franchise. the team will be owned by billionaire hedge fund titan and carolina panthers owner, david tepper, who paid a whopping $325 million entry fee. this dude has a lot of money >> he's got a lot of money >> and they're hot soccer >> that does it for us on power lurc lunch. >> "closing bell" right now. >> good afternoon. welcome to the "closing bell," everyone i'm wilfred frost. i'm here at the fedex post today. that stock is down around about 1% following some competitive pressures from amazon yesterday and ahead of their own earnings due to hit after the close today. that close, of course, just 59 minutes away we are slightly higher on the broader markets, set for record all-time closing highs once again. >> and i'm contessa brewer in for sara eisen today let's take a look at what's driving the action today divergent corporate expectations for 2020, at jetblue and eli lilly forecast a strong year but unilever slashes its

outlook. congress is on track to pass two massive spending bills averts a government shutdown and new data shows home building increased more than expected in november and permits for future home construction surged to a 12 1/2 year high. joining us for the hour, is keith bliss from i hue capital llc. the housing starts number comes in, just one more optimistic data point on the data front >> and i think despite trading on the all-time highs, this market is still poised to go higher that's my belief >> what drives that? >> there's lots of factors, which i know we'll talk about during the hour. but the continued strong economic data that we're getting out of here, a very compliant and easy money fed that we have, they're expanding their balance sheet. low inflation around the world the need for capital to go where it gets rewarded and seek yield. all of these things, you throw them into the mixing bowl. once again, all three of the

major averages higher. only slightly higher, but anything positive is a record. let's focus in on the big stories we're watching today boeing planning to halt production of its 737 max plans. phil lebeau has the latest on that story for us. steve liesman has a look at how production delays. and mike santoli is tracking walmart's sentiment on the stock overall. phil, let's start with you >> as we told you yesterday, boeing would stop production of the 737 max in january and the question becomes, how longwill the production line be down. most analysts think it will be likely a couple of months, which sets up, what can you expect if you're a boeing investor for the first quarter and the second quarter. ramping up of production, likely it will return in the second quarter. that's just the estimate at this point. no layoffs are planned as of right now, but if this is extended, that might change. there's a gradual delivery ramp-up once the plane is approved again by the faa. meanwhile, airlines continue to slide back their dates for returning the max to service southwest is the latest.

today, it pushed back bringing the max back until april 14th. by the way, southwest max cancellations, if you go back from when it was first grounded, they'll top more than 50,000 take a look at shares of boeing. analysts are down in terms of what they're expecting for the remainder of this year in terms of free cash flow, but guys, if you look at all of these analyst notes, all of them say the same thing. eventually when these planes are delivered, they expect that free cash flow to come back, whether it's later in 2020 or moved out until 2021 >> let's get to steve liesman and take a look at how boeing's production halts could affect gdp. steve? >> it may be hard to imagine, contessa, but economists forecast this decision to halt production of the 737 max is likely to have a measurable effect on u.s. economic growth in the french quarter. and the negative effects could be larger than the government shutdown last year forecasts say the production could shave as much as a half point off first quarter growth

morgan stanley looks for a 0.8 percentage point hit the problem is that the first quarter was already looking weak now it could come closer to 1% instead of the forecast 1.6. growth will rebound when production returns, but when is an open question morgan stanley writing in its commentary, assuming production ramps back up in q2 '20, we would expect to see more than a 100% basis points boost. for now, they won't lay off, but if the stoppage grinds on, suppliers can find it tough to hold the line and eventually boeing could as well, contessa >> there's a lot of expectations and forecasts here is there any ndication, steve, what the impact has been of slowing production so far? >> yeah, it's kind of interesting. they've gone from 52 to 42 planes and the estimates are that that's taken a tenth off of gdp. the reason why it's so little, boeing's not shipping stuff, but when they make a plane that goes

into inventory, so no add to shipment, but an add to inventory. when they stop production, that blue line that's going up, that goes away and all you get is the production decline and that's why there's going to be a bigger measurable impact, because the add to inventory from the planes being produced and not shipped will no longer occur, contessa >> thanks, steve let's get over to mike santoli now for a look at what wall street has been saying about boeing of late mike >> wilf, obviously, the groundings have forced analysts to play a little bit of a slower ground game when it comes to expectations for boeing. if you look at the breakdown of analyst ratings, it's been a grudging moderation of enthusiasm over the course of this year. one thing i want to highlight first of all is how beloved the stock was back in january. that was before the second crash and the groundings 83% of all analysts say buy the stock. now, we did have this ramp into march. so the stock really did confirm that bullish take. and you've seen it just slowly, the yellow is basically hold ratings, so right now, it's somewhere around 50/50

still, though, the gap between this green line, the price target, consensus price target and the current price, it's about an 18% upside from here. clearly, there's still a sense out there that the market could come back to boeing. this was also coming off of multi-year extremes at the very beginning of this year that's at the most expensive the stock has been in long-term -- a couple of decades. and there we go, at the beginning of this year, it was well over -- in the mid-20s in terms of a forward price earnings multiple, its premium to the s&p 500, also at a record and look at how that has bled away right now, it's actually trading at a cheaper, nominal valuation than the s&p 3 however, one has to expect that perhaps 2020 earnings estimates are going to come down. so perhaps that p\e is not quite as low as it might seem cosmetically right now, folks. >> mike, thanks very much. stick around just want to go back to phil because on these discussions about what the analysts are saying, phil, about boeing, at

the moment, is it fair to say that they're all still just saying this is a question of delaying clothes and profits coming back online as opposed to any long-term shift in market share that boeing might have in commercial aircraft. >> correct in terms of market share, nobody is predicting that, look, this is going to hurt boeing. you're going to see customers canceling big orders sure, there might be an order here or there that is converted from a max into a 787. and we've already seen that in the last nine months but we have not seen mass cancellations. the backlog, wilf, it remains at around 4,400 planes. >> keith, let's talk about this. are you surprised that there is no analyst that has a sell rating on boeing >> i'm not surprised, because it still remains despite the problems with the max jet, it still remains one of the best-run companies in the world when you take a look at it certainly, management has made some mistakes. they got the timing wrong. they were not completely transparent when the first accidents occurred you talk to some attorneys who sue boeing for a living. they know that they've had

problems with this plane for over a year and they've never came out of it as far as boeing aerospace, the company writ large across its entire product mix and what does, it's still a very strong company. having said that, the longer this goes on, the worse it becomes for boeing, obviously, as phil was pointing out, there's an earnings picture that we need to be worried about. there's reputational risks that will continue to erode away. for right now, they're taking a wait-and-see ttitude >> mike, was boeing one of the industrial stocks that did trade on china news, if we go back a year or so before all of the 737 max issues, such that if and when it gets through the current issues, does it have a little bit of a trump trade deal bounce to enjoy, that it hasn't had yet? >> you know, wilf, not in a pronounced way it was not really one of those big global industrials that was at the center of the idea that the tariffs was a big impediment, simply because the

global due o duopoly was prmett in place i don't know if you have that pent-up relief >> can you explain a little bit more about this support for suppliers? >> you mean, in terms of why the stocks have not been hammered more or what boeing will be doing with it? >> yeah, and boeing says that they're going to support these suppliers during the halt in production what does that mean? what does it look like how long might that last >> well, more than anything, boeing wants to make sure it has a stable supply chain. it depends how critical they are to the 737 max take a look at company like spirit aerosystems boeing worked with them when they initially brought down their production, when boeing brought its production from 52 a month down to 42 a month, it worked with spirit to say, look, can we keep you building

fuselages at 52 per month, which has been the case for spirit aerosystems. boeing will once again say, okay, what do we need to do to mitigate how disruptive a drop in production would be for a company like that? or for other companies that have fairly large exposure to the 737 max. that's the biggest concern for boeing, that they have a supply chain that when they ramp up production again, the supply chain will not be able to meet that ramp-up, as well. >> what's your sense that they're just weighing this out on sheer numbers and saying, it's going to cost us more if we allow these suppliers to stop their own production lines and have to pay to start them back up again versus keeping them in business? >> it's not just a matter of cost, it's a matter of how much flow they can have through that supply chain and we use the term disruptive, when you look at the aviation industry, you do not want it to be lumpy stops and starts. that's when you've got a lot of

problems that's when you increase your costs. and for boeing, one of the things that they have been experts at for years is managing that supply chain. and that's why this is a crucial part of the stoppage in production of the 737 max. this will be the test for them can they keep that supply chain as smooth as possible? >> and phil, just one further point. i mean, i know steve broke down the impact, which is significant, of course, on usgdp, but it's not as simple to say it's all european-based. there's a lot of european supplies suffering as well, like safran, that makes the engine for the 737 max in france. it's a huge global issue >> but for all of the aerospace suppliers, not just for boeing, but also for airbus and worldwide, the benefit right now of this stoppage in production happening when it's happening is that the global demand for commercial aircraft is at a record high.

and you already have airbus with production at record levels. that's not stopping. so these suppliers, they're not just supplying boeing or just airbus maybe some of the really small ones are, but generally speaking, they're going to see how much they can offset any slowdown at boeing with other work, whether it's for airbus or whether other aviation companies as well. >> phil, thanks so much for that mike, thank you, also, to steve and should mention as well, even if the analysts don't think there's any long-term shift, airbus is up 52% to boeing's 2%. certainly some investors thinking there's a long-term shift going on meanwhile, the house passing a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and ylan mui is in washington with all the details for us >> reporter: well, here are the three big numbers that you need to know about the spending package. $1.4 trillion. that is the cost to fully fund the government through the end of the fiscal year $370 billion

that is the price tag for permanently repealing the obamacare taxes, the cadillac tax, and medical fee on health insurers and 21, that is the age you will soon have to be in order t purchase tobacco products across the country. yes, that is part of this deal as well. guys, this package of bills now heads to the senate and then over to president trump for his signature before the end of the woke back over to you >> so can we just talk about the deficit, too, and what this deal does for the deficit, ylan >> $1.4 trillion was the first number that i mentioned and we are looking at deficits of potentially $1 trillion next year adding another $1.4 trillion in government spending isn't doing anything to serve -- solve the long-term debt crisis that the nation is facing that is why you see conservative members of the house like the freedom caucus coming out against this president trump had said he did not want to sign another massive spending deal, but here he is, signing it once more

>> ylan, thank you so much after the break, we're just days away from turning the page on this decade and it looks like the market will go out near all-time highs coming up, we'll debut our new series, "the next ten" with a look at the key trends that will define investing over the next ten years. plus, fedex trading lower today as the shipping wars with amazon heat up we'll get a fresh read on the company's fundamentals when the earnings hit after the bell. as we head to break, here's a check on our data tracker. housing starts getting a bump in november, up 3.2% versus the estimate of a rise of 2% building permits, up 1.4%, hitting a 12 1/2-year high "closing bell" back right after this break - at southern new hampshire university,

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welcome back we've got just 43 minutes left of trade we're on a record close watch once again for the dow, s&p, and nasdaq anything positive for those three indices would be enough. just positive on the s&p and nasdaq is up 0.2%.

let's check in with individual market movers. news of bed, bath, and beyond skbrumping on news it's replacing six senior executives. the stock up a healthy 10% and shares of unilever are sliding after warning it will miss its sales product this year the consumer products maker cites slow growth in asia and rural india. the stock is down 9% of the news despite another record day sister stocks, 79% of investors anticipate more volatility in the year ahead and the majority of those surveyed want to invest for the long-term. ubs is calling the next ten years a decade of transformation here to share some of the key investable trends is the deputy america's chief investment officer at ubs global wealth management this is a series we're calling the next ten you call this the decade of transformation, but what does that mean for how people should

think about investing? >> thank you for having me here. it's great to be here. look, we're coming out of a decade of extraordinary terms for financial assets we think the next decade is not going to be as great it's going to be more challenging for investors. there are a number of trends that are likely going to be picking up steam and they're going to play a big role in shaping markets and economies. we're staying, brace for some disruption, less volatility and lower returns. >> are you expecting central bank rates to go up? if so, what is the best way for investors to position themselves accordingly with the decade ahead? >> in the near term, we're not expecting them to go up all that much and over the next decade -- predicting a decade, predicting a year is hard as it is, so a decade is harder but i do think that there's going to be tensions between certain trends that's going to be a drag on growth and keep

rates lower. demographics is at the top of that list. working age population in developed markets, as well as in china is about to peak and will be shrinking over the next decade that's a huge, huge headwind for those economies. and we also have demographics picking up momentum. and that's also -- together, those are going to put a drag on economy. but then there's technological advancements that i think is going to halt gains and will probably help rates go a little higher >> specifically on technology, you're looking at the digitalization of the global economy, 5g. what else do you think drives that part -- >> we think enabeling technologies like 5g, a i, you know, cloud computing, those combined with the growth in data is going to fuel innovation. now, we don't know all the application that are going to come out of it at this point,

but certainly, the fact that can transmit driving remote surgery. >> to the point about demographics, can the next decade be the decade for some of those emerging markets that we all talk of with great hope. >> they're going to have to. there'll be no way to transfer the wealth from the developed world, so they can live in retirement so somebody like me who hopes to be retiring, you know, in the next 10 to 15 years, i have assets now, i could eat a stock certificate, but i don't think it would taste very well or be very nutritious, so i'll have to sell my assets somebody is going to have to buy those. and where you'll see that wealth transfer come is places like africa there's lots of moving parts, as you may agree as it relates to fiscal policy and other demographic trends that will have to happen for that. >> demographics is hard for developed nations, but it's actually going to be fueling growth in emerging markets

>> you also say deglobalization is a trend here. how does that fit into demographic growth in other parts of the world >> so, we think what has started as a u.s./china tariff war is actually going to grow into a u.s./china rivalry and we might find ourselves in a bifurcated world, where there are two spheres of influence and certain countries that have enjoyed relatively free trade will have to choose sides. we think that, for example, you know, in certain countries are already benefiting from the adjustments of someplace chains, companies moving their factories from china into other developing asia and that is helping their economies and boosting their markets. >> can we just talk about water briefly. you also think this is one of the big investable ideas for the next ten years >> as we identified, actually, a couple of areas where we're going to see secular growth cycle continue and water

scarcity is one of them. we're already seeing a huge discrepancy between supply and demand of water. and the fact that populations are getting bigger in emerging markets, i think it's going to widen that gap a lot we think those companies that are going to eliminate water scarcity are going to be good investments. >> one more for me, if i may in the survey of your clients, your wealthy clients at ubs, what were some of the investing trends that they were citing was it more aren't esg >> sustainability is huge. a lot of our clients want to continue to increase their allocation and i will say, we also found out that more than half of our clients really want to invest in health tech, they identify as one of the biggest areas, especially genetic therapy, which is something that i'm really excited about it could be a paradigm shift in medicine, especially if it can cure common diseases at a manageable cost, that's going to

have a huge impact on biopharma and our clients want to be there to benefit from that >> thank you so much for coming in >> thank you all right. here we have just 37 minutes to go before the bell the dow right now is in the positive and the s&p is following suit we're in record close territory once again today after the break, jpmorgan out with its best ideas in the internet space for 2020. and some of the recent ipo names that made the cut may surprise you. we'll break down that, next. and mike santoli puts the market rally into context with a look at how the rest of the world is trading as the s&p hits new highs. we're back in a couple apple card. is a new kind of credit card, created by apple, so it's simple and transparent with a new level of privacy and security.

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welcome back to "closing bell." time now to get to the word on the street argus research downgraded yum brands to hold the firm says kfc's results likely will be hurt by competition from chick-fil-a and popeye's and as the chicken wars heat up, popeye's is taking a dig at chick-fil-a, running classified areas in various newspapers, seeking chicken sandwich professionals who are available to work on sundays, which is, of course, one day that chick-fil-a is closed. next up, jpmorgan puts out

its 2020 best ideas for u.s. internet stocks with facebook, peloton, and snap all making the list the firm cites strong user metrics and instagram growth for facebook and aws concerns for amazon are overdone and cites strong revenue growth for lyft and improved profitability for peloton and the highly engaged and attractive user base for s.n.a.p. >> and finally, goldman sachs downgrading group onto sell. the firm citing execution risks in the north american business model and a negative inflection in international consumer trends for the downgrade. keith, that stock is down 9% off the back of that going into the jpmorgan internet 2020 outlook, without being rude to the team, there's some good stuff in here, but nothing new in here. all the stock picks and all the themes are stuff we've discussed for a long time and it's a case of wondering if there's another year to squeeze out tech market

gains from that. >> valuation relative to the peers and to each other and are they executing on the business model? one of the favorites in there is facebook it's relatively cheap to google. they're going to start executing and monetizing even more on instagram. and they've already started to do things in message and whatsapp yet i'm a whatsapp user, communicate with people all over the world on that. there's millions, maybe a billion people using that and they haven't even started to monetize that. if they can roll those through, we have a little bit of a different story to your point, wilf, than we've been seeing over the end these are the 800-pound gorillas in our social media space. they're not going away despite -- >> the threat of regulation -- >> despite them getting hauled up on the hill and questioned every six months i don't see them going away. >> do you put any stock in a potential threat of breakup, depending on a democratic candidate and the upcoming election >> there's always that threat, but i think that's more sound bites for political candidates to win votes than it is for anything else. it's very hard to prove a

sherman anti-trust case. it was very easy against at any time back in the mid-80s but when you're talking about social media platforms, unless they just have 7 billion people on their platform crowding out everybody, being able to set rates without any competition, it's going to be very hard for the doj to prove that case i don't see a breakup anytime soon >> facebook and amazon higher today, lyft a little bit lower exactly 30 minutes left of the session. we're higher by 62 point s on te dow. divergent corporate expectations for 2020 jeff blue and ely lili forecasting a stronger year. congress is on track to pass two massive spending bills averting a government shutdown and home building increased more than expected and permits for home construction surged to a 12 1/2 year high. >> let's send it down to bill griffeth hi, bill >> hello, contessa here's what's happening in this hour president trump in a fiery six-page letter to house speaker nancy pelosi is angrily

objecting to the house's two articles of impeachment. he accused democrats of what he called perversion of justice and abuse of power the house is expected to vote on those two articles tomorrow. elsewhere, a judge has allowed lev parnas, the associate of president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani to remain free on bail there he was arriving in federal court in new york today. the government had argued that have parnas should be put back behind bars because he posed a significant flight risk. the judge disagreed. air strikes and artillery shellings caused damage and killed 11 civilians. the increased strikes seem to indicate president assad's forces are preparing for a ground offensive and ukrainian riot police clas clashed with members of nationalist organizations. a few hundred people had gathered to protest a draftland reform bill. 17 police officers were injured, 26 protesters were detained.

that's the news update this hour greetings to my dear friend, keith bliss. i'm impressed that a person of your age is on whatsapp. i don't know what you do with that >> i'll be looking you up as soon as i get off the air here >> you won't find him. >> send him an invite. >> it's the only way to communicate. we've got 28 minutes left of the session. we are on track for record all-time closing highs once again. the slight gains on the books for today so far coming up, we've got your last chance trade keith is picking a real estate play that he told me about on whatsapp earlier later, nfl commissioner gary bettman joins us here at post 9 to talk streaming, sports betti betting and the big business of hockey as we head to break, here's a quick check bonds. "closing bell" will be right back apps are used everywhere...

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welcome back 25 minutes left of the session here's the heat map. the financials lead the charge followed by consumer discretionary and energy at the bottom as you can see, muted gains overall. about a tenth of a percent for the s&p 500, but that would be enough for a record closing high >> let's send it over to mike santoli for the second check of the market dashboard >> we have multiple equity markets running to daylight. hitting fresh highs or at least 52-week highs. i've been pointing out how it's been a global rally. this is a four-month chart of s&p 500. broad european equity index. and the i-shares emerging market etf. you see the non-u.s. markets are outperforming. why did i choose four months if you go back to mid-august, it's the height of the recession fears. the idea that this global slowdown is having markets

within its grips pretty much all the markets around the world take a look at a very long-term chart of the euro stock 600 index. it is not only making a new high on a 20-year basis, this goes back to a peak in the year 2000. now we've nosed above it right here clearly, the rest of the world is responding to this idea, we have central bank easing and cyclical indicators doing better the question is this is the culmination of a move to the upper end of the range or whether things can keep going in this direct. >> that chart is brilliant to highlight how much europe has struggled relative to the u.s. in the last 20 years i guess, s&p 500 was the early part of this decade. >> yeah, 2013, the s&p started making record highs. >> it's crazy, the underperformance over that time. mike, thank you. >> all right >> keith, are you thinking about shifting money into europe at this moment for the decade ahead? >> not at this point

remember, i'm pretty short-term in my viewpoint of what goes on in the markets i still think that the u.s. market will continue to run into 2020 i don't see any disruption, despite the political she nan getti begans that might continue when you look at seasonal patterns, i'm a big believer that we always rally into the end of the year. >> got that wrong last year. >> we did. we did but the one year off ten, i think. but also seasonal patterns the third and fourth year of a presidential cycle are pretty strong but i just think this market is too set up to think about rotating money over to europe or to another emerging market right now. >> okay. still to come, we will have your last chance trade. 21 minutes left in the session >> plus, fedex gearing up to report earnings after the bell we'll preview the key metrics to watch and as we head to break, here's a check on jabil circuit. "closing bell" back of this break.

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18 minutes left to go and here's a check on the "closing bell" big board. at the top, the major averages moving higher with all three on pace for record closing highs. below today's biggest dow leaders, goldman sachs, home depot, and johnson & johnson with walgreens and mcdonald's coming in as the biggest dow laggards >> we have u.s. just 18 minutest in the session >> i have long iyr of all the indicators that i just mentioned i'm short-term in nature, it's very oversold in an upward trending market relative to what's going on the three largest holdings it has inside of it, prologic, american tower, and crown castle international have all been hit pretty hard. it's a little bit of a misnomer. but crown castle and american

tower, for example, what they manage are thousands of communication real estate spots, prologic has actual office space, but i think that sector is due for a rebound not only in the short-term and if you believe the long-term economic play, those are companies that will continue to expand and continue to provide yield for investors. >> if you're going for short-term s&p 500 momentum, you wouldn't necessarily expect this sector to be one of the outperformers. >> not necessarily but if you look at some of the data that we look at, you get oversold and if i was going to, at the highs, try to park some money before the end of the year, i would look at iyr. >> thank you for that. >> just 16 1/2 minutes left of the session. we are on record close watch once again this is the last commercial we'll take before we go into the close. when we come back, we'll be in the market zone.

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>> let's kick things off with fedex, that is set to report earnings after the close eric chemi is back at hq with the compekey metrics to watch ot >> we'll keep an eye out for any impacts from the trade war that said, this quarter's results will not include numbers from black friday and cyber monday, because the quarter had already ended. the street will be looking for revenues just under $9.2 billion from the fedex express segment nearly 2 billion from freight and around $5.4 billion from ground the stock is nearly flat on the year and is significantly underperformed rival u.p.s., which is up more than 23%. back to you guys >> eric, thank you for that. hey, listen, mike, when you're talking about a big headline from amazon saying, until they improve their performance, we don't even want to allow our third party sellers to send things through fedex is that a branding issue for them is that likely to discourage other customers? >> i wonder if assiit's a brand

issue. i do think it reflects the fact that people don't expect very much of fedex in terms of its actual business performance or, you know, these trends with these numbers today. so it obviously doesn't help and i do think it also highlights the fact that it was becoming apparent in the last couple of years, the delivery piece of ecommerce is the choke point. and it's where a lot of the profit gets dissipated, because of all of the difficulties >> keith, to what extent have they got the potential to enjoy an improving global growth picture and easing trade concerns next year or is this all just structural, battling with amazon zl i thi >> i think a lot of it is structural, in battling with amazon if you look at any neighborhood in jersey, i see far fewer fedex trucks coming through, many more blue amazon trucks, u.p.s. still has a lot coming through but i think they've got some issues in terms of pricing, customer service, other issues of that neighborhood that they need to get through. >> should u.p.s. watch out

>> definitely. if amazon is able to show the model of what an large eretailer is able to do by completing that supply chain all the way -- the last 100 feet has always been the choke point. what happens when amazon starts delivering most of their packages with drones what happens when amazon starts delivering dinner from whole foods with drones and other things of that nature? it's a big problem for the carriers >> a reminder the fedex earnings are due out after the close. we have an analyst to go through those results with us as well when it happens. we have just ten minutes left of the session, on record close watch again. all three of the major averages set hr record highs. two streaming stocks moving in opposite directions today. julia boorstin has the details on roku's slide and a jump for netflix. >> that's right, roku shares down over 2% on news that chief phenomenal officer steve loudoun is leaving that role the stock is still up over 340% year-to-date meanwhile, netflix shares are up nearly 4%.

after that company broke out its international subscriber numbers and revenue into fourregions, revealing that the asia pacific region is netflix's fastest growing segment. its revenue and users both grew by more than 250% from the third quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2019. netflix is focusing on international growth going forward. >> joulia, thank you so much fo that it's funny seeing the analysis on this. some people were saying, why are they breaking out these numbers, because they're worried about people focusing on the slowing domestic numbers but clearly, the market is impressed overall. whether you focus on the absolute size of subscribers in europe or the growth in asia >> a bit of a reminder that it's much underpenetrated in terms of overseas markets and another excuse to kind of buy. and i also think they're getting a pretty good halo effect from some of the heavy new content releases and things like that. it seems like they've regained

share of mind after the disney plus launch. >> roku's performance, too, has been really outstanding and phenomenal do you see any movement there in the coming year? >> i think as long as they keep executing on the plan. the market and the street hate when the cfo leaves for any reason i think this will bounce back. it's still got a very strong business model and we'll continue into 2020 as more and more people continue to eat their content for streaming services >> and roku stock moving 2% just means the market was open. it almost never moves less than 1% in a day. >> 322% up in a year kind of shows that for you >> private equity firm carlyle group is buying a stake in american express's corporate travel business. kate rooney has that story kate >> hey, contessa, that's right, carlyle and some other big name investors values the travel company at $5 billion, including

debt singapore's sovereign wealth fund kaiser permanente and the qatar investment authority are also new investors the business offers airfare and hotel room bookings to bigger companies and amex sold off a 50% stake in that business five years ago. amex's ownership stake remains the same after this deal and shares of that stock are up about 1% today guys >> kate, thanks so much for that mike, any take on this one it's not like the traditional bread and butter of amex's business, but -- >> it's been a long-standing business, but definitely not core and in fact, so $5 billion is worth, including debt. amex is a $100 billion company it's not a real big piece of the pie. i would have thought when they initially sold the 50% stake, it was a prelude to them spinning it off or finding a private equity buyer for the whole thing. maybe a step in that direction, but not clear that's the case. >> do you like these payment companies more broadly >> i do, i do. i think payments and the payment trends are where you'll see

money moving around the globe in the next ten years however, if i'm amex, it's a bit of a cautionary tale, because there are lots and lots of new technology, new pavement ways using block chain, off chain, those types of things that would enable money movement around the world much cheaper, much faster, much easier. >> that said, so many of them so far have been based on the existing infrastructure and that's why some of those stocks -- >> it's all about rails. >> now shares of boeing falling earlier today after announcing it will suspend production of the 737 max jet beginning next month. in a new note, jpmorgan says despite halting production, boeing will still burn more than $1 billion a month on the max due to remaining labor costs and plans to support its suppliers and on the heels of boeing's announcement, southwest saying it will now extend its 737 flight cancellations until april 14th southwest's move comes less than a week after american airlines extended its cancellations through april 7. we discussed this a bit earlier,

mike clearly, it's been suffering in the short-term over the last couple of days as well as year-to-date remarkable sort of resilience in analysts' kind of sentiment on it, that this is just a delay, not a long-term shift in the company's market share >> the long-term order book and the sort of free cash flow model when they are in full production mode has still a lot of analysts, you know, in their camp i guess the stock here, it's really trying to make a stand. it was in a precarious spot. the very low end of the range for the year and it didn't come back during the day. i don't know if that's consequential or wishful thinking >> steve liesman did a great job of laying out the forecasted impact on gdp because of the shutdown on the production line. does that put political pressure on the epa to work with boeing and push this forward? >> personally, i think the faa is licking its wound on this they never had complete sign-off on that.

i don't think we'll see any of that play into it despite the fact it may mean 1% to gdp >> mike, to what extent does a further delay, if we got one, start to change people's sentiment on this? that this is more than just temporary delays >> it's been incremental over -- you know, i was saying a while back if this was just a lost year for this model, the market is fine with it. but if it starts to look more like a lost generation for production, i don't think we can say that's the case yet. but i do think that patience has worn thin over the course of the last eight months or so, so i don't think there's a lot of benefit of the doubt left. >> i want to bring up an s&p 500 intraday chart at the moment, because we're slipping a little bit as we approach the close and mike, you know, still on track at the moment for a record close. and we were never hugely higher today, but we've slipped right down to four, five basis points higher on the s&p. >> it's obviously been kind of a pretty good run. i'm looking mostly at how

positioning seems to have gotten pretty aggressive. people kind of bought what they needed for the end of the year and see if they can levitate their way higher there wasn't a lot of organic demand although i will say small caps are outperforming the ruffles up another 0.4% >> you like the ruffssell? >> i do. >> the one index i've always looked at where that had to catch up it's almost gotten there not back to the august 2018 highs, but it's been pushing forward and really had a nice run in december. >> it's probably likely that there are a lot of investors that are feeling some relief that we're not seeing a repeat of the run-up to christmas that we saw last year all right. there we go. >> still a week to go, contessa. >> there is. >> the exact opposite, actually, of this whole set-up >> exactly here we go we have two and a half minutes left mike, with more on the market internals. >> which are somewhat mixed, actually, if you look at up versus down volume on the new

york stock exchange, obviously, you're skewed a little bit to the upside, but that's not a dominating performance by the bulge bulls. new highs versus new lows. and this is benefiting from the fact that we have anniversary, the weakness in december of last year that's very, very healthy. close to 200 new highs on the new york stock exchange. and in terms of the underlying tone of the market, the s&p high beta versus s&p low volatility this is essentially aggressive stocks versus defensive stocks this is over the last ten days the high beta names, semis, things like that, including financials have well outperformed >> with just under two minutes left, let's get to rick for a check in on bonds. r rickster >> good afternoon, wilf. intraday of tens, a couple basis points higher. that's been the word lately. we're creeping up a little bit, curve steepening almost the steepest it's been since july we keep chipping away and stopping right around the same point in the high-180s

not quiet closing above 190. finally the dollar index, hooray, up a fifth of a cent today. but as you can see on this chart, that was a small bounce from fresh lows going back to july bertha, today is like a mirror image, pretty much the same range. >> pretty much and you're seeing apple continuing to be that major force. look at the impact of apple this year and it is responsible for nearly 40% of the nasdaq 100's gains, the best gains in ten years. and that is more than the next two stocks combined, which are microsoft and facebook chips have also been the major driver they're on pace for their best year since 2003. those are among the all-time high and an all-time high in health care, as congress passed that funding bill which will wipe out obamacare taxes on medical device makers, insurers, and the cadillac tax over to bob. >> almost 200 new highs you heard from mike at the new york stock exchange, other than semiconductor stocks, it's the

bank's breakouts goldman sachs,sy group, bank of america, morgan stanley, pnc all at 52-week highs those boeing suppliers weak again. there's the "closing bell. the dow jones industrial average barely eking out positive territory, fighting it out to see whether we can end the day positive on the s&p 500. >> welcome to the "closing bell," everyone. i'm wilfred frost. >> and i'm contessa brewer in for sara eisen there's a lot of burerewers aro here today along with mike santoli, senior cnbc market commentator. >> there are a lot of beers over there which we'll be discussing with anheuser-busch a little bit later on the show. record all-time highs once again for all three of the of the averages the russell led the charge intraday, up half of 1%. not a record itself, but the

other three big cap stocks and indices all at records following slight intra-day gains >> we're moments away from earnings for fedex we'll bring you those numbers and analysis joining once keith bliss, ceo of iq capital usa, still with us, along with patrick holfrye hy mike, it looks like there's a lot of unrestrained optimism going into the new year. >> a good deal of optimism or at least a lot of comfort with the way the situation looks going into year end. and very much the seasonal forces were driving things today. a reluctance to sell for any particular reason, with any urgency. would rather wait for january if you want to take some profits. with that, that's one of the reasons we get this kind of levation in the index. i think the thing to look out for, to your point, is if people get too overtime confident, hey, nothing can go wrong here, we're good with whatever might come along into the new year. >> patrick, what's your take as

to how optimistic we should be going into the new year? >> i don't think investors are looking at what can go wrong industrial production continues to look very strong. the housing data also looks firmer both of those are allowing investors to take a more positive tone for the market and that's going to be the catalyst for what we expect to be another great year in 2020 >> we were talking earlier a little bit about the federal deficit and debt i know that you're keeping a close eye on bonds and this search for higher yield. how do you factor that into the short-term that you're looking at early in 2020 >> well, it's interesting for me if you take a look at what the trade has been in december, you see a rotation out of, you know, what i would call the safe haven bonds, both the u.s. treasuries as well as investment grade corporates into high yield and that is also very supportive for equities so people are actually willing to accept more risks there have been a few things that have cleared out. we've got the first phase of the china deal people are looking forward to

the end of the year, we're up 20%. i don't have the markets overbought at all. somewhere up to 270. the dow above 29,000 when you factor all of that stuff together, again in my melting pot, i think that despite federal deficits, despite what's happening with bond prices and interest rates, i think we're still very supportive for running here further into 2020. >> the fedex trading down 3%, numbers just out, we're digging into them. we'll have the details you need to know. you've been looking at commodity prices what's that telling you? >> aim sort of story people are getting comfortable with the global economy. copper is overbought, oil prices are surging as well. and when you look at, it's not necessarily commodity, semiconductors, not only have they been on fire for the year, but in december, they have taken off. a lot of that has to do with the china trade negotiations but that's also a harbinger for what people really think about the global economy semiconductors, microchips are

in everything we use around the world, especially in retail products if we think we're going to sell mo more, that bodes well for all risk assets including equities >> let's move on and talk about apple that hit an all-time high. two wall street firms out with dueling notes on the stocks. josh lipton has all the details from both of those notes hi, josh >> so there aren't many analysts covering apple that rated a sell, but the team at rosenblatt does the team saying that iphone sales in china fell about 30% inform november year over year, citing their own channel checks there. on the other hand, a more upbeat note from the team at keown. they say apple remains one of their favorite ideas in part thanks to a new 5g iphone ant way and continued strength in wearables. yes, that's a risk, be that could be partially offset they argue by share gains in india. their price target goes to $325. guys, back to you.

>> is apple just pricing it right, do you think, mike? >> yes, it's pricing it right if it wants to create a little bit of a perceived and actual shortage also preserving plenty of profit for itself so i think you can probably spin that either way. whether they got caught a little bit short or not what's interesting, the stock itself, look how ridiculously orderly that increase in the stock has been since august. it's basically like people want to own stocks and apple's our favorite flavor of stock that's really the way it's traded it's not entirely about the absolute fundamental outlook for the corporate business >> to the rosenblatt note, a little miss on chinese iphone sales, is that enough to drail the story for everyone else. it's not like it's the fundamental issue. >> not in this environment it's too much else that people are going right. >> let's get to fedex numbers. eric chemi's got them for us >> you can see the stock down about 5% here. this is a miss on both the

revenue number and the profit number fedex also issuing a guidance that is lower than the street was expected and the cfo in the report, you know, making a note here, a revised guidance reflects lower than proposed revenue and higher than expected expenses driven by the continued mix shift to residential delivery services. they're restricting hiring and trying tom find ways to optimize their network. this is a bad earnings report on the face of it and we'll dig in more and have more details as they dig through more. >> thanks to you guys. >> thanks so much, eric. down 4% in after-hours trade, following a couple of days of bad trade already. the set-up wasn't particularly tough. both lines missing and weak guidance on top of that. >> in the last two or three quarters, it has seemed as if expectations were very low going into fedex's results and the results and the guidance were actually worse than people were positioned for so that seems to be the case right here obviously, the stock is up off

the lows, which is in the low 140s from september-to-october it built in a little of a cushion there. but obviously, saying it's going to continue to be very challenging in the current fiscal year is not necessarily welcome news >> fund managers are still pouring money into the tech sector, according to bank of america's global fund manager survey, which found the most crowded trade in both november and december is long u.s. tech and growth stocks, coming in as the second most crowded trade is long u.s. treasuries patrick, what do you make of this crowded space is there more room for newcomers? >> i think right now, what we're seeing is growth has been the area where investors have been looking and that survey is just a reflection of the fact that investors really wanted to find that growth and they were gravitating towards the stocks that appear to have that that happened to be technology and growth stocks. i think going forward, the story more 2020 is the rotation we're seeing to value stocks right now industrial production value is coming in united states strong we're in the process of seeing a

bottom in the economy. value will be the theme that leads in 2020. and investors need to rotate towards that >> keith, what do you think? >> i get cognitive dissidence, with the way you led in there, people are putting a lot of money into growth tech stocks and a lot of money into u.s. treasuries they seem counterintuitive to me, people caught in a couple of minds. but you've heard me all hour i would be putting money into technology and growth stocks i think it's the way in developed markets certainly over the next two years, the way we continue to squeeze productivity out, especially as the population continues to age and we're searching for workers. i think you pick the right stocks, apple is one for me. every time i bet against that stock, i get beaten up and the others that are providing payments processors, good quality tech that will run our lives. >> i would say that the way to unify those things is a scarcity of long duration cash flows or perceived scarcity people are willing to pay up for

them this is what survey respondents say the most crowded trade are in a way, it's the stuff that's done the best that i didn't own enough of. can other people might own too much of. very, very low yields, lower than what younl think, inflates the valuations of growth stocks. >> we'll lee ave it there still ahead, more on this big move lower for fedex and mike will head to the telestrator to break down the s&p and if the market is becoming too top heavy "closing bell" back in 90.

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welcome back fedex earnings missed estimates just moments ago both top and bottom line and soft guidance down 5% after, of course, already having a bit of softness coming into these results today. let's bring in managing partner at brothen capital for his reaction first take >> well, it's very disappointing. the initial number of 213 is a huge miss. if you give them credit for the 251 adjusted, it's a huge miss there's a 51 cent a share tax benefit. that's not repeatable. that's not ongoing cash flows. but it's symptomatic of what we've been seeing in international air freight and to a lesser degree domestic the bottom line is that the

global air freight economy is feeling ill, at est. >> but if this is that factor alone, which i know it's not alone, but if it's predominantly that factor, then trade war easing, a bit of a global gdp pickup could help this a lot next year. >> it could, but we've been hearing about the trade war easing, about them having a deal for how long now two years. at some point, i'm tired of hearing the boy cry wolf i want to see a wolf or i'm not going to believe the boy anymore. and we continue to see -- we're now seeing in asia and europe, negative on top of negative volumes. and bottom line is they have reengineered this company, rebuilt the i.t., the infrastructure, it's the most efficient it's ever been but they can't show that off

when they don't have any volume to move through the system >> so what's that going to take? do they need more aggressive sales? is there a management problem? what's the factor here that's keeping them from really exploiting where they've become super efficient? >> no management team in the world -- the best salesman on the planet can't fix the decline in air freight from germany to china, to korea to china, because of the tariffs killing the demand and you're seeing it in multiple secondary and tertiary ways. that's the bottom line you can put the anointed, christ himself in the ceo chair, and anybody you pick as the salesman and it won't change the fact that the macro global is sick

and getting sicker >> don, are there anymore levers they can pull in the year ahead to lower their costs and offset some of these pressures that they're seeing >> i'm sure, yeah, they're retiring some additional planes, some of the oldest of the fleet. and and you know, let's give them some credit where credit is due. they're making an extraordinarily tough strategic decision to kick amazon to the curb, because they weren't making any money there was zero -- i'm convinced there were zero margins, they weren't making any operating profit strategically, because that's the best thing for this company long-term, look at heir doing their partnerships with walmart, walgreens, those are a result of companies that wanted to do business with fedex. walmart and walgreens see amazon as a real threat and will partner with fedex to take on amazon this this petty announcement

that amazon is making, i don't know if i would do that. you are -- it's petty and it's -- it's an exercise in rearranging deck chairs. the history is long. you don't want to mess with fred smith and fedex. they are not a competitor you want to annoy. >> that might be the case, don, although i wonder if the fact that you say the amazon business was basically zero profit for fedex and all of these ecommerce players are bundling fastest cost of the delivery in with the product themselves is that suppressing the willingness of customers to pay up for delivery more broadly >> no, you've got two factors going on first of all, ecommerce is paying are subsidizing express delivery, because they have to and because they can they have to, because that's how you close the distance between what is immediacy of going to a

brick and mortar store and be able to eat it, consume it, use it, et cetera. so they can spend some of that money back against expedited delivery i know for a that couldn't jeff bezos went to his distribution team, his transportation team and he said, look, guys, this is -- this is my edict this is my challenge to you. 80% of the u.s. population lives within 20 minutes of a walmart, which means you can get in your car, drive to walmart, walk into the store, pick out what you need, and be walking back out in your car and drive back home within 20 minutes. that's within an hour. if 80% of the population is within 20 minutes of a walmart, we need to be able to make our delivery happen. when he issued that edict, he basically declared war on walmart. but he also puts it in crystal clear relief what's going on here one, two

, fedex is doing this strategically. the highest cost provider per package delivered in the market is the post office the second highest cost provider of the service is u.p.s. the lowest cost provider with the best service is fedex. so the more and more amazon -- let's say the critics are right. amazon becomes a big player in this industry. the bigger they become, the more they crush the post office the more they hurt u.p.s long before they get to fedex. so fedex is saying to themselves, look, let's align ourselves with partners we can cothings with and make money with, one. and if zplamazon wants to come after us, they'll kill the post office and seriously damage u.p.s. long before they get to us because we're the lowest cost provider of the service with the highest speed quality. >> don, we'll leave it there thank you so much for joining us fedex down 6% and u.p.s. also down a couple of percent in after-hours trade in light of

the fedex numbers. straight ahead, we will break down the charts to find out whether the s&p 500 is too concentrated in the larger stocks and later, we discuss the n nhl's embrace of sports betting and the push to diversify the league when we talk to gary bettman in a first on cnbc interview.

all right. mike santoli has a third dashboard of the day mike >> contessa, ask me right now if the market is stacking the line? basically putting a few of the biggest guys up-front to try to make some progress here. look at this chart pretty long-term of the percentage of the s&p 500 accounted for by just the biggest ten holdings so the ten largest companies in the s&p, what percentage of the overall index did they represent? right now, it's about 24%. pretty much at its peak since about 1999 and 2000 when you did have this megacap leadership, the very largest companies in tech, especially were much larger than the rest of the market during the height of f.a.a.n.g.

mania in 2015, '16, '17, people would say, it's only four or five stocks. that really wasn't the case. and i was sort of very skeptical of this idea that the market was getting too concentrated the real reason to worry about this is if other stocks below the surface are not participating at all that's not necessarily the case. this chart looks at the equal-weighted version of the s&p against the regular one. you can see that the regular s&p has certainly outperformed over two years, but these are both going in the right direction, almost along the same path so, yes, the biggest guys are getting bigger, proportionately, but it's not as if the rest are being left in the dust i don't think that's why it's something to be outright too nervous about right away, but you have to watch this trend >> coming into the 2000s, did that not happen? >> oh, yes, in 1999 and 2000, the average little stock was really far underperforming and you did have this hyperconcentration by the end of

it that also happened in the early '70s, so-called nifty fiftiy stock there was an instability in the market that was not reflected. >> thanks. an impeachment vote in the house may be looming over president trump, but our next guest thinks the china trade deal and other white house wins could give the market and fthe president a boost in 2020. >> plus, an exclusive look at how amazon's blue vans are the key to its free next-day shipping strategy. we're back in a couple of minutes. and that for me is what teamwork is all about. you can't do everything yourself. you need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, that's morgan stanley. they're industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. i'm really excited to be part of the morgan stanley team. i'm justin rose. we are morgan stanley. - [spokesman] if you've tried colleg(group cheering)shed, snhu lets you transfer up to 90 credits

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here's a check on the closing bell big board at the top, the major averages all closing at record highs. below, today's best-performing sectors, consumer discretionary, financials, utilities. the biggest dow gainers, goldman sachs, johnson & johnson, and american express >> i wonder why they're in blue. why are they not in green? >> because then they'll just go along with the major indices and the sectors. >> more than 1%? >> is that the reason? a new nuance that none of the three of us know the answer to >> but we're so good at guessing >> no one has been able to confirm this i think that nobody knows the answer, even in the control room but anyway, we should move on. maybe bill griffeth has the answer he certainlyhas the cnbc news update for us. >> you never question the graphics people. they know exactly what they're doing, wilf. here's what's happening at this hour right now, everybody. the senate has passed that massive defense funding bill with the landmark provisions for paid parental leave and the

creation of a space force. the $$378 billion bail sailed through. and it also gives them a pay raise, their largest in a decade and a senate panel andthe ncaa convened this morning, the first of many collaborative conversations surrounding the issue of college student athlete compensation >> i would like to see us work with the ncaa and work with student athletes to try to come up with a federal solution that not only addresses the issue of having access through name and image likeness, but also speaks to issues of broader compensation >> finally, pope francis has abolished the so-called pontifical secret rule that has been used in various clergy sexual abuse cases after mounting criticism that the confidentiality measure has been used to protect pedophiles

a vatican spokesperson says it is a step on the path towards transparency that is the cnbc news update this hour. back to you guys >> bill, thank you very much >> my pleasure it's time to get a news alert now on palo alto networks. josh has it for us hi, josh >> so, wilf, this news coming from the s.e.c. just now, announcing insider trading charges against five friends who traded on confidential earnings information about the s.e.c. says a silicon valley cloud commuting company. they reaped millions of dollars in trading profits according to the government, a former i.t. administrator then at palo alto networks was at the center of this trading ring. they say he used his credentials and work contact to obtain highly confidential information about his employer's earnings and financial performance until he was terminated earlier this year apparently, he tried to purchase a one-way ticket to india for himself and his family and was then arrested at the airport we have reached out to palo alto

networks for comment we'll let you know if and when we get it. guys, back to you. congress on track to pass massive spending bills today and send them to the president to sign, which would avert a government shutdown. that is not the only washington news we have the impeachment vote tomorrow and usmca waiting in the wings. here to break it all down, ed mills, washington policy analyst with raymond james >> of these, which has the most likelihood of having an impact on investments or our bottom line >> i think everything coming out of impeachment is a macro positive coming up washington with the usmca you have an issue where business confidence and because spending has been the biggest drag on the economy. if you can get that passed and get some business confidence out there, you probably put that as number one but by not having a government shutdown, extending a whole bunch of tax provisions, doing a

lot of the cats and dogs that were left over, that's adding a ton of fiscal stimulus to the market and when you have the fed largely on the sidelines being more accommodative, you add these all up together and this is a really nice macro backdrop that d.c. is giving us for christmas. >> i read that you think it has the possibility to really boost capital spending can you explainhow and why >> the story all this year has been about uncertainty we've had china trade kind of going back and forth as soon as folks started to move things back to north america, especially to mexico, the president threatened a whole bunch of tariffs on anything that came in from mexico so now where we're going to have signed into law a new trade agreement between the united states, mexico, and canada, that gives businesses much more certainty here, at least in north america, allowing them to

invest into the future, and this is something they've really been hoping and waiting for, removing that big overhang that nafta could be pulled at any moment. >> and those positives far outweigh the potential negative impacts of the impeachment request. >> i think what most of us here in d.c. have been thinking is that the base case is playing out as of right now. so the house is going to vote for articles of impeachment, everything and points to that the senate is not going to vote to convict so once we've kind of moved from that story, we look at the rest of the backdrop and the rest of the backdrop is largely positive from a macro perspective, at least up until the caucuses and the primaries start for who's the next nominee for the democratic party that is probably the point where d.c. once again adds to the conversation and adds to the volatility >> and on that note, you've been monitoring a bit of a pickup for bernie sanders, which is a potential market risk if his momentum continues in your eyes. >> yeah, you know, so what we've

been discussing is we've been trading who's the front-runner in the democratic primary process for a while. the one person who really hasn't gotten that front-runner status just yet is bernie sanders but consistently, he's been at that 20, 25% level, number one or number two in iowa, new hampshire, and nationally, especially number two spot nationally for a while and so if other candidates who have kind of surged into that front-runner status, if they fizzle, the one person that seems to have the highest floor of support nationally has been senator sanders. so, you know, we're expecting that some time between now and february, we're going to have much more conversations about what his candidacy could do and if he really could make a run. we're not calling for him to be the democratic knnominee, but h hasn't had the conversation that others in similar polling situations have had to date. >> how much of a risk do you see the skyrocketing federal

deficit? >> contessa, what they tell you on capitol hill is supposedly it doesn't matter anymore so one of the things that we talk about in d.c. is that we only respond when there is a crisis or a deadline what we have seen for years now, and it seems to have accelerated since the election of president trump, is that, you know, through spending bills and through tax bills, this congress, this president are fine to add to the debt and the deficit. and we have a fairly accommodative fed. so in the near term, d.c. from a fiscal and monetary stimulus perspective is a positive backdrop to the market there is going to be a time that we have to deal with that, brown, it's nowhere in sight >> very quickly, for mayor bloomberg, when does he need to have made gains to double digits or to be third or fourth in the race, when does he need to have got to that status for it not to be worrying for him? >> wilf, i think we have all the way until march for him.

he is not going to be competing in the first four contests he is going to be only start competing on super tuesday and so what will be interesting to me is that i'm looking to see if there's going to be a different winner in iowa versus new hampshire, south carolina in in nevada. if that's the case, if he can come in and make a splash on super tuesday, that's where the conversations about the potentially brokered convention really increase. if we come out of super tuesday and split up those 1,500 delegates, a third, a third, a third, it's going to be mathematically very difficult for any one candidate to emerge as the front-runner, get that 50% of the democratic delegates. and i think that's one of the things that mayor bloomberg is playing for. that and also trying to be the heir apparent, if biden falters in any of these early contests >> ed, thanks so much for joining us >> wilf, with thank you. still ahead, amazon is trying to win the holiday shipping wars with free next day

shipping up next, an exclusive look at the branded vans behind that strategy plus, nba commissioner adam silver says the pay tv system is broken find out if nhl commissioner gary bettman agrees when he joins us in a first on cnbc interview.

we have some news on wynn resorts. the contract for ceo matt maddox has been extended through to 2022 significant because, of course, this year has seen the resolution of some big outstanding issues the regulatory hurdles that they had to cross in the wake of the scandal involving founder and former ceo, stooech nguyeeve wy settlements of the shareholder lawsuits just happened within the last couple of weeks this clears the way for them to really focus on ramping up the new property in boston and 2022 is significant because that's when the recession is due for renewal in macau in china. having him in this leadership role is important for this company in continuity. >> wynn stock up some 35% year-to-date we just got some fedex numbers that disappointed. the stock now negative for the

year as competition with amazon continues to weigh on the stock. and it is peak shipping season we're a week away from christmas and amazon's free next day shipping has officially kicked into high gear frank collins joins us now with an exclusive first look at that process. hey, frank >> hey, there, wilf. amazon has been working on its ground game. the company's global fleet of those blue-branded delivery vans has increased by 158% since june of 2018. those advance deliver the majority of one-day shipping items that tom to your house the tech giant is expected to see the announcement it delivers by about 50% in an exclusive interview with top adviser to ceo jeff bezos, we found out those vans are a key part of the company's strategy >> after moving to one-day this year, we've had some

acceleration and new growth. and as our volume grew, we felt an opportunity for more people to come and offer a great experience to our customers. delivery service providers or dsps are that important link in the chain. >> reporter: and amazon handles about 50% of its own deliveries now. that's expected to increase to about 70% next year, so you'll likely see a lot more of those vans wilf and contessa, back over to you. >> thank you so much, frank. up next, a slap shot in the dark the nhl is betting big on international expansion, but could the trade war derail its plans. nhl commissioner gary ttn inusheadbema apps are used everywhere...

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♪ music the national hockey league noi announcing a new multi-year partnership with anheuser-busch today, naming bud light the official beer in the u.s joining us, nhl commissioner gary bettman in october in las vegas, you talked to me at length about partnerships for sports betting and why that's important why is this kind of partnership with a beverage company important in your overall strategy >> it's all about activation, bud lite, ab, great at activating with their customers, most of whom are nhl fans. they have already relationships

with our clubs and they're going to activate around our big events, whether it's outdoor games, the playoffs or the finals. >> does this mean that bud lite is the only beers -- >> no, the arenas have their own concession arrangements, but you have to be an official sponsor to activate using our ip and having a presence at our events. >> "the wall street journal" had an article this week about your diversity problems and how important that is for growing it in october, we had talked about the importance of china in your plans to grow hockey internationally. but when you look at the numbers here, 59 non-white players in the league in this past season, averaging out to two per team. and that number had grown 14%. what's the challenge and how do you overcome it? >> we pride ourselves on our diversity, our international diversity is unlike any of the

north american sports. and we've been working hard, because you have to remember the history of the game was four franchises basically in the northeast with two in canada and we've been working very hard at making our league more diverse and making it inclusive, particularly through grassroots programs and make sure anybody who wants to associate with hockey at any level finds us to be a welcoming sport >> what does that mean, that you do it at grassroots level? >> well, we have programs, i believe, well over 20 throughout cities in north america where young people who wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to be exposed to the game, we give equipment, we give instruction, we give ice team to introduce more and more people to the game but most importantly, we want to make sure the atmosphere and the environment is inclusive and welcoming. >> commissioner, recently, your peer, adam silver, nba commissioner, criticized traditional cable pay tv

platforms for not allowing the sport toget enough access, whether that's to young people or to less well off people do you agree with that criticism? >> not to agree or disagree with adam, from our standpoint, we think our partner nbc and our relationship with disney streaming services, which has our digital platforms, this is all in the united states, they do a great job promoting us. our demos, we have a younger audience than the nba and i believe the other sports we have a very avid fan base and i believe our partners are doing all the right things having said that, we understand that the universe is changing and we have to be forward thinking and adaptable, which is one of the reasons we've invested in player tracking to create a better visual experience and to create more

data, which is not only good for connectivity, but also for sports betting >> it keeps gamblers more engaged and gives them more opportunities for in-game play >> everything we're doing is intended to give our fans more connection to our game, whether it's technology, whether it's media partners, or whether it's big events like outdoor games like we're going to have on january 1st, in dallas, a quote, nontraditional market where we sold 84,000 tickets for the cotton bowl in less than two weeks for hockey in tx >> you're seeing that kind of fashion in las vegas, too. >> commissioner, just want to ask about your view on china and you've mentioned in the past and, where do you stand on the right for members of your sport to speak up when they have issues with china's human rights abuses or anti-democratic processes. we heard from an arsenal player >> the fact is, we're going to adhere to our values and we're

going to do business wherever it makes sense and if it's not comfortable for certain places to host us, we'll just have to deal with that >> one final thought here. there's a lot of concern about the condition of former nba commissioner, david stern right now. do you have any update on how he's doing >> i don't have an update. the nba put out a statement earlier this afternoon obviously, his condition is serious. he's getting great treatment he's got the love and support of his family and his friends, of which i consider myself one. he's been a great friend and mentor for a long time and oi'm hoping and praying for a speedy recovery >> commissioner betman, thank you for joining us today appreciate that. >> appreciate it still ahead, risky business. a check-in in on junk bonds. >> and later, betting on fake meat, pea farmers feeling the heat, but it's banking on companies like beyond meat to bail them out.

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>> a spread offense, the way the bond investors is play offense is by bidding up the bond prices, base cheh accepting lower yields to take on risk look at the double b rated corporate- that's junk bonds, right, the highest most creditworthy level of speculative grade high-yield debt afb obviously treasury yields are down a lot too s in compressed right here about 3.7% double b rated can be borrow 3.7% on average. that's the selloff last december when the equity market sold off. 2015, 16, the energy crash really accommodative environment for risk assets valuations is it getting too skeezed or too over optistic for the year end creditors or is it a year end push into the year end risk

assets but for now accommodative. >> a couple weeks ago we talked about lower levels of credit quality than that. >> yes. >> that had a temporary spike. >> as a matter of fact far lower levels by triple c rated bonds, you would see the opposite, the yields have gone up. there is a bit of discernment going on, a surprising between junk bonds and lower level junk bonds, which are driven by a handful of issuers and sectors. >> by size of the market. >> very small, yeah. >> up next growing peas in the u.s. losing money but banking a part on the food market to turn it around. jane wells is live on a pea farm, hi, jane. >> hey, contessa peas are good for the body, the soil, but not a good business model as plant based meat is hyped because it's sustainable is the hype also sustainable that, we "closing bell" comes back

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cold that's why the peas are long gone harvested a while ago a while before they plant new ones production up 40% from a year ago. a lot from montana but half of the paes cross-the country are in storage we are at low prices we haven't seen in a linc time because most peas are exported and the two largest customers china appear india have tariffs as high as 50% which crushed the pea prices farmers like paul. hope surge in domestic demand makes up some of that but the plante-based meat is new to them. >> there is not a lot of talk about growing peas for cliff bars ob ripple milk on beyond meat ifs in sustained i want the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. >> he has bought a new seed this season frb purest foods which supplies high-protein pea pree

tone to beyond meat and caringle made a $$100 million investment in purest. >> blue peas >> they're blue because -- they are blue that's a prefertilizers to give it a shot. it's non-gmo as all are. but the particular seeds will not be organic because of the coating to help fight off disease. >> okay, but what about the fact that we are starting to see a breakthrough that china is going to buy more agricultural products does this give the farmers hope to go back to the original customers? >> they really really hope so. china, who knows they don't want to believe -- they don't want to get up hopes. the bigger customer is indy. india has the tariffs because it's trying to support its own pea farmers.

eventually india will have a bad year as the u.s. farm ertz say here the u.s. spigot back on and they will buy at least domestic demand provides some stability if the hype is real. >> and so, jane, in terms of overall pea prices are they getting even lower than they are in the store i would say for the surprise li price certainly wsh, they're one of best vegetables out there i think i have to stock up >> they're so cheap. and, yes, they are at 20-year lows so cheap which is why farmers like them as a rotation crop this will continue unless some farmers decide not to grow peas because they can't make money until the trade war gets better. then you piet see prizes come back. >> jane wells real commitment thank you. >> she needs a hot cup of pea and ham soup. >> or pea's porridge hot didn't that come from the uk?

>> probably. love peas you don't get them as much in america. peas with almost everything back home we grow them our sold. >> peas porridge cold. >> crushed pea on toast rather than avocado we are out of time alas. but we continue this discussion ourselves. >> "fast money" begins right now. yes, it does three peas in pod at the nysep thank you. and here at the nasdaq market site a little further uptown i'm brian sullivan on this rainy tuesday outside the trainers vent yurg the weather to come in tim speerm. karen finerman, dan nathan and guy adam y with markets set another slough of record. from the bullish man on wall street he tells us why he is so optimistic and what the biggest richlk to the market rally may be plus bogey you