tending to do very well. a bit different with the banks the banks started moving when the yields came off the lows another new high for bank of america. look at that move. there's the closing bell on christmas eve. last year, down 2.7% this year, flat. totally different situation compared to one year ago and welcome to a special edition of "closing bell." i'm scott walker >> here's how we finished the day on wall street on this christmas eve. take a look at the major averages the s&p 500 is down by less than 1 point. the dow, the dow is down about 35 the nasdaq is the outperformer that's the one that has been on a run. a record close for the nasdaq of ten consecutive sessions

the s&p 500 by the way is having its best year since 2013 we do have a if you more trading days left in the year and you can still notch the best year since '97. we'll see where things shake out but people are already apparently going for the egg nog. trading was little light, as they say down here today >> certain lay different tone from last year's christmas eve joining us to talk about the markets. the senior portfolio manager paul hickey, co-founder of the investment group and the portfolio manager. great to see you all i'll start with you. what do you make of today's market reaction? >> yeah. just light volume. i do think this year we're in a complete market melt-up. kind of an interesting time where things can get a little bioverdone and i would be kind of cautious here and look to maybe take some profits and sell some of those names in the portfolio. it might be overvalued here.

>> and i would understand if you think that you do get some selling once you turn the calendar over. people don't want to sell now for tax purposes you get to january maybe people are looking at their portfolio as little closer saying i've had a lot of great gain this is year. let me come back off the top of the mountain >> i think we're all debating that you see this kind of run it is normal to take profits and i think you're right there's been hardly any losses to offset tax gains. but i think the reasons tobias talked about, i think sentiment is not overdone here i think institutions are in the midst of cyclical, wherever they think they're find earnings potential. and i think that will continue into january of i wouldn't be surprised either way if there is a bit of a pause, i think you wait and see and then you can buy stocks you want to add. there's a lot of cash coming in. >> you do, paul.

whenyou have a year like this. you look at market data as closely as anybody you do traditionally get a positive year following a strong year like we've had. >> right what we do, in our year end outlook, we look at a ton of different angle and viewpoints what we're seeing is there's nothing really suggesting a rip-roaring rally for 2019 or 2020. i'm dating myself. but there is nothing to suggest below average returns either so normally we see an outweighing of pros or cons versus the other right now it is pretty much evenly split and that leaves with you the main thing to watch is the fed as long as the fed sticks to its words, and they did a 180 degree turn last december it is possible they could become more hawkish even though they said they haven't been if they don't and they remain stable the path of least resistance is higher >> we've been looking at the

outperformers. i want to draw our attention, leading the nasdaq upped its price target to $53 citing solid channel checks and data center sales which the firm says is a positive for nvidia as well and this is one of the best performing stocks on the nasdaq for the year not just today >> and it looks like it can continue they were interesting because they had done their own channel checks if you look at what they had on the server market, maybe a couple hundred million if that all they have to do is get a little bit more share. and that's a positive. and the gaming market, a nice, steady secular grower. so it is it is a good call when you've had that, is it overdone at this point i think there's probably a bit more to go >> and a big part of the rebound has been the china trade war risk has been removed for now. >> and the semis, if there is any group that has been a leading indicator of the market

over the last several years, it is the semis >> we talk about the trans ports. they are ubiquitous in everything we use. dryers, hair dryers, watches, everything we own. so if you'll see a change, it is the semis. and it has peaked over the last several years and i think today, they are relative to the s&p 500. >> i do wonder about technology. it is the best performing sector it is up more than 40% paul meeks who runs a floe loaded with tech stocks earlier today, maybe it's time to feel a little queasy about where it is. and not you knowing people to continue to buy this space at least at current levels how do you feel about that >> yeah. i think we are very stock specific so we own semiconductor, a great name that is relevantly cheap

and it is all involved in building out the 5 g network so while they had no content at all on 3 g and 4 g, they had $100 her base station. so i think it will be a big stock and it is very cheap so i think you have to be very stock specific when hook at the individual sectors >> i want everybody to stay with us i want to get back to bob for a look at the big sell-off we saw last year. it was painful and scary a year ago. >> it was. 2.7% drop. what a difference a year makes december 24, 2018, it was the worst christmas ever for the stock market christmas eve down 2.7% for the day. at this point we were down 15% for the month to date. it was a culmination of a month of bad news beginning with president trump's im tariff man kolt remember that? december 5th the market dropped that day. then the fed raised rates december 19th. the s&p 500 was down 1.5% that day and that led to a four-day

drop culminating in the christmas eve drop what is different this year? virtually serving different. everything is reversed last year, the tariff wars were intense identifying. this 82er there are homes for a tariff truce the fed was in hiking mode last christmas. it has cut three times and it is now in neutral there were worries that a slowdown and a possible recession in late 2019 now there is some evidence the global slowdown may be bottoming and there is flop talk of imminent recession finally, there were concerns about a long term government shutdown last year and not an issue this year. so here's the bottom line. better clarity on those major issues has translated into better confidence. we know that's the main mover of the markets. >> bob, back to you. >> i truly believe bits the fed. i really do. we would not be sitting here having a conversation about a fabulous year without the fed

having made the pivot. and you can have everything else you had the trade war in full effect, in full rage, and stocks were able to hit new highs and it is because of the fed >> you're absolutely right as we check in earlier, in the beginning of this year, the fed was supposed to raise rates, the expectation was a number of times. three or four times. it is really all about the fed driving the markets. and then you have the trade is real and i have a question about what will happen with business confidence now that there's some stability in the trade except there is a lot going on there has been a big disruption. so that's a question for me and what that means for capital spending i'm not sure what will happen there. >> it not just stops sitting in record high territory. gold is on track for its best year since 2010. what do you make of that >> so this is the year where it was sort of hard to lose money

>> so the fed has certainly played a large role in what is going on here. they've become more accommodating as it showed weakness if they're going to take a more dovish stance, they've switched to neutral i think they're more to the hawkish side otherwise, i think he summed it up the one difference is whereas we were like multiyear levels of oversold readings last christmas eve, this year the market extended it hasn't been a straight run hiring the rally we've seen over the last month, thanksgiving to now, is pretty much in line with the average we've seen historically at this point in the year and leading into the last week of the year historically one of the best weeks of the year. last week was the best final week of the year for the s&p 500 in its history 6.6% >> that's why we love you. all the greatstats >> merry christmas happy holidays and happy healthy new year to you. >> all right same to you as well.

thank you for joining us up next, we'll talk to cara swisher about travis kalanick's exit from uber at fidelity, online u.s. stocks and etfs are commission-free. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk to take care of yourself. but nature's bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and well-rested. because hey, tomorrow's coming up fast. nature's bounty. because you're better off healthy. nature's bounty. ♪ ♪ i've been a caregiver for 20 years. no two patients are the same. predicting the next step for them can be challenging. today we're using the ibm cloud to run new analytics tools that help us better predict and plan a patient's recovery.

♪ ♪ ultimately, it's helping thousands of patients return home. and who doesn't love going home. most people think as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. uber co-founder travis kalanick resigning effective december 31st. also confirming that he has now sold his entire stake in that company. in a statement kalanick saying, uber has been a part of my high

of for the past ten years. at the chose of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits let's bring in kara swisher, executive editor good to see you. >> good to see you >> you expected this if we selling his stake, why would he remain on the board >> yeah. it's been a long time coming he hasn't been as involved he is running a business competitive with uber so it seemed inevitable that he would go i don't think he has a terrible relationship with the ceo but i don't think he is considered a help on the board. so as he shed those shares, it indicated that he wasn't influential at the company anymore. after spending so much time trying to keep hold of it which is ironic. i was thinking about that this morning. >> do you take any part of this as his belief or lack there of

in the company and its fundamentals, its business model, anything moving forward >> well, his belief that he doesn't have influence at the company and therefore cannot do what he wants to do necessarily. his ouster was controversial and some people feel like they need a ceo like that who is as aggressive as he is in this time i think the problem with uber is economics and cleaning up a lot of the mess that he made as ceo. i think you will see more departures from the board coming possibly of the saudi investors have a board seat. maybe a tightening up of the board itself and then some really strong thought with how to deal with their problems around economics. you will see, what they've been doing is cleaning up a lot of stuff. and trying to figure out how to move through this, i think the problematic economic problem they have which is how do you make money from the core business, which he has indicated

he answer ad question from "the new york times" conference that would be their business going forward despite all the other things they're working on. >> what does uber lose here at all by seeing kalanick move on and step off the board is there anything they lose by not having the expertise from the founder of the company >> no. not in this case i think this was a toxic founder. i don't know i think he is an interesting and creative person. his new business is interesting. he's been investing. but this cloud kitchens thing which he took money from the saudis is an interesting business so he's an entrepreneur. whatever you think of travis kalanick, he's a really interesting entrepreneur so i think he's more interested in doing his next thing. he's lots of companies you forget he had several companies before uber and i'm sure he'll have several companies after. so i don't think, it's unusual for a founder to leave but he's

one of the founders. others remain on the board and i think the issues around uber are around execution, not necessarily vision and i think they've plenty of vision and they need to figure out what the business model for this company is if they want to continue going forward >> a laundry list of challenges they're facing competition from lyft. does he sell that share to a local competitor it is relationship with the saudis going forward what do you think is the top challenge that darra faces next year >> i think the employee base i think the issues around ab 5 and how to pay people. i think that's always been top of mind for many people look at uber as the cost structure and getting profitable on a real basis. travis launched enormous amount of expansion way ahead of his skis, i think

working on uber eats seeing how that does it is an amazing brand for whatever you think of travis kalanick he's built an amazing brands and now they have to make it into the kind of business that is not, they have a lot of challenges from a business point of view and we'll see where it goes again, people love to use it it is a product people love to use. they probably have to raise prices they have all kinds of regulatory issues as you've seen in londs and elsewhere as they continue to do still, a product people love to use. i use it all the time. a lot of people use that and lyft it is economics. if the prices have to go up up or if it has to be part of a bigger company >> you used, kara, words to describe uber. tightening up, economics, and it gets me thinking more broadly about the valley itself. as a result, partly maybe uber

and what we saw in we work, if the valley will be different at all in 2020, that convenient you are capitalists will tighten up, to use your words, the way money is being spend out there or economics another word you use more in focus than perhaps they have been in the last few years. there's more scrutiny around these companies in the pipeline to go public in the new year >> well, not from the convenient you are capitalists. they've went throwing money at companies in enormous ways south bank, everybody thinks it is so unusual but there's lots of money everywhere for startups and it is wall street that has put some brakes on it and been the fire wall saying wait a minute west don't want to accept these companies. they're suffering in terms of stocks once they get to the public offering. maybe because they didn't go public quickly enough. they didn't have the discipline. maybe because wall street can do math look these businesses have to make money at some point. and then on other side, you have

businesses like facebook and google which are minuting money but are enormously valuable and under regular had aer to scrutiny so you have that coming, too so it's interesting. there are a lot of profitable business that's are now so large. they're sort of, they're taking the sunlight away from new and innovative businesses. so that's the other side of the coin is that issue for the big companies. >> yeah. no more tolerance for fuzzy math in the year. >> no no but then again, there is some really interesting ideas whether it is a.i. stuff that need to be invested in or vr or a.r. or health care stuff. food that needs investment and it will have to take a while to be fully baked so there should still be the idea that you want to invest in innovation and not worry as much about the business

once businesses become businesses, they have to act like businesses. so uber is a business. it is no longer a visionary thing. air bb is a business when they get to wall street they have to put on their adult pants and act like adults. >> thank you for joining us today on christmas eve >> thanks a lot. still ahead, hotels have been red hot in 2019 while job line trav companies have been underperforming. find out if that could reverse in 2020. plus, we'll break down which retailers have been crushing christmas.

ugh, another electronic signature. you have to print, walk, sign, scan, recycle, walk, email yourself... really? more walking, try again, waiting, recycle, walk, email yourself, then get back to your day. or not. this isn't working. introducing samsung paperless workflow solutions. with the galaxy tab s6, you can sign digital documents on-screen, with a finger or your s pen. samsung business solutions.

hotel stocks have been rubbing off on you >> it's been an interesting trends to watch this year. the hotel operators are on track to close the year with big gains. marriott, hilton and hyatt

expedia, booking holdings, trip adviser, all three underperforming the broader market in 2019 so why the divergence? despite soft okay pangsy levels, some say investors are increasingly placing their bets on hotel that's have better business models. investors like the asset like model and they see future earnings growth in these companies. even in a weak growth environment, as earnings are being driven by a very healthy level of new hotel openings from which companies collect franchising or management fees online travel operators all trading down after expedia's disappointing earnings report in early november from which the sector has not fully recovered the big thing to watch is who will take over for mark who was fired off expedia. the chairman is looking for a new ceo and i'm being told, scott, that whoever takes the place will have to figure out how to fend off competition from

google which has really been a big threat for the online sector you can see shares of expedia up about 8% since he was fired. >> i was looking at the divergence marriott is up 50% this year so a great year. >> that's the thing. the data will show it is pretty soft some businesses going back on travel but these stocks have done well because the pipeline looks very strong into next year >> up next, bill simon tells us which investors are giving the biggest gifts and which are leaving them a lump of coal. so it's simple and transparent with a new level of privacy and security. it lives here and here- on your iphone, and it will save you 6% on holiday gifts at apple; like iphone, apple watch, airpods pro and so much more.

♪ apply in as little as a minute, right in the wallet app.

here's a look at the closing bell the big board on the top s&p 500 and the dow closing lower while the nasdaq was able to close at yet another record high in the middle, some of today's best performing sectors. consumer discretionary, utilities. industrials, communication services and health care on the bottom >> it is time for a cnbc news update with bill griffith. >> hey, scott. here's what's happening this hour president trump addressed the troops from his marring resort in florida taking time to talk about the accomplishments of the armed forces >> this christmas, i hope every member of our military will feel the overwhelming love and gratitude of our nation for your

faithful service starting january 1st, you'll be getting your largest pay raise in more than a decade. >> meanwhile, u.s. military personnel have begun an operation to deliver christmas presents to those troop who's are stationed in syria those taking par in the so-called holiday express transported stockings stuffed with gifts to five bases in the country. in the meanwhile, a military plane delivering presents. and four generations of britain's royal family got into the festive spirit by delivering gifts for charity. they all set up shop in the music room where they spend the christmas holidays to make a special christmas pudding. this as part of the royal british legions together at christmas initiative happy christmas, as they say in england. to all of you. and to all of you a good night

thank you. >> all right, bill thank you. see you. >> all right let's move on to retail. retail stocks. nice gains this year, up more than 20% our next guest thinks the consumer is healthy and that this holiday season is shaping up to be one of the best in a decade let's bring in bill simon, the former walmart u.s. president and ceo. a pleasure to have you on the show today >> great to be with you. merry christmas. happy holidays >> and to you. we have stocks at record highs the consumer is strong which retail companies do you think happen best at really benefitting from the strong consumer story >> as up, the consumer has been in great shape this year winners, i'll tell you, as i watched them all the way through black friday through yesterday target has done a really good job. brian and his team have got things firing on all cylinders they had some great product. i think they're winning the battle in toys and their

inventory levels look really good they're transitioning well so i think target has done well and all the big retailers. because of the short distance between thanksgiving and christmas this year, this is the shortest calendar that we have it looks like consumers went to the bigger stores to get most of their trips done at once so i would say target, wall march, costco in the brick and mortar world did well and then of course amazon online >> go ahead. >> no, go ahead. >> which companies do you think have a lot to improve on in terms of their digital strategy and trying to target the consumer >> well, i think from a real estate perspective, a lot of the b and c level malls struggled. so anybody who has a big presence in those places struggled. jcpenney, they've gotten a little bit better, they haven't quite worked it out yet. i think they've struggled through this and then you know, the department stores. i don't think this was

particularly good for them i think they were more neutral i don't think it was particularly bad either. >> the way you answered the first question, bill, to me tells the whole story. right? you went down the list amazon, walmart, target, costco. i would throw in best bias being part of the group that has it all. that's great but it's also the problem because it's them and it's everybody else and i don't see that changing any time soon, do you? >> well, you know, it is them and then everybody else. if you take those five that you mentioned, you're talking about 40 or 50% of retail. if those guys are growing above average, above the retail average, which they have been all year, it makes it very difficult. they sort of suck up all the oxygen in the room and make it difficult for others to grow that doesn't mean retail itself is not healthy those four or five big guys are really dominating. >> for sure. it just means that investors, you know, like consumers, are

discerning when they decide where they're putting their dollars, why would they put them toward, and i'm just throwing out the names, macy's or a jcpenney when you can put it at a target which is as up, with brian cornell, ceo, knocking it out of the park for the year, and any of the other big five >> i think that's the decision investors make the same one as consumers make if there's nothing special in the store or the stock, i'm not going to take a risk and put my money there. i'll go with the things that deliver and that's the big five. >> is there room for opportunity here for amazon to improve its business model a "wall street journal" report two weeks ago saying you can basically sell trash on the website. >> i think amazon, i think that's the 2020 outlook for me the things that i'm looking for. amazon this year, you know, we've gone from prime with two day to one day to now hours.

and we know it can't go negative so we're done with the shortening of the time would have and through each of those transitions, amazon has really struggled with building, or rebuilding the profitability of the model. so i think that's what we have to look for next year. can amazon deliver in two hours and make money that remains to be seen. >> we'll leave the conversation there. thank you for joining us >> thank you >> up next, how a relatively new mortgage app is reducing bias against minorities trying to buy a home >> plus, china says it has no plans to sell tickoc tk. ♪

♪ ♪ 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. itreat them all as if, they are hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe.

a relatively new mortgage lender says it's seeing a huge jump in business from minorities diana is here with that story for us >> reporter: it's crediting the online platform and its app for reducing bias against some borrowers. better.com which reported 350% growth last year saw a tenfold increase in married lgbtq couples, five times the number of single women, a 675% jump in genz borrowers and over 400% growth for african-americans it rates buyers solely on their financials >> by creating an online trans apparently process helping reduce the friction and cat liesing access to homeownership for a segment that hasn't been able to participate. >> more than 40% of better.com's customers use their mobile phones to apply.

they said better.com did 700 million in loans this year and expects to do at least 2 billion per month by the end of 2020 >> it's a great story. thank you for bringing it to us. up next, the year of the ipo. despite we works' woes, there were some may know new outperformers in 2019 and we will break down the big winners when closing bell continues. as a principal i can tell you this. when one student gets left behind, we all get left behind. this is a problem that affects each and every one of us. together with ibm, we created a whole new kind of school called p-tech. within six years, students can graduate with a high school diploma, a college degree,

and a pathway to a competitive job. you know what's going up today? my poster. today, there are more than a hundred thousand p-tech students around the world. it's a game changer.

we've been working out every day. together we've already lost 15 pounds. didn't you say you gained a few? yeah of muscle. the point is we're doing it together. this whole process has really made me realise how much extra weight i've been carrying around. i might just want to drop another 180 pounds. that's almost how much i weigh hun. exactly.

kate has a look at 2019's winners and losers >> overall, public offerings as a whole did pretty well this year the renaissance ipo index has outperformed the s&p in what is looking to be an historic year for stocks the indelve saw a throw% gain versus a roughly 29% gain for the s&p. biotech companies were big winners thanks to the fda approving new drugs faster than investors had expected karuna therapeutics topped the list with a 385% gain. uber, lyft and smile direct are some of the bigger underperformers. the ipo resilience shows investors' appetite for high

growth companies but not the names without a path to profitability. >> appreciate it very much all right. let's, you stay with us, of course from uber and lyft to peloton, raising 46.3 billion that number down 1.2% from 2018. so what is the ipo outlook for 2020 joining us now, the head of research good to see you. >> nice to be here perfect that you are in air bnb and post mates i'm wondering how we should be thinking of the pipeline given some of the blow-up that's we had this year. >> we are absolutely positive. we expect the momentum to continue into 2020 the set-up is right. the risk sent symptom still on everything is positive going into 2020 and we believe it will perform well there were some blow-ups but we

are investors in lyft. we still believe in the story. i think it gets put in the same bucket as uber so it is getting some cross currents there. i think it will perform. a lot of things going on but overall, post mates, air bnb, these are the next big things of the. >> but growth at any price is over >> absolutely. growth at any cost is gone they did the market a favor. it was a wake-up call of i think growth at any cost does not work bad corporate governance structures do not work no transparency does not work. so you'll see that in the new companies that come out. they'll be conscious of that even if they're not profitable, they'll have a clear path and just communicate that very well in terms of the future i think that's very important. >> i guess a big part of the discussion is where the lack luster performance of some of the high profile ipo's will take the direct route 2020 will be the big test. that seems to be the big

conversation in silicon valley you mentioned the sector shift that this is plenty of money floating around for the companies with a clear path to profitability. if they have the stable business mod and he will a clear business plan, investors are all piling into the same names. but some of the bigger money losing companies are losing out. so we'll see but direct listings is absolutely top of mind >> what do you think >> absolutely. it will get there. it will be a very incremental process. not every company can do it. the inefficiencies have been very well telegraphed. i think they have articulated that very much and the market is coming in. a lot of advantages to that. i think overall, we see a lot of enterprise software companies bubbling up. the ipo pipeline will be skewed more toward the software air bnb and post mates are big ones but most in terms of edge computing, cyber security, cloud security, there are so many companies bubbling up.

they are in the eighth or nine round, seven to eight years old so they are ripe for ipo so you'll see a bunch coming to the market >> ironic you use the words bubbling up. some are hook at software and wondering about froth. some of the valuations everybody is now a software company, serve a cloud may that's where the bulk of the optimism is. do you think we're getting a little frothy? >> yeah. when i say bubbling up, i don't mean in terms of valuation >> i was taking that as a play on words for what i wanted to talk about whether the space that you're so optimistic on has gotten a little bicrazy >> i don't think so. i think there's a need for that. they are all operating in the sweet spot of spending you need that. there's also acquisition premium built into these companies so you need that to make the market more efficient. by definition, these are disruptive companies you don't know how they'll perform but the outlook is very

good because they're in the sweet spot >> do you think with a company like air bnb, we know had a to expect we know their financials we know how bookings and even accommodated listings work for that company >> it may be slightly different. i think they have the scale, the pure may, they're global and they're best of breed. so i think a lot of things going for them plus they're profitable coming off the gate and just recently, they won the big contract with the olympics an eight-year contract so all the positive news flow will flow into that and you'll see it >> do you think the valley would want vision too to happen from soft bank? or do you think there are those saying this has had a detrimental effect on valuations at large and maybe it is a good idea if it doesn't >> i think it is important you need the funding as well but i don't think you can just spray money around i think it will be more

measured more targeted. more strategic and that's what they need to do and i think that's what they're doing in softbank. you need ultimately, the funning is good and the liquidity is good in the private markets and you need private companies to come public. so all that is good. >> on that note, have you spoken to any private companies in the valley that say they've been presented the money from softbank but they've decided to say no because of the reputation the company has? >> it seems to be, the we works situation, we knew these valuations were unrealistic. there are others who have said no thanks but it seems like the only alternative is stop pouring money into your competitors so it heaves them with a dhilemma it definitely brought it to the spotlight. >> yeah. absolutely >> happy holidays. >> happy new year.

same to you. still ahead, not for sale. chinese social media firm says it does not have any plans to cell tiktok. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg.

the chinese social media byte dance says it has no plan to sell tiktok >> quite a tongue twister there. chinese owned tiktok faces growing scrutiny over how it handles data and the question whether it censors content the report yesterday said it is weighing selling part or all of its tiktok app cdue to concerns in the u.s but they said there have been no discussions of partial or full sale of tiktok it is completely without merit

meanwhile another report that said they are considering setting up global headquarters outside china, that they are considering london and dublin. but they said they don't share user date with its parent company or the chinese government but it is facing significant scrutiny the committee on foreign investment is reviewing the start-up which became tiktok >> this is a company that has generated a big debate yes. 665 million monthly active users over thanksgiving. all three of my nieces use it. they love it this has really captivated attention. not just millennials but genz. >> this is the first social media app we've seen that has gained significant traction that is founded and based outside of the u.s. and so i think it will be really interesting to see what happens. we've never had regulators faced with this kind of popularity of a nonu.s. app before even the u.s. based apps are

facing significant concerns. >> at a time obviously where tensions between china and the u.s. are at a high regarding trade and national security issues across the board. >> absolutely. and we've seen various arms of the military make specific, not just recommendations but admonitions that members of the military should not be using tiktok in various ways because they do see it as a threat >> now the question is, if they do establish a headquarters outside of china, does that really quiet down concerns that this is a chinese company? of course it still is. >> it still is i think what will be interesting is what happens with regulation of all the social media platforms. the question of data, censorship i think it is really notable that the topics that a friend of mine with ticket rocking the same ones with facebook. perhaps the stakes are higher when you have a nonu.s. company. >> one of the big asian companies to watch >> byte dance is the apparently company of tiktok. the valuation is about $75

billion. >> wow, interesting. thanks for bringing it to us up next, your wall street look ahead the key things every investor needs to watch

welcome back opportunity employment rate hitting record lows this year. here's a look at hiring trends in 2020. >> a hot economy led to a tight job market in 2019 with education and health services, leisure and hospitality and professional and business services here are three predictions for the labor market in 2020 first, workers remain in high demand 2019 was truly an employee's market as companies across sectors named finding and keeping talent a top challenge expect the trend to continue next year as unemployment remains historically low babyboomers continue to age out of work force leaving an even smaller pool for employers

second, incentives and training continue upskag or training workers already employed by a company is a move many employers are making as a supply of available talent remains low. training programs along with incentives like bonuses and more robust benefit offerings will be key in attracting and retaining workers. third, tech continues to change the game for manufacturing to retail, technology is becoming an increasingly important part of the equation for workers look out for technological advances continuing to shape where and how employees do their jobs >> speaking of jobs, tomorrow the market is closed for the holiday. but on thursday we do get jobless claims it is expected to come in at 220,000. down from last week's 234,000. >> meantime, thursday could be a big day for retail shopper track is estimating the day after christmas to be the third busiest shopping day of the year

trying behind black friday and super saturday may know retailers finishing mixed. >> will you be shopping the day after christmas? >> no. i'm done totally done as a matter of fact, we're just about done we'll see what's in store for a few trading days in the year it could be the best cynic 2013 or cynic '97 right now the s&p has the best year since 2013. you need about 1% or so to have the best year since 1997 you do have some momentum. the santa claus rally, the final stretch of the year and the first few days of january so we shall see. >> talk about momentum the dow did not quite get there. it was down 32 that certainly seems to be a big part of the narrative. the strong outperformance of technology, earnings mixed yet people like the sector >> nasdaq up ten straight days it's been a great year for technology we'll see how it all checks out

as you get into the new year it has been a great year across the board. that does it for the closing bowl this christmas eve. >> the profits begins right now. jimmy: we are the best-kept secret in new jersey. lemonis: the food is amazing. ...great food isn't gonna be enough to keep this little new jersey restaurant afloat. you may have lost some business in those months. jimmy: lost half the business. it went back down to the numbers where we started. lemonis: this father-and-son team's complete lack of experience... this does not look like a financial statement. this is how a bookie keeps numbers. ...and motivation... does this sign look nice to you? dante: no. lemonis: all these weeds, all this trash, it feels like you really genuinely don't give a [bleep]. ...has them bleeding money year after year. jimmy: i don't think you know totally what to do. you don't know the laws. you don't know if you can handle this. lemonis: they'll need to learn the basics from the ground up. dante: we buy the pasta by the pound. we pay about $3.50 per -- lemonis: about or exactly?