welcome, everybody, to a very busy edition of "power lunch. we're going to begin this hour with breaking news as we are moments away from the release of the fed's beige book which will inform the fed's decision making later this month stocks are soaring as phase one of the trade deal with china is signed on the dotted line. let's go to steve liesman for the beige book >> economy expanded modestly in 2019 two districts came in above average growth, three districts were subpar. consumer spending growth was modest to moderate with holiday sales reported to be quote/unquote solid. car sales expanded moderately. manufacture pointed out as the weak area of the economy was flat in most districts many districts with uncertainty continued to weigh on some businesses job cuts or reduced hiring was reported among manufacturers, energy and transportation

sectors, however, employment was steady to rising in most other sectors. and throughout the nation, labor markets are set to remain tight. and widespread labor shortages were actually reported wage growth, however, something that we've talked about for a long time was modest to moderate home sales front, moderate variation. now, prices rose at a moderate pace however, some businesses were indeed passing along tariff increases to consumers and i want to take you through a few of the regional comments which we got which in many cases represent an about-face from the prior beige book in new york, sectors plan to raise their sale prices in 2020. and it rose significantly and they anticipate higher prices among manufacturers. one last thing here, in cleveland, retailers said tariffs put upward pressures on costs. so we have these districts around the country reporting that these tariffs are still

working their way through the economy. it could potentially put some upward pressure on inflation but overall, all of this reads like about a 2% trend economic growth economy leading this >> so, steve, as you highlight some of the price increases that have either occurred or in the pipeline anticipated, is that good news to the fed in other words, does that help them reach or maintain their 2% of inflation target? >> it could put upward pressure at least temporarily what it is bad news for, tyler is perhaps the retailers and the sellers will see if they're able to keep their margins. what seems to have happened, in prior beige books, we've had higher input costs but the inability to pass them along now we're going to be passing them along in an effort top preserve their margins other beige books, the competition was too tough. i was going back to last month where a restaurateur said we're

getting higher prices because of tariffs because we can't pass them along because of business we'll see if that sticks that's not be the case >> steve liesman reporting for us well, let's go over to bertha coombs as the new york stock exchange for the reaction to the beige book results? >> not a whole lot of reaction to the beige book itself the dow ticking a little bit louder traders say really they're folk coverage on that trade deal. a lot of them watching to see whether we'll be seeing a little fade the news into the close, given that a lot of this was anticipated. a lot of people are working through the deal one of the things we've been watching this afternoon has been chip stocks which took a little dip. wall street reporting that the commerce department, expanding the trade deal is looking at closing out some loopholes that allowed the chip makers to continue selling to huawei that seems to have an impact on

chim ma chip makers. the whole tariff china thing continues to be a factor >> chip a good one to watch. thank you, bertha. let's get to rick santelli at the c & e for the beige market hi, rick >> indeed, if you're looking for a big reaction on the foreign exchange on the beige book it hasn't occurred. look at one week of two, we've drifted kind of the high 150s. you can see the bend there as it starts to curve down but it's really noticeable on 10s on 10s be the 177 low isn't challenged but we are under 180. and if we look at one week you can see the deterioration is significant in what has been tight ranges and tight closes. and it really goes to heart. beige book steve is right what it's depicting is a 2% economy. do you think stocks are anticipating a 2% economy?

interest rates seem to be. and do you think our central bank wants more inflation now, do they want to move from a pause to a tightening? i'm not sure what the central bank wants but the dollar index starting to slip under 97.30. look for the lows, tyler, back to you >> for more reaction on the beige book and what it may mean for your economy, your money, and welcome to both of you dian diane, let me begin with you, since we're talking about rising prices and the beige book cited rising input costs in a variety of industries. tariffs being passed along, food prices rising in restaurants and labor shortage which is translates to me that companies are going to have to pay more for workers. are we looking at the beginning of a persistent rise in

inflation in this country or not? >> i think that's something that the fed would like as steve said, it's more transitory there's question whether or not those prices will stick, given the razor-thin margins, particularly in retail i thought it was interesting as well the break between manufacturing which is feeling the full effects of the trade war, even though we've ratcheted things down a bit. and the rest of the economy is doing better that's good news because it does mean we can absorb the shock trade wars as long as we keep the count going and that's good news for the overall economy not good news for manufacturers. and the other important point, it means we should be paying more for workers what was the one thing in the beige book that wage gains were not that strong even though there were widespread reports of labor shortages. this has been one of the conundrums out there how wide based wage base has been

what we've not seen them move upscale to middle income household or across the board. and i think that's something very different from the past >> all right jim, let's move from the economic picture to the market matters. and to my way of thinking, an economy that's growing at 2% or so, as steve suggests, inflation going at 2 -- moving at 2% or, you know, within a band of that. and yields that are at 2% or below, that feels like a pretty good recipe for equities >> i agree, tyler. the words that kept popping out to me in the beige report over and over again was modest and moderate to me, that's another way of saying goldilocks overall for investors. modest to moderate what that means, it can persist. 3.5% unemployment rate modest to

moderate, can handle significant inflation. that's precisely a recipe for financial assets that continue to advance overall you know, we've been chronically disappointed in the last decade about the speed of this recovery it's always been around that 2% stall speed of gdp growth. and yet i'm starting to like disappointment if you will. because a slow-growing economy means a very long recovery and bull market. and it seems like we might get more of that to come with this report >> diana, i'm trying to pull all of this full circle here we're talking about prices rising and we're also hearing from target with disappointing holiday sales even though there was growth even though last year with the sales retail numbers from the government with that good picture of consumer spending it was a little disappointing and a little confusing, quite frankly,

because we felt the consumer was quite strong and didn't end up being the case as dire as that report continued to say. does that make this retail sales number more or less important when we get that tomorrow as another picture for economic growth >> absolutely, we need to know exactly what the solid retail sales gains were and what it neens the shift online we know that brick and mortar stores were already hit. that's showing up in the earnings and we're seeing more stores closing it's important to see the retail sales. this is a preview for it and it's still good and a move to online but we didn't get a sense of how robust they actually were. a lot of them people did rush out in the last days, that's the good news. and we still don't know, and we'll get the first cut of that tomorrow what's also important more broadly in this report, you know, we're talking about an economy that is slow to recover. that is not good news. we still have a large number of

people who are still not connected to labor force and we're still not pulling them in. even though we've gotten back to the highest preparticipation and as far as labor force participation, a lot of it is because of long-range employment it's been very stubborn. the longer the employees go, the longer it takes to get re-engaged and how much this would have been for everyone if we regained our losses earlier now, many of the losses that people are suffering have become much more sustained. they once were earning, although their wages are rising rapidly at the low end, they were once earning high wages >> quick question, diane, is the answer you just gave, i think i heard you saying, no, no, no to jim earlier. >> yes >> that's not saying you enjoy disappointment >> no, i'm not going to enjoy disappointment we need a stronger recovery

sooner we lost fiscal stimulus early on in the expansion and that is something we know. there's all kinds of research out there suggesting the long-term pain that gave us. that's something, knowing what it meant to individuals on the ground and what it still means today, i say, no, i'm sorry. i know it's great for equities those of us who have equities it's good for us, but not good for a lot of americans >> jim, do you want to respond to diane >> yeah, i will. i think it's not too bad that you don't have a full-fledged economic contraction in almost 11 years we used to have contractions every four years we'd argue we'd have almost a third one by now it's hard for me to argue is it better to boom like we did and go up with a 5 gdp -- >> that's not -- >> and 2.5 and not be interrupted for 11 years >> no. >> i'm not sure one is worse than the other, overall. and i don't think it's just the stock market that's benefited. you got unemployment rate at

3.5. long-term unemployment rate is low. and minority rate is low >> just think how much faster we could have gotten, jim i'm sorry, it's pretty unequivocal, austerity -- >> every four years, you could ride it every four years. >> we haven't had the short cycle since the 1980s. so, it's been four years now so, i think it's really important to take into context the boom of the '90s was a shorter boom, ten years instead of 11 but it delivered a lot more for a lot more people you want to sustain the expansion, i'm right there to sustain it as much as possible top continue with people who are not marginalized and part of a marathon that's great, that's the fed's goal that said, they would have like to have seen a lot more heat a lot sooner in the economy so people had wages to recover from >> it's an interesting

conversation i respect the agreeable disagreement signing trade one of the phase deal, too much fanfare, kayla tausche was in the room. >> hi, courtney, in a nearly two-hour signing ceremony, the trump administration cited this deal as a watershed moment touting the lawmakers and businesses that will stand to benefit from increased access to the chinese market and about $200 billion in purchase targets that china has pledged to make over the course of the next two years. the chinese delegation by comparison, it was small and it was much more subdued the vice premier read a letter encouraging a win-win solution beijing's primary goal throughout has been to buy a bunch of u.s. goods and get the

tariffs removed in return. president trump said he'll accept it but that tariff rollback isn't in the cards yet. >> i'm leading them on and because otherwise we have no cards to negotiate with and negotiating with leo is very tough but they will all come out as soon as we finish phase two >> so when does that happen? rocket lighthizer said the deal will take place in 30 days he says it is the white house's intention to start those phase two talks before the see election now, lighthizer has been the chief architect of the deal from the beginning he is a realist, though when i asked him about the evolution of the deal. he said, is it ideal but is it massively good first step yes. >> what is the business impact of this deal and is phase two really just around the corner?

to talk more about that in washington is stephanie miller, co-founder of sandhill strategy. there are things i didn't know about you, you lead sandhill's politics, trade, tobacco and cannabis practice. you're an interesting person, i must say >> i know, what do you want to talk about, i can do whatever. yeah >> so, earlier today, the president's chief economic adviser larry kudlow said the gdp is going to add a percentage point in 2020 and 2021 he cited a number of products in the market do you believe the numbers are attainable, both to the gdp and specific categories of sales >> yeah, so the aspirational goal of having enormous amount

of stuff that we can sell and all of the dollars into our economy makes a ton of sense and to the extent that, you know, i think economies and farmers here can produce towards those goals is great but some of the increase, whether it's in agriculture or whether in manufacture are big plus-ups in different levels in the current year, or even 2021, you can completely transform the production side here and achieve those economic goals. i'm just skeptical i have not seen their math they're smart people, the idea that they haven't thought of a rampup time, i wouldn't mean to imply that, but how in the heck do farmers get a whole new cycle going today? they didn't get any assurances until today and spring is just around the corner. >> larry's number on ag imports was $50 billion a year

maybe more eye popping is the one in manufacturing which he cites 75 billion a year. can u.s. factories ramp up that quickly to sell? in other words, can we deliver on the supply side >> i'm looking in 2017, manufacturing exports to china were 127 billion a year. that's 75 billion, that number is a huge plus-up. i think we can get some of the way, and china will buy what it can from the u.s. but i'm skeptical we can make increases that the level at the same time, you know, when looking at what the market is doing and looking at what investors are going to be looking at one is specific. and this deal doesn't tell us specific and doesn't tell under what under manufacturing or commodities under agriculture, what the targets are and they're not intending to reveal the specifics. from an investor's point of view, it's hard to take the

numbers beyond in general they seem really great. >> stephanie, you have members of the administration calling this is a watershed moment it's a very big deal kala just told us, and mr. lighthizer, you don't have all of the details, was all of it worth it the trade war worth it for what we got for phase one? >> yeah, i've been back and forth with some folks with are we actually going to be exporting more at the end of the day relative to 2017 to china after the trade war started, and the answer is we don't know for sure i think at the end of the day, the point wasn't on chinese purchases. that was a part of it, but the other part was on tech transfer and i.p. theft andwhat the administration wanted to do is change the way

china interacted and engaged with u.s. economies. and i think that u.s. companies are starting to feel the ways that they weren't competent and their ways to do business successfully and durable in china may start to happen. i think time will tell i think more tariffs need to be rolled back for u.s. companies to be extremely happily about that >> quick answer. it took a long time to get to phase one. do you expect phase two to be in place before the end of the year >> i think sentiments have to be around rollback, otherwise, it's hard for me to imagine trump can get re-elected >> appreciate it and the stock downgraded by bernstein. we'll talk to the analyst who made that call and target holiday sales the stock getting punished as a result where did it go wrong? we're going to talk it through coming up here on "power lunch."

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welcome back to "power lunch. it was a blue christmas for target the retailer stock is having its worst day since 2018 after reporting disappointing holiday sales. target pointed to weaknesses in electronics and toys and homegoods. here with us cnbc retail reporter lauren thomas lauren, i was a little bit surprised about the results

because we both know target has had a really strong trend. but if you don't win in those key holiday categories it's pretty tough to win for the holiday season >> sure. agreed home, electronics, toys, those are a weak spot for target to counter that, some of the analysts that i did talk to this morning said target did see gains in apparel, food and beverage andh are arguably a few areas where the company has been investing over the past few months. i think that kind of shows that its strategy has been working in those areas and in electronics and home in particular those two categories tend to be very promotional around the holiday season i think the idea is maybe target wasn't competitive enough on prices like flat screen tvs. and it lost some of that share to best buy, costco. and in toys, again, that was another area where we expected to see growth but target was comping on a year, 2018 wrrgs it had really doubled down in toys.

saw explosive growth in that space. when you're laughing, obviously, such a great year, it's hard to grow is sales there. >> to that point, if they had that promotion on categories, they're able to hold on to that margin and which is why they're able to reaffirm the earnings forecast >> exactly >> but 2020 is interesting because like we both know, they've really invested a lot in that category. they've had 21 straight quarters of toy sales growth. yes, they had a strong holiday, but is it over i mean, is this the end of the toy bonanza for target what does it mean for target >> sarin witten actually published a piece on cnbc. you saw hasbro stocks were down this morning, so was mattel. we think there's a widespread epidemic happening in the toy industry, where you have

manufacturer, after toys "r" us, cut down their inventory in what they were supplying retailers, not only throughout the holiday season, but the entire year. especially if you look at this holiday season, there wasn't one hot item in the past, it's been hatchimals or something maybe on the "star wars" list there wasn't a hot toy, so to speak that everyone wanted. >> absolutely. >> you need a little more creativity and another good movie. >> hot electronics seem to be air pods i don'tknow if the little kids were asking for air pods, and expensive electronics. >> santa brought them. >> i guess he did. >> thank you, lauren, for being here for more check out lauren's piece on cnbc.com or target sales and the piece she was speaking about with toys goldman sachs, bank of

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welcome back to "power lunch" and "trading nation." big bank earnings all but wrapped up now wall street turns ahead to a rush of regional banks, people's united regional pinnacle, fifth third on the docket. is it time to bet on this corner of the financial sector. let's bring in your "trading nation" team matt meyler, nancy taylor taylor investments matt, why don't you take it away, on the chart on the kre, and what it tells you about this as a time of opportunity or not. >> well, i think it could be an opportunity for the group. i mean, we have turned bullish back on the bank stocks back in august when the work showed that the long-term interest rate.

were going to bounce the bank stocks did rally in mid-december, and starting to pull back. the kre could pull back a little bit more however, i think one of the reasons i'm bullish i do think that the fed, the ecb and doj, all of the central banks, one of the goals is to steepen the yield curve and that's going to be bullish for the banks if the kre gets down to 55 level that will be lows and trend for august that should provide support for kre and a way to get back in the group. >> nancy, matt sees an opportunity tiparticularly if t group moves lower. what do you say and see in the names? >> u.s. bank reported today and kind of confirmed our fears. we happen to own the stock, unfortunately. the regionals are getting squeezed a little bit. the rate curves hurt them even

though the steepening yield curve in the fourth quarter didn't help much and they're guiding lower for the interest income in 2020. so we've been expressing ourselves, our commitment to the group with the bigs, jpmorgan, t. rowe price. and aspect manager is important for us if you're going to play the group you do want to do it through an etf like the kre, because you don't want to take the specific stock risk that you're going to get from management teams at the regional banks. and the small ones in particular so, i think it looks interesting. i'd let it go through earnings season and pick it up after that >> nancy, thank you very much for your insight matt, thank you as well. for more trading nation, head to our website or follow us on twitter @tradingnation ahead on "power lunch," the omni getting cooked.

the only lianalyst joins us nex. and how one expert thinks despite earnings, the exports could have a quarter and "star wars," despite the force not being felt in one key market we'll explain all of this when "power lunch" returns. and now the latest from trade g naingnation.cnbc tradingnation.cnbc.com and a word from our sponsor. when it comes to investing, there are analysis, fundamental which focuses on cash flow and trend. i'm joanna kean, and schwab is the better place for traders change healthcare is the leading independent healthcare

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welcome back, everybody. i'm sue herera here's your cnbc news update at this hour the house has voted on a resolution officially sending articles of impeachment over to the senate seven managers appointed by house speak nancy pelosi are expected to hand deliver the paperwork this evening a search is under way in raleigh to find a missing worker trapped after a construction site trench collapsed. three people have been pulled out and being treated for their

injuries there is further evidence the planet is indeed getting warmer government research released today shows the last decade was the hottest on record. the findings coincide with greenhouse gas emissions hitting a record high last year. and for just the second time in history, an all peopfemale t has just completed a space walk. jessica mir and christina cook replaced batteries to upgrade the power station. and they had to do it with only one light. pretty amazing stuff that is the news at this hour, courtney back to you. >> probably wearing high-heels and doing it backwards, too. >> they certainly could. we'll give you a quick check on the markets today on the big one that the trade deal gets done, dow jones industrial higher by 0.5%. and we'll see if we can close at that level, s&p 500 0.3%.

oil markets are closing for the day. frank holland at the cnbc commodity desk >> oil prices falling on news that u.s. crude production rose to a new record and on concerns that the phase one deal will not boost commands for tariffs until the phase two deal the benchmark closing down 0.5%. wtif bench, falling. and down 2.5%. down in two out of the last three sessions likely due to milder weather >> thank you very much, frank. the wild ride for beyond meat continuing today. the stock down 7% after a downgrade. we'll speak to an analyst who made that call coming up even with today's losses the stock is it still up 15% this year and it's january 15th.

kate rogers has more >> beyond meat announcing on tuesday that it stuck a three-year deal to increase pea protein. it's a key ingredient in beyond meat products. while beyond wouldn't comment further the company did say the amount to be supplied over the next three years is significantly higher than the amount that roquette had supplied it in 2019. it was a potential risk that the company mentioned upon going public back in may over the summer, the founder told me that the company is in a better composition to combat returns than in the past the big question is when beyond goes national here in the united states, the two have a test partnership in canada. that was recently expanded to over 50 restaurants. rival and food expert pat brown said that company isn't going

about mcdonald's we'll be watching to see if beyond brings it beyond any closer >> peas, protein products. a downgrade from bernstein the analyst has been bullish on the stock but now she says its growth potential in the u.s. has been placed in with us to talk about it alexia howard, the analyst that made that call. we're going to get your take on the pea protein in a moment here overall, this is about the valuation because of how far the stock has run, particularly in the beginning of the year in the first two weeks, than really the fundamentals of the company. but give us your call. >> absolutely. it is all to do with valuation it's had a great run particularly over the past few days, as i started to think can i take my target price up again, i really think at this point, the sales outlook for the next couple of years, at least in the u.s. is priced in. all eyes to what the

international expansion could look like. >> you think it's priced in right now in the united states and doesn't have to do with the supply, they just frankly don't have enough ingredients to expand in the way that they need to why are we constrained in the united states in your pea? >> it's not really to do with the pea protein pop rife got ample supply over the next few years, the roqe etette deal tak that further i've been looking at the extrusion techniques, the and techniques used to weave the protein together, that's the secret source. looks as though they can scale from roughly $280 million in sales this fiscal year up to $191 million the real question is will they start to put more product combaeft ov

capacity in europe and asia? as i say, i'm taking a pause for now. >> is the game-changer here the possibility that this company's product will be rolled out nationally and maybe internationally by mcdonald's? if that happens, would that change your price target in any material way, and if it doesn't happen, is there a substantial downside for the stock >> so, we've modeled in the potential for the mcdonald's deal in north america to roll through. it's very encouraging that they've expanded the test market up in canada frankly, they've already said they wouldn't try to do it nationally all in one go they said even if we do get the contract in north america, we'd probably do it in a scaled way, region by region so they can digest it over time. but, yes, that potential is in our numbers. we put a 50% chance that the u.s. contract with mcdonald's comes in obviously, if it does, that probably will provide more upside to the stock in terms of sentiment and excitement and the

potential sales value. we estimate that mcdonald's could add another $170 million or so to sales if it was in the u.s. alone obviously, if they don't get the contract or if somebody else steps in, that could provide some sentiment risk. but i think given the demand for the beyond meat products with other restaurant chains here in the u.s. and also other command in europe, well, i think there will be strong demand because of employment change out there. i'm not too worried about the sales protection from here >> alexia, hope to have you back apparently, a lot of people made the new year's resolution to buy a new home. new numbers that could bode well for the housing market plus, on the tasting menu, teflon tin takes a bump from trump, a "star wars" milestone and another head rollsn e sellign-stealing scandal what do advisors look for in an etf?

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an unexpected jump in mortgage demand to start the new year diana olick joined us from washington with the numbers. >> hi, tyler

we don't usually see this move this early in the year mortgage applications jumped 30%. that according to the mortgage bank seasonally adjusted index part of the move was fueled by a drop in mortgage rates on the 30-year fix that's the lowest since last september. last year, rates were 87 basis points high. and finances up 43% for the week and up 109% annually homeowners are starting to pull up more cash on the re-fis as we reported after the new year, the spring buying season is starting now. we saw a lot of open houses on the first sunday after new year's that is likely a big move on the home construction which is the highest since december 20th. and we get the january read on sentiment tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. we'll see if they can beat that. courtney >> diana, i know you said as i

reported i remember talking about the shift of this selling season 16% is a big number. it's atypical, right >> that's very atypical. you don't see that kind of move. generally, it's 3%, 4% no messing with the numbers either no holiday involved in that. we've seen a lot of people out there looking for homes and applying for a mortgage at the same time. here's a taste of some of the other stories we're following today from friend to foe. tim cook slammed apple for the request made by the government he suggests that apple should work with the fbi since the white house helped the company navigate the trade war apple shares have remained resilient. tyler, on apple's part, they said we have cooperated. given them gigabytes of information. they don't have to unlock the

iphone with a password there's fear it could get in the hands of the bad guy this is a tricky one with the president weighing in. and the trade wars, it's a messy one. >> i don't know enough on the law or where the courts stand. it feels to me that eventually there's some legislation passed that addresses this or the supreme court is going to have to weigh in or make a decision on where the privacy right stops and the societies imperative to prosecute crimes let's talk about disney which broke another intergalactic record "star wars," rise of skywalker surpassed the 5 billion mark disney 7 billion release in 2019 although the movie didn't play well in klein. it's been a magical run for disney the stock has surged 20% in the

past 7 billion film just astonishing >> unbelievable. it seems if you're a fan of "star wars," doesn't matter if the movie is good or bad in between, you're going anyway and boston red sox manager alex cora fired last evening after he was implicated in the sports sign-stealing scandal cora was one of the coaches for the houston astros when they won the 2017 world series. the astros were fined $5 million. deprived of their first and second round picks in 2020 and 2021, cora went on to manage the red sox who in 2018 won the world series they are now apparently being investigated as well by the commissioner >> it seems like this is a topic that is not done yet we'll probably hear more i've learned an awful lot about what's allowed and not allowed when it comes to sign stealing

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well, the earnings reporting season is under way and a majority of the big banks beating on earnings this week.

although some of the stocks are under pressure right now our next guest says this will be a season of strength the leader in middle market lending, with more than $30 billion in capital management, the index can provide early insight into financial performance of public companies and it's shown a high correlation with the s&p 500 and gdp. joining us to discuss the lending indicator is the ceo what is your index telling you right now about the economy and the s&p? >> tyler, thanks nice to see you. nice to be here. a year ago when i was here, we had just finished a q4 where the s&p was down about 14% and concerns about recession were very high. we came in and reported very strong numbers for the performance of our portfolio companies and the index with double digit revenue and profit growth, and we said those expectations look wrong and we turned out to be correct

we now look at the full year 2019 growth, the profit in our portfolio turned out to be higher than full year 2018 an area of particular strength has been industrials >> it's very interesting that you say that, because when we began the hour with the report on the beige book, one of the areas that they said was challenged was the industrial or the manufacturing sector of the american economy but there's a distinction there, which i would love for you to dwell on for a minute, in the kinds of companies that are part of your portfolio and your index, and the others that are not. and yours are doin exactly i think aggregate industrial, aggregate manufacturing numbers include a very big component of oil and gas drilling, general motors, boeing, of equipment manufacturers for the farming industry the segments of manufacturing

that are focused on the domestic economy outside of those areas is actually performing very, very well. not only very good growth in profits, but expanding margins, which is something that's especially interesting at this stage. in fact, it's consistent with mid cycle, not late cycle, so it's very bullish. >> another economy part of the economy right now is and has been the u.s. consumer a lot of the retail earnings reports we don't get until the tail end of the reporting season what is your index telling you right now about the consumer and some of those related companies, what we may be hearing >> i was a little surprised to see the relative lack of strength in targets and revenue numbers. the growth was not as strong as we would have expected we've had consistent 3.5% unemployment for months. the highest number of employed americans ever, real job growth of 2%, nominal job growth of over 3%. so you have more people working,

more people earning. the growth rates are even higher at the lower end of the income spectrums. and we see that strength throughout the domestic economy, and i expect in the aggregate, without calling winners and losers within retail, the aggregate, the numbers ought to be very strong. >> lawrence, thank you as always good to see you. >> check, please, is next. and as a remind, you can catch us live on the go on the cnn app. we'll be back right after this stay restless with the icon that does the same.

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check, please. zion williamson has announced that he will come back and play his first game on the 22nd of january. he's been plagued by knee injuries, but he is coming back next week. >> he is really fun to watch. i don't know if you've been watching the jeopardy greatest of all time. >> you could say his career was in jeopardy. >> it concluded last night i don't want this to be a spoiler for anyone, but enough time has passed, ken jennings won. he is the greatest of all time james holzhaure was close. he went all in on final je jeopardy, but he didn't get it right. >> in the category, it's amazing how quickly they have to do some calculating on how much i need now, holzhauer's mo was going

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