it is 8:00 a.m. at susan's garage in menlo park it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ but i still haven't found wha i'm looking for ♪ ♪ but i still haven't found wha i'm looking for ♪ ♪ good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla

obviously a busy morning full of trade and tech news, jon. >> indeed. i can take no blame or responsibility for those headlines, but many of them clever all about google that's where we're going to start at both larry page and sergey brin step down from their operating roles at the company's parent action alphabet, needing both chief executive roles to be filled kara swisher joins us now on the phone. kara, i was just talking about this last hour in a way this just smells fishy to me if you're a shareholder looking at the precedent this sets these guys are young, 46 i don't know that we've had any precedent for a tech company, a giant of this size, a controlled company, where the founders say, hey, we still want absolute say over what happens, we just don't want an operating role or to be chairman of the company. have we seen this before, kara >> well, in little places.

the founder of ebay left the company and put it in the hands of meg whitman and it was a significant company at the time and he went off and did a whole bunch of things and still was quite involved and the biggest shareholder. you know, bill gates left the company. at one point he was not that much older but he was slightly older. >> but those weren't controlled companies. >> right, 100% i got that. >> and bill gates was in his 50s. he only stepped down as chairman a little over five years ago. >> got it. i wrote about this last week in "the new york times. but you're right they announced this we're leaving, good-bye, and yet they still holds the keys to the house, the keys to the car and credit cards and everything else that's what's really interesting here how do you operate as the top executive at a company when the real power resides in the founders still so how much interest are they

going to have in it, how much time are they going to spend, how irritating they are going to be, how they conduct themselves. that's all tbd going forward but they certainly have the ability to do whatever they want, as always >> does this represent, you think, a longer leash for sendar pichai? if you're going to fix some of the cultural challenges that google faces, there are a number of employees who have a perspective they're putting forth, that's not what management has been willing to embrace up to this point, does he have a longer leash to do those things without checking in with larry and sergey, or are they going to have to okay all the major things that he does? >> it's undetermined, right? he certainly -- they certainly have the ability this is the whole idea is the accountability there is no -- the buck doesn't

quite stop at sundar pichai. he has all the responsibility but not the same power they do they may go off and do their floating cars or their elliptical bicycles or other projects which they have been doing already. by the way, they have not been involved in day-to-day management for a very long time, even though they hold those titles and sundar has been running the two most critical parts of google so he's inheritinheri inheriting other parts along with the title and the status. to make real changes at google, you need a ceo who is accountable to a board essentially. that's how most companies work we'll see how this works through. they may just be very quiet and in the background or very active at certain times. >> some of those changes will arguably have to be to the culture itself, given what we've seen with some of the unrest, protests, pushback, criticism from employees within the

company. how would you expect that to play out under sundar pichai as the top of the company >> he's been running the key parts of this company, youtube and google everything else is just something else these are all sort of hobbies, as many people call them, whether it's the drone stuff or the internet balloons or even the android stuff, although it's critically important as part of their advertising business but in general he's already been doing that this is a culture that still even though he's been running it, this is a culture built by larry and sergey and that's why they're so outspoken that's why these employees feel a lot of agency. so the question is how do you manage that and how do you make significant changes necessary? i would argue he has made a lot of them. he was the one, sundar was the one who really did start clamping down at the sexual harassment issues inside google that were sort of i wouldn't say

they ignored them, but pretty much ignored them. sundar moade moves in those areas. quietly but he did that. so the question is what is his vision for the company and will he be allowed to put a stamp on it the way microsoft is doing that or tim cook at apple. >> is he as passionate as the so-called other bets as page and brin are >> no, i don't think so. i think he is passionate about quantum computing. he's got a great big interest in that and should, it's really the future of computing and where the future of google is going. he's certainly interested in that and i think that's appropriate for him to be interested in. i think he doesn't want to -- i don't know, i don't think he wants to do shpaceships to the moon or giant reflective balloons i don't think he wants to create giant windmills. there's all kinds of schemes at google going on for years and years, he's really -- he started

as a product manager he's very earnest. he's very soft spoken and yet has a real point of view and a real intellect so i think he's more going to be a good surprise for people in that regard in terms of putting his head down and doing the work you're not going to see a lot of flashiness from him. >> while we've got you, kara, reuters has this exclusive on facebook saying that instagram is going to start requiring birth dates from new users to protect minors as they expand alcohol advertisements that does sound like a new chapter in instagram's history. >> okay. okay i mean, you know, the issue is who's using these products any product that kids get near, and a lot of kids like to use instagram. i don't think there's a whole lot of checking going on if they're going to start selling that kind of stuff, they can't get dragged into like a

juul-like problem. they're not selling actual product but they're selling advertising for alcohol so they'll have to get much more stringent on kids under i think it's 13 or something. >> yes. >> in terms of who gets it if they're selling liquor, who is 21 that sees these ads, how are they going to know and do you really want to give your birthday to facebook? those are some important information you might not want to share so i think it's going to be -- that's a really interesting thing, i didn't know that. >> yeah. just pick january 1st and maybe your birth year. that's what i say. everybody seems to be lying on instagram as a rule. as you said, we'll see how that works out. kara, thanks for being with us. >> thanks so much. let's get back to markets this morning stocks are rebounding after yesterday's sell-off the dow is coming off the worst day in nearly two months, currently up 193

joining us is paul christopher and nancy tengler. good morning, guys, good to see you both. >> good morning. >> good morning, carl. >> nancy, we can do the normal dance where are we going to get a deal or not going to get a deal but you have adp at 67k and some of the internals of ism services going back a couple of years the lowest print is the trade war as it stands right now starting to have infect the broader economy >> i certainly think it is and i think the president is well aware of that. i gave an interview yesterday where i said this is how he does it it's uncomfortable for the rest of the world but we've got a deal, we don't it switches day-to-day and the market is generally looking out longer term. the services numbers and the jobs numbers are a little disappedi disappointing but that said the consumer is uber healthy with

strong savings rate, affordable housing, cheap gas so we continue to be constructive on the markets. >> paul, that is all true, although it doesn't explain why analysts are cutting their q4 numbers at the fastest rate in a couple of years. >> yeah, q4 is getting cut, but i'm more interested and we're more interested in what's going on for 2020. we think those numbers are still a little too high as well. but even again if you cut those numbers you'll still get a reasonable mid-single digit return next year from the s&p 500. that's not bad in an environment like we're in right now. >> nancy, how healthy do christmas season retail sales have to be to perpetuate this story about the healthy consumer and sentiment being so strong? >> well, that's the rub, right because the numbers so far look extraordinary, especially online we have exited some of the names that we were buying a year ago

like costco just because valuations have priced in all of the good news. so we think there's still some opportunity there and retail sales are slowing for sure from the first half of this year, but we'll remain at fairly high levels that's what the market is looking at you know, earnings are being cut, that's kind of old news now. we're looking forward. i don't expect a robust earnings year but i don't expect a bust either the revenue numbers are still pretty good for most of corporate america. >> paul, we're still lower on the week so far for the s&p, but we've already regained all of the losses from yesterday. the broader market is up something like 24% year to day valuation here, are we still stretched or does this make sense to you >> with interest rates this low, valuations, you have to give them a little more room to move to the upside. we don't think they're stretched and we do think there will be even with modest earnings growth

next year and reasonable, we think, valuations, you could still get to a 3250 on the s&p by year end. >> all right, guys we'll watch it obviously the headlines, you never know what you'll wake up to in the morning. paul, nancy, thanks, guys. >> thank you. >> thank you. another executive shakeup to get to this morning. take a look at shares of expedia. both the ceo and cfo out over disagreements over the company strategy that stock is currently up 6.5%. ate latest on those changes the top, next. "squawk alley" back in a moment. and, when you open a new fidelity brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate -- that's 21 times more than schwab's. plus, fidelity's leading price improvement on trades saved investors hundreds of millions of dollars last year. that's why fidelity continues to lead the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk fidelity.

welcome back to "squawk alley. major changes at the top for expedia this morning both the ceo and cfo are out stocks rallying on the news. seema mody has the latest. >> barry diller ousting the ceo and cfo this morning after a clash with the board in an internal memo shared with employees. diller said the board made this change to expedia's leadership because we disagreed on strategy with the departing senior executives that necessitated a change in management the longer term strategy will be determined i spoke with a top shareholder who said the management change was unfortunate but a step in the right direction. okerstrom was appointed in

august since then shares of expedia have fallen over 25% after reporting disappointing third quarter earnings last month the street was growing concerned about expedia's rebranding efforts the key challenges, how to better compete with google's aggressive push into travel while also finding other channels to drive foot traffic plus how to grow its share in the short-term rental market with vrbo as airbnb prepares to go public next year. a town hall is scheduled december 19th where more details on who will lead the company will likely be revealed. some analysts saying back was a time when expedia should have conducted a management search. they appointed the cfo who

worked closely with dara now okerstrom is ousted and we'll see who takes the helm of this company who faces competition from google as well. >> seema, thank you. and still to come, first it was physical bookstore disruption now, well, it's data centers more from my interview with amazon's cloud chief right after this quick break and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. i'm running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is: a fraud and a failure. about medicare and 65, ysupplemental insurance.

medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything - only about 80% of your part b medicare costs, which means you may have to pay for the rest. that's where medicare supplement insurance comes in: to help pay for some of what medicare doesn't. learn how an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by united healthcare insurance company might be the right choice for you. a free decision guide is a great place to start. call today to request yours. so what makes an aarp medicare supplement plan unique? well, these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp and that's because they meet aarp's high standards of quality and service. you're also getting the great features that any medicare supplement plan provides. for example, with any medicare supplement plan you may choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you can even visit a specialist. with this type of plan, there are no networks

or referrals needed. also, a medicare supplement plan goes with you when you travel anywhere in the u.s. a free decision guide will provide a breakdown of aarp medicare supplement plans, and help you determine the plan that works best for your needs and budget. call today to request yours. let's recap. there are 3 key things you should keep in mind. one: if you're turning 65, you may be eligible for medicare - but it only covers about 80% of your medicare part b costs. a medicare supplement plan may help pay for some of the rest. two: this type of plan allows you to keep your doctor - as long as he or she accepts medicare patients. and three: these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. learn more about why you should choose an aarp medicare supplement plan. call today for a free guide.

remember when amazon basically iced physical bookstores and recently introduced its own version well, look what the cloud giant is doing with local data centereds. i spoke with andy jassey to discuss how aws local zones are a new step in the company's digital push take a listen. >> we have regions that we

consider multiple availability zones in data centers in about 25 places all over the world so we've had them in cities all over the world i think part of what we're thinking about is that many major metro cities would like to have some amount of local aws presence for the workloads that just can't afford the latency of the round trip to our public regions. so we're trying to build it in a way that works for customers and also makes economic sense for us this local region is a very innovative new concept people are excited about and i think you'll expect we'll build more local zones over time. >> it's like data centers with aws equipment closer to the customer i also asked about the hq2 process, the lessons learned from its failure to get what it wanted in new york city. >> i don't know if it's so much of a change of approach. i think that we were excited about both virginia and new york

and we approached them relatively similarly you know, with some subtlies and nuances in the different cities. they just had different reactions. you know, there was -- i think there was some things that changed, you know, from the time that we made the decision to the time that we announced it in new york that made it harder to be there. if you're going to do something like build the second headquarters, which takes a lot of effort and time, if you're in a place where it feels like the community isn't as excited about you being there, you're better off starting in a positive spot. >> they are still growing in new york, though finally, verizon's ceo also joined me at reinvent speaking not only about verizon's partnership with aws for a new service called wavelength to reduce latency, but also about the importance of collaboration as we head into the 5g era >> you need to collaborate in

the area of 5g to give low latency. you need to collaborate with the cloud players in order to bring that to the market so it's a totally new way for verizon because we need to develop our things differently and collaborate differently. but the network of service, the best network, best distribution and best brand that's why we want to work with aws and did disney plus and apple music. we work in the best areas where we think we are adding 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 3. >> so common thread, taking aws equipment not sitting in a far-flung amazon data center but putting it close to the customer in the wavelength case, to allow things like ar gaming with low latency over wireless, but it's an interesting approach because it breaks what a lot of people thought were the rules of the

cloud. all you need is those servers and that equipment over there. no, actually it's closer. >> did you guys talk about project kiper at all that's their proposed broadband internet satellite constellation? it seems like the company and jassy are thinking outside of the box and looking at ways that they can continue to expand that connectivity and their reach. >> there's a lot that we didn't talk about that i wish we had. >> there's so much to talk about. >> including arm-based servers that they're offering with really high performance at a low energy cost. that -- a lot of people, analysts like pat moorhead are saying is a potential ground-breaker for the industry. we had 40 minutes so maybe i don't have any excuse. but there's so much you can talk about. >> we started talking about the changes in the c suite over at alphabet do you think it might portend

more of a race on cloud when it comes to google versus amazon? >> i think there's already a race on -- i've been talking to google cloud about that specifically the way they're beefing up their sales force, probably not unrelated. i did talk to jassy about that it's going to have an impact on margins. he's got to do it because google cloud is spending more, microsoft is spending more they want those feet on the streets. >> that was one of cramer's key points this morning. when we come back, what lies adhat.for pichai as the new he the market is u up 188 on the dow. woman: my reputation was trashed online.

i felt completely helpless. my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555.

the amount of student loan debt i have, i'm embarrassed to even say. we just decided we didn't want debt any longer. ♪ i didn't realize how easy investing could be. i'm picking companies that i believe in. ♪ i think sofi money is amazing. ♪ thank you sofi.

sofi thank you, we love you. ♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm sue herera here's your cnbc news update at this hour. the house judiciary committee is moving swiftly to weigh findings by fellow lawmakers that president trump misused the power of his office for personal political gain and obstructed congress' investigation. >> this is the first hearing we are conducting pursuant to house resolution 660 under special judiciary committee procedures that are described in section 4a of that resolution iranian president rouhani

says that he is ready for talks with the u.s. in a multilateral framework if washington lifts sanctions. the comments were broadcast on state tv he called the sanctions wrong, unfair, illegal, and terrorist and a painting by french impressionist painter paul gogan sold for $10.5 million at auction on tuesday that smashes the estimate of $5.5 million the painting depicts a stream with birds and flowers and was painted in 1897 while gogan was living in tahiti and it's an amazing piece of art. that is the news update this hour back downtown to carl. >> sue, thanks very much. the attention turns to sundar pichai who's in charge now of alphabet and google. >> good morning.

he is the solid, reliable choice and has essentially already been running the company, at least all of its core businesses for the last few years as larry page disappears from sight. i know you've been talking about this he's been skipping earnings calls, media appearances and sending pichai to washington in his place. the big question is pichai the mild mannered engineer turned manage up for a fight. can he take alphabet into the next decade? regulatory challenges here and in europe are mounting employee activism is on the rise and privacy practices are under fire just to name a few. we have had glimpses of him in this role. last year in questioning he was evasive on some of the most controversial issues like china and data privacy he's quietly made changes to google's culture reducing the frea frequency of all hands meetings. still he is relatively untested

when it comes to the type of battles that certainly other big tech ceos like zuckerberg and cook have been fighting. next year is an election year with no shortage of opportunities for missteps there's also, guys, the key issue of control while pichai gets the title, larry page and sergey brin are still alphabet's biggest individual shareholders and still retain all actual control through their majority voting power. do they still have the accountability now under this new structure? also if page and brin don't like what he does with the moonshot projects that they have developed and he oversees, they can always get a new ceo back to you. >> thank you. trade war whiplash in the markets meantime as the major averages are higher today, snapping a three-day slump the u.s. and china are said to be making progress on a deal that's fueling the gains semi conductors have been caught in the trade war's crossfire

stocks are now 3% off their record highs and on pace to post their best in a decade we're joined by t.j. rogers. t.j., great to see you today. >> good morning. >> so in general, semi conductor stocks, it's up over 66% from last christmas eve to the high that we hit for that etf in mid-november the numbers haven't necessarily been that strong, though the gains we've seen in the stocks, does that make sense >> yeah. the overriding thing about semi conductors is moore's law. in 2018, the last year for which we have numbers, the market was $474 billion, with a b when i started in chips, it was $30 billion. so basically there's little bounces on a curve that just keeps going like that. >> this week we got reports that said huawei is making a

smartphone without american chips. do you think it's appropriate to say that we are seeing this decoupling between the u.s. and china in terms of tech and would an actual trade deal change that? >> there is a decoupling it was initiated by the chinese several years ago. they use about 33% of the chips made in the world and the americans make about 42% of the chips in the world so there's an imbalance. we ship a lot more to them than they ship to us and they declared as an official five-year plan they were going to become self-sufficient in chips. so this phone is what i would call a demonstration vehicle it's not economically significant, moving in that direction. >> so the key point here being this was happening even before the u.s. started cracking down on huawei? >> absolutely. they announced it. as a matter of fact, one of the reasons we cracked down was in reciprocation. >> t.j., there's been a lot of action in arm-based systems this

year microsoft announced a surface pro x. then this week aws announced aws graviton 2 for computing are we at a turning point where arm-based systems are going to challenge intel in a way that they haven't in the past >> they're important acorn risk machines, a.r.m., an english company that makes generic processors they're all in a computer. when you buy them, you buy code. you can turn that into a chip of your design and fab. they become more and more sophisticated over time. their biggest chips are starting to nudge into intel land i won't say they're at parity with intel, but they matter.

if you don't have intel's apparatus for designing chips, they're a viable option for you. >> as we head into another decade, we talk so much about 5g coming, some of the things that have happened, some of the breakthroughs that have happened in quantum computing and a.i i realize a lot of these intersect. but what do you see as the big trends that will mark and shape the coming years >> i think the curve i described before, which i'll label the moore's law curve, the things taking us to half a trillion dollars, that curve is going to slow down. we're using electronics more and more in everything, but we don't need the super small line with super high performance chips for almost everything we do. so i think this is not in the next few years for sure, but i think over the next decade or two, that curve is not going to stop growing, but it's going to flatten out. the reason it's going to

continue to grow, for example, is it used to be a car had no transistors in it and now there are 100 microcontrollers or more in every modern vehicle. a computer with analog ios on it so growth is going to continue, rate will slow down, i think >> all right, t.j., thank you for joining us today. >> you're welcome. after the break, elon musk arriving at court just moments ago. we've got a live report from the ayitus, xtne st wh

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 save you money on monthly premiums and prescription drugs. with original medicare, you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits, but you have to meet a deductible for each and then you're still responsible for 20% of the cost. next, let's look at a medicare supplement plan. as you can see, they cover the same things as original medicare and they also cover your medicare deductibles and co-insurance. but they often have higher monthly premiums and no prescription drug coverage. now, let's take a look at humana's medicare advantage plans. with a humana medicare plan, hospital stays, doctor office visits and medicare deductibles are covered. and, of

course, most humana medicare advantage plans include prescription drug coverage. in fact, in 2018, humana medicare advantage prescription drug plan members saved an estimated $7400, on average, on their prescription costs. most humana medicare advantage plans help you stay active and keep fit by including a silver sneakers fitness program at no extra cost. and, you may be able to save on dental and vision expenses, because coverage is now included with most humana medicare advantage plans. you get all this coverage for as low as a zero dollar monthly plan premium in many areas. and your doctor and hospital may already be a part of humana's large network. if you want the facts, call right now for the free decision guide from humana. there is no obligation, so call the number on your screen right now to see if your doctor is in our network; to find out if you

can save on your prescriptions and to get our free decision guide. licensed humana sales agents are standing by, so call now. here's what's coming up on "the halftime report." jim cramer is with us live for the hour as we debate where stocks can go in this year's final stretch. plus apple squashed by one wall street firm today our investment committee on whether it is time to worry about shares after a great year. and the stock callen calls his best for 2020. we'll debate the at noon we're about 20 away. jon, we'll see you in a few. day two of the defamation case against elon musk is under way. he arrived just moments ago and jane wells is outside the l.a. courthouse now with the latest jane. >> reporter: hi, jon he'll take the stand as soon as court resumes at the top of the hour and we have that video of him arriving

now musk yesterday on the stand apologized again to vernon but he would not testify whether or not he thinks vernon is a pedophile. he says he just doesn't know him and that pedo guy tweet is really the case here was it an insult, was it a false statement of fact. musk said unsworth started this war of words saying he can stick that submarine where it hurts. musk says his pedo guy tweet was an insult in response. he said i was hurt and insulted. i lit raem did not think he wanted to sodomize me with a submarine and i literally did not mean to call him a pedophile. well, the jury will have to decide it and decide musk's state of mind. after the tweet he hired a private investigator who looked into unsworth who turned out to be a con man he also sent an email to buzzfeed saying unsworth could be a child rapist.

did he take reasonable care before making those statements, before making that tweet to see if it was true the judge told them to cut the repate and when musk was asked by his own attorney about his childhood in africa, he paused a long time and said in a very emotional voice, it wasn't good. musk was not here for jury selection, he was not here for opening statements, he only took the stand when called as a witness. given that spacex is about to launch a rocket in the next hour, one can presume once he's done, he is out of here. >> jane, the investigator, the fact that he hired an investigator and sent an email that was technically off the record but still published by buzzfeed, how much of that will actually make its way into the courtroom. >> reporter: all of it right now. >> okay. >> reporter: the judge has made it clear the defamation claim is only on the tweets, but you can consider all this other stuff as

to musk's state of mind. >> got it. is there any kind of -- would there be any kind of impact, i guess, if a jury decided that elon musk -- elon musk should be held liable for these comments and voted not in favor of him in terms of result, that this would have any ripple impact on his businesses and his day-to-day operations >> i don't think -- certainly he has no interest in being here a minute longer than he has to he's being sued personally he's worth $24 billion there's no way a judge would uphold a damages claim that was significant, that would significantly impact him it's more just another elon musk reputation thing by the way, he also said on the stand yesterday the term pedo guy is common quote throughout the english-speaking world as meaning creepy old guy. >> yeah, jane, i had never heard it i am familiar with elon musk

tweets i wonder if his tweets outside of this specific insult are coming to play in this play, the care or lack thereof that he takes, tweeting about all kinds of things, including the companies he runs? >> well, he questioned about twitter and he said twitter is a free-for-all some things are true, some are not true the judge is not allowing them to bring in the tweet about how he might take tesla private. he said that will confusing to the jury but he has been questioned about his influence in social media and whether people would believe him and whether or not tweets are true >> jane, we're going to watch it obviously. not surprisingly, tesla shares largely unchanged on all of this appreciate that, jane wells watching the trial for us. in the meantime let's get over to the cme group, rick santelli and the santelli exchange. >> good morning, thank you, carl i'd like to welcome my guest, mark summerlan let's get right into it. november ism manufacturing 53.9.

second lowest number in three years. adp 67,000 second worst number since 2010 but yet i see rates up, stocks up so guesses about the outcome of trade seem to outweigh very important macro fundamentals regarding the u.s. economy >> thank you, rick thank you for having me. first of all, the economy is slowing but it hasn't broken into recession yet for the ism index, a number below 52 would give you some recession signal so near 54 we're still comfortably above that we've gotten three pretty good things first of all, the fed has monetary policy right for the first time in a year we have trade peace on the horizon. and we have better odds of a moderate democratic candidate next year and those three things are enough to stabilize the economy even if it is slowing down. >> yeah, it's hard to argue with

any of the points you just pointed out. but at the end of the day, the trade outcome most certainly is going to happen. we have no idea when if politics and what type of candidate emerges on the democratic side of the aisle, that's also a long way from being finalized. i guess what i want to get down to, marc, is for viewers and investors that are watching, how should they proceed if we're in a slowing economy but yet not in a recessionary economy with all the uncertainty that's out there and the recent volatility? >> well, i think that they should proceed with their longer term strategies. there are times when short term overwhelms but we're not in one right now. things are stabilizing when you're at full employment economy it's okay to be growing slower and slow and steady is good enough, i think. and i think that's where we're at right now >> you know, mark, every statement by the fed and every

press conference, and this isn't only here but even globally, the u.s. employment picture is always top of the list, even though it isn't as robust as it was two years ago, it's solid underpinning and it's a big positive if that starts to slowly melt away, will that have a longer term effect on the level of equities >> i think it's okay for job growth to slow and to maintain higher equities. i do worry, i know you don't want to talk too much about politics, but even joe biden has $3 trillion in new taxes a lot of that on capital gains so there are bigger things to worry about. for the fed, i really think the best thing for them to do is to fade in the background they don't have to be front and center all the time. they have gotten to a good place and what would be good for growth and good for markets i think for them to just be quiet for a little while >> excellent marc, thank you for your thoughts this morning. morgan, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you.

coming up, we are in the midst of the peak season for shipping companies dhl's u.s. ceo joins us next in an exclusive right after this break. don't go anywhere. - at southern new hampshire university, we believe in education built for all people. - [woman] snhu was the best experience of my life. - [man] without snhu, i wouldn't be the leader i am today. - [woman] i graduated high school 19 years ago. i still finished. - [man] in the military, you feel that sense of accomplishment. that's what snhu is. - you will march from this arena and say to the world.. i did it. - [woman] you did it. i love you. - [graduate] i love you too.

the market has slowly gotten better and better as the morning has gone on. the dow is up 210, thanks to semis, oil, transports, even apple close to the highs of the

session. "squawk alley" is back in three minutes.

welcome back to squawk "squ alley. let's head to frank holland sitting down with a special gue guest. >> global e commerce is

projected to grow to a $4 trillion market by 2020. cross border e commerce is a big part of that we're at the dhl facility in manhattan. they specialize on e commerce in and out of the u.s. for companies like amazon, jd.com and many others. this holiday season, they're projecting a 50 increase between black friday and new year's eve. the last time we saw a window this short was 2013 when it was half of what it is today right now, i'm join ed by the ce of dhl express americas. thank you for joining us how do you manage this rush? fewer days, more e commerce and elevated expectations of faster delivery >> it's been a lot of planning we knew it was going to be a short peak season for us from an international sper perspective, we knew we were going to get a rush off brak

frid black friday and cyber monday. it was down to good planning >> you had elevated planning, but you're also projecting a 50% increase on december 16th. >> absolutely. >> talk about how you manage that especially when your things are coming from overseas can't just move ame fulfillment center closer to people. >> we put on 10% more couriers added over 700 jobs for seasonal hires. we're put uing on an additional 75 charters out of asia. so all of that went gointo the preplanning and we knew it was going to be a bit short and again, all prepared. so far, it's been good >> we have to talk about trade the president saying yesterday that the trade deal with china could wait until after the 2020 election can you give us an example of how a trade deal happening or not impacting your business and what it means for you? >> dhl is pro trade.

trade is good. i say this everywhere and in washington all the time. trade equals jobs. as an example, between 2016 and 2018, we added over 3,000 jobs as a result of trade so you know, we're looking forr ward to a u.s. mca deal. to a stabilized u.s. china trade deal so again, it's important for us and it's important for our biggest trade lane, which is china u.s. and as a matter of fact, we have been see iwe haven't seen a slowdown at all. china is continuing to grow. over the next three day, one customer alone in china is going to send over 50,000 shipments into the united states that we're going to be delivering >> we've seen lower ism number, but you're saying e commerce is is still strong. >> absolutely. if you think back to when i started in this business, 33 years ago, less than one out of every ten stops was an e commerce delivery. today, seven out of ten stops is an e commerce delivery to residents.

we're going to see a 35% group from quarter three to now. and we're also seeing an interesting phenomenon as well that's happening it seems to be at the end of every quarter we're seeing a big push we saw it in march in june and september and now in december this facility we're sit iting i today has saw a 50% increase in stops just in the last couple of days alone. so it's all happening. >> and now morgan brennan, i believe she has a question for you. >> sure. >> i do. thanks, frank. hi, mike good to see you. dhl over the years has made these investments and pushes to really crack into the u.s. market in a meaningful way in terms of package delivery. the most recent example announced a little less than two years ago. how are these efforts going and are you meaningfully taking market share from ups, fedex and the postal service. >> well, i would say that the investments continue we just recently announced late last night the purchase of 14

new triple seven boeing aircraft, an investment of over 4 billion ur euros and that was for two reasons. one to enhance our capacity coming out of asia and united states and also part of our sustainability commitment and our goal to be a net zero company by 2050. so yeah, we see the investments continuing then equally with that, with the increased jobs and the stabilized trade platform that hopefully we'll have here sometime going into 2020, that equals jobs and i was saying to frank, we've added over 3,000 jobs in the last 24 months and over 700 jobs just in the last call it the last 45 days >> so mike speaking of your competitors, here in the u.s., amazon is expected to more than double the amount it delivers this year. you guys have a relationship with amazon. are they a rising competitoe ppo you? >> i would say from an

international perspective, they're not. they're actually a friend. i get asked all the time i believe last year morgan and the team asked me the same question are they a friend r or foe they're an absolute friend ch our rim continues to grow with them we tony see them as a threat to us based on the fact we've got a strong global relationship with them we don't play dmesically into the united states. as an example, yus two days ago, we got the biggest ever shipping day of international shipmentsm. 67,000 international shipments in one day alone >> mike parra, thank you very mu much also, your company debuting cargo bites today in new york city again, the ceo of dhl express america. back to you. >> all right, frank, thanks for that meantime, peloton is morning is responding to the controversy over the recent holiday ad after

some twirt users call ed the messages misleading, alleging tones of o sexism. they say our holiday spot was created to celebrate the fitness and wellness journey while we're disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial, we're grateful for the outpouring of support from those who understand what we were trying to communicate stock hasn't really moved a lot. although dipped a little bit upon the release of the ad sort of the sorry not sorry defense. >> i think the same person who wrote the ad wrote that response i don't know, reminds me of steve jobs saying you're holding it wrong about the iphone 4. you're watching it wrong >> stock is down 1% today. we've had a number of analysts who have said this is one of those names that could stand to benefit during the holiday season i guess the question is whether attention, any kind of attention is still good attention. we'll see. >> we should always mention ewan

u ver sal, our parent company, is an investor in peloton. interesting session. pretty stable even though oil is up more than $2. tonight, we'll get slack more talk about what enterprise is doing and rh. speaking of trade in china and all that so let's get to the with cramer on the half. >> thanks so much, carl. front and center b, the last days of the decade for your money. do stocks which have had a great year have anything left in the final stretch? it is 12:00 noon and this is the halftime report. >> the rally back on but should you be putting new money to work in this whip saw market jim cramer weighs in he joins us for the hour a bear call on apple fears about iphone sales but the stock's up 65% in 2019 how do play it from here on target. shares of the retail giant up 90% this year. why it may be the best idea fo