounds like he's not changing his name to foxconn anytime soon >> reporter: if he was, he's not doing it now, at least he's putting it off for the time being. >> good to have you on the
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ground, scott, as always scott cohn watching the gubernatorial races in georgia let's get to sue herera for a news update. good morning, sue. >> good morning, carl. good morning, everyone here is what's happening at this hour hundreds of distraught relatives of those that lost their lives in last week's lion air crash were taken to the site of the accident they sprinkled flowers into the water and paid their respects. experts received nearly 140 body bags of human remains. they identified 14 victims so far. the crash killed all 189 people on board spanish rescue workers are searching the seas and shores of southern spain for 17 missing migrants this comes a day after they found the bodies of more than a dozen others that died trying to cross the mediterranean from north africa. closing arguments taking place in the ponzi scheme trial of radio personality craig carton, he is accused of making false statements to trick investors into putting more than $4 million in his ticket resale
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business. and you can skip the cooking this thanksgiving apparently, pringle's is bringing back three favorites from yesterday's holiday meal in a can. turkey stuffing, pumpkin pie you can only buy them online and for a limited time i don't know it doesn't appeal to me, but that's me. i bet it's delicious i don't know back to you guys >> trying to remember if pri pringle's is a proctor brand >> it has changed. european markets just closed let's get to seema mody for today's action. >> john, european markets struggling to gain ground as investors await outcome of the u.s. elections later this evening. in terms of sectors, basic resources among the worst performing groups amid a sharp drop in oil prices in the last hour, down more than 1%. the midterms are adding to a list of political risk factors
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faced by european investors, chief among them, concerns around italy's budget. one of the top officials is saying that the eu could impose sanctions against italy as a last resort if the country's budget plan does not change. meantime, the italian bond deals continue to rise again, now 3.4% highest level since march of 2014 another concern for investors, earnings growth. according to analysts, 187 european companies in the stock 600 reported of those, 48.7% reported results that exceed analyst expectations, not as strong as the historical average of 50%. that's given some investors pause. finally, in the russian economy, the oil giant rosneft jumping after seeing profits jump 250%, thanks in large part due to
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higher oil prices last quarter and weaker ruble on pace for the best day since april. >> thank you very much. watching the major averages, holding in a pattern dow up 90 points vix is above 20. oil is down almost a buck and a half lowest since april down for seven straight ys 're back in a minute doing here? we've been helping you prepare and invest for retirement since day one. why would we leave now? because i'm retired now. so? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement... with solutions to help provide income throughout. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that, uh, tie. or the suit. or the shirt. voya. helping you to and through retirement.
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wall street braces for election results. despite seeing a rally after a midterm, some worry a democratic sweep may put pressure on the markets. joining us with more, andrew slimen, senior portfolio manager, and keith parker, head of equity strategy give me a sense how you put midterms in perspectives for those you manage >> i mean, it is fascinating value stocks are very cheap now, relative to the market and growth last time they got this cheap was february of 2016 and in summer of 2011, and both times that turned out to be tremendously good opportunity by value stocks they did very well as you sit here today, the political pundits, i am a portfolio manager, political pundits say the high school goes towards the democrats, that would help grow stocks relative to value, but value is already
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down a lot relative to growth, so it seems to me if there's a surprise today, it would be in favor of value stocks if the republicans -- but you need a catalyst, a shot of tequila. that's the kind of thing that today would cause a reversal for financials and value stocks that are cheap. >> i had no idea a shot of tequila was a catalyst, but that's the way i'm going to see it from here on out. keith, let me ask you, if you look at what the odds are, you have 538 saying there's 85% the democrats take the house do you see that as break on growth or a break on the fed raising rates or maybe none of the above? >> yeah, i think the democrats taking the house and republicans keeping the senate is largely an expectation. first and foremost, takes a key risk off the table for the market that's been volatile, which is a potential democratic
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sweep and how the market digests that in terms of growth, we are at a phase of the cycle, things like tech and health care should be doing well we have seen quite a bit of that unwinding the tech sector. as it was just pointed out, we have seen value stocks, financials, energy, material, semis de-rate quite a bit. our view is stay long through the who will taye periholiday p around earnings and after risk events. >> on the national level, why does this even matter to the markets? even if the democrats were to take both houses, they wouldn't have a veto proof majority trump is still president isn't it more of an issue at the state level and local level as far as regulations and business conditions are concerned >> i totally agree you're dead on right i think they will not reverse
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policies that trump has put in place to get the economy going and therefore i completely agree, i don't see this as cause for concern for the market regardless of the outcome. you're dead on right >> keith, although others point to passage of nafta 2.0, debt ceiling ramifications, others argue that dems taking the house is not just status quo >> it is potentially a shift in the backdrop when you have 2% of gdp stimulus as just mentioned that's working its way through the economy. i think that's still a general positive i think the shift in dynamics to gridlock is in some ways, gridlock is good, it takes away the threat of spikes and issuance, but on the other hand it does increase negotiating dynamics around key debt ceiling points in time
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but again, the framework for us is that fiscal part is passed, it is working through the economy, and as was mentioned, state and local backdrop is one where revenues are increasing by quite a bit and they're spending it so the debate of infrastructure spending from the federal level is overlooking a key driver at the state and local level which is growing healthily right now >> gentlemen, thank you both for weighing in. >> thank you >> thank you. coming up. more on the midterms and your money. how you, the investor, should be positioning your portfolio hi, my name is sam davis and i'm going to tell you about exciting plans available to anyone with medicare. many plans provide broad coverage and still may
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i am scott walker. here's what's coming up top of the hour your money, your vote, your play book we set you up for what happens after election day, debating if stocks can make a run to year's end. and the stocks in the call of the day up 100% over the past year time to take money off the table or buy into the rally? and unusual activity again in a stock the options market says is about to make a big move all coming up at noon. about 15 minutes away, jon >> good show, scott. thanks see you then let's get to the cme, rick santelli has the santelli exchange rick >> thanks, jon there's a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace. we at cnbc and our guests talk of it all the time sometimes there's really big
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what ifs we need to concentrate on most. the biggest what if is if wages push higher than productivity, that's a biggie. on friday's report, saw year over year wages up 3.1%, i had on the former chairman of the council of economic advisers under george w. bush, and he framed it in that regard wages moving up is a great thing as long as productivity keeps up with it. the problem is that if we continue to get good wage numbers in the future, it is not what if. many investors trade it as though it will it will push higher than productivity because produck tift - productivity takes time to get the metrics right. i think that's a big deal. it presents both an issue that will price something not as accurately as they could but also afford investors a wonderful opportunity. the other what if is similar, it has to do with central banking
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and our fed and that is what if the fed continues to raise rates or normalizing, removing stimulus, because in my opinion they are the antagonist now with regard to the economy. and i don't think that's quite right. certainly they may be moving a little faster than many would like, but there's a good reason for that, because their predecessors moved too slowly, and their counter parts are hardly moving at all, although there needs to be an asterisk there, whether europe or japan, they're starting to get the idea, and when their capital is mispriced because of their monetary policy, they will pay a price. finally, it is election day. i don't want to weigh in on politics i only like to weigh in on markets when politics weigh into the scenario of pricing. one thing i think i would like to say, that is there have been big global movements that many don't seem to pay much attention to as they should. many issues seem like they're n intrinsic to the u.s
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they're not. whether it is tea party, brexit, what's going on in italy, to me that raw nerve is the collective versus the individual. and you can frame it any way you want you can think about which party you think represents which philosophy, but in the end people are looking inward, they're not so enamoured with globalization, and don't underestimate how that will play into this election as well contessa, back to you. >> got it. i got it loud and clear rick santelli. thank you. when we return, is this marijuana's moment cannabis issues making their mark on midterm ballots this morning with four states set to vote on different levels of legalization after the break, how pot stocks will be effected stay with us
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welcome back to "squawk alley. i'm jackie deangelis you can see wti approaching a 3% decline on the session today, trading right now at 61.47 wti from its october 3rd intraday high in bear market territory. increased pressure coming after u.s. sanctions on iran went into effect the market thinking it's a nonevent for the moment in terms of the supply/demand balance carl thank you very much. pot stocks, as you know, have gotten hammered in the last month. today's election results could be a turning point, though, for the sector with four states set to vote on different levels of
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legalization joining us with the midterm's impact on marijuana is senior research analyst at cowan and our aditi roy as well. i appreciate your time vivian, no matter what happens tonight, has been talk of changes in the cabinet it's hard to imagine the replacement being more hostile to cannabis. so is that bullish for these names? >> oh, well certainly i think your assessment is correct on attorney general sessions. as we think about changes in the cabinet, i don't view that as quite as impactful as what the voters can do. >> what are you expecting on that front >> the outlook, as you mentioned, there are four ballot initiatives. the one is michigan on average that's been polling 55% favorable and that's for adult use.
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north dakota also has an adult use ballot we have two on medical use as well missouri, they have three different ballot initiatives and then in utah that one seems likely and then aside from that local politicians have all but agreed to legalize medical cannabis rega regardless of the ballot >> what is destigmatizing pot doing? you have two candidates in washington state who own dispensaries and will be the first pot selling politicians if they win their elections what does it do for the movement >> you have john boehner, the former speaker of the house, who is now a member at acreage holdings, the former prime minister of canada also a board member there so it is incredible. right now about two out of three
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americans now support it that's weighing heavily. you mentioned jeff sessions but there's another race in texas, the other sessions he's actually in a really embattled house congressional district, pete sessions, and he's blocked a ton of marijuana reform bills in congress, so that could be a key vote people are also looking at a number of house races going back to those ballot initiatives, michigan, i know vivien was mentioning this, one a lot of companies especially are looking at that would be the first state in the midwest to legalize medical marijuana and it would be important in terms of the cross border traffic when you think of the implications of that being a tipping point in the region huge implications there >> at first it was california,
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colorado, washington state but now use utah granted it's for medical use not recreational you're not allowed to grow it but how much of a cultural shift does it signal that utah is even talking about doing anything with marijuana marijuana at all? >> it's incredibly meaningful. for medical use, there's over 90% support in the u.s >> and what about in florida where they are saying we should throw out all the criminalization of marijuana he's doing it in terms of the justice system and getting people out of jail but there are a lot of people who live in florida. it accounts for about 5% of u.s. gdp. vivien >> absolutely. while gillam is polling well, it will come down to the position of the state legislature which
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is why we're more constructive on illinois. he's been running on adult use in illinois. >> fascinating a lot of issues at stake and not just on national races we'll see you soon the dow is up 109. oil continues to be a story officially in a bear market down 20% from the october high of 7690 back in a minute
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there's a look at crude, as we said before the break officially down 20% from the october highs. 61.48. discussing the possibility of $80 or $100 a barrel >> quite a move there. also watching a few other things, booking is up on earnings not everything is positive >> no, marriott is down. >> ibm has rebounded since that red hat announcement up 2% this
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morning. up 122 >> one of the more insider buys, bought her own funds hasn't done as well for ge and larry culp's purchase. let's get to "the half." i'm scott wapner stocks are higher as america heads to the polls, but what happens to the markets after the votes are counted? will gridlock, if that is the outcome, be good for your money? it is noon and this is "the halftime report. the election day market impact is high on the agenda but so is another kind of leadership -- sector leadership. if the biggest sector in the market, tech, can't take us higher, are we range bound until further notice plus, a big upgrade for a stock traders love to trade. how do you play square "the halftime report" starts right now.

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