it is 5:00 a.m. at cnbc jay powell and the feds speeding up the end of their e easy rate money. stock investors not concerned, the nasdaq surging more than 300 points and futures are higher. president biden not likely getting his nearly $2 trillion spending plan for christmas. as one key democrat drops the hammer. apple becoming the latest major company to retool its

return to work plans and it is the end of the road for urban meyer in jacksonville, even before one year at the helm it's thursday, december 16th, and this is "worldwide exchange." good morning, good afternoon, or good evening and welcome from wherever in the world you may be watching. i'm brian sullivan good morning let's get to it. looking like nice gains again today. stock futures are higher across the board. dow futures up 264 points and the nasdaq more impressive, up more than one half of 1% wednesday saw a move higher on the fed move, the dow rising 1%. the nasdaq up more than 2%, the real star, jumping more than 300 points was a case of investors buying

the actual news once the fed confirmed what most of the smart money thought it was going to do if you missed it, here's the three key takeaways from the fed. doubled the pace of taper, said there were two or three hikes -- didn't say it, but the dot plots indicate it. and the fed saying things are flexible, if things change, they can still change we'll get more in a minute. ten year bond yields didn't move on the fed, they are still low despite the threat of rate hikes, the bond market doesn't care the ten year note under 1.5%, really an unprecedented situation for fixed income it's not just our central bank in focus for the markets today the bank of england and the

european central bank also out with their policy decisions in the next couple of hours, let's get more let's go to our friend in london, julianna tatelbaum good morning >> brian, good morning european markets so far following wall street higher we have a strong rally under way in europe, about 1.5% worth of gains for the german market. the ftse trading about .9% higher the swiss market also getting a boost this morning as you mentioned, it is a big central bank day here in europe. we have the bank of england and the european central bank and the swiss national bank delivering decisions this morning. but the european central bank today is expected to confirm the end of its pandemic emergency purchase program by march next year with omicron fast becoming the

dominant variant here in the uk and inflation at a ten year high the bank of england needs to decide whether to pull the trigger on its first interest rate hike since the pandemic began. we're moving at slightly different speeds here in the uk and the u.s. but people are calling the decision from the bank of england the most consequential for some time. her most pivotal meeting so far as head of the central bank. >> you guys seem to be a few weeks or months ahead of us as well thinking of everybody in the uk, including yourself, have a great day, be well talk to you soon. let's go to your morning's top stories here, including a grim outlook for democrats to deliver president biden's build back better plan for the holidays bertha coombs is here with that and more of your top headlines good morning >> good morning, brian senate democrats are facing a

real likelihood of missing their self-imposed deadline to pass president biden's nearly $2 trillion social spending plan before the new year. sources telling nbc news that senate majority leader chuck schumer's decision to try to pass the plan potentially not until next march, based on not having the 50 votes needed to get it approved. they cite democratic senator joe manchin who continues to withhold his support adding talks between manchin and president biden to find a compromise are not going well. the decision to delay is also in part because democrats still haven't finished negotiating the plan or clearing procedural hurdles. meantime, goldman sachs is reportedly ordering its bankers in new york to scrap plans for any holiday parties. according to the financial times top teams are told to cancel any remaining plans. the move is based on rising

covid cases. earlier this year goldman was among the wall street firms that took a tough stance on urging staff to return to the office. amazon elevated the former prime boss to oversee health efforts. neil lindsey will serve as senior vice president of the division according to people familiar with the move lindsey will be tasked with overseeing amazon's health care efforts, including the online pharmacy, telehealth and health diagnostic units in addition to his time overseeing prime, he also helped shape branding for amazon devices like the e-reader, fire and echo products. it's an interesting higher given they have all these efforts in different parts of the company and they haven't really had one overarching, you know, strategy to bring them together >> yeah, and maybe they will

now. but going back to your goldman story, it could be a long cold winter for new york city businesses again you hate to hear it, you want everybody to be safe first and foremost midtown is still a ghost town when it comes to restaurants and many businesses. and it doesn't look like it's going to get busier. >> no, it's not. you haven't been out i've been out a couple of times in the holidays and it's been packed >> not with workers. with tourists. >> when they went to a restaurant, it was packed. >> yes, with some. i was there, actually, yesterday, the other day, with tourists, though not workers. not traders and -- i guess maybe i'm wrong. >> well, in this case they kind of went out for dinner on their own, and when they got to the steak house, there was not a seat to be had they had to wait two hours for a table. people are still trying to be in the spirit even as they want to be safe.

>> good. that's -- i am very happy to be wrong because you want to be wrong in that. you want everybody to be safe, obviously, first and foremost but people feel safe, let them go out i'm going out to dinner tonight. bertha, maybe i'll see you there. bertha coombs, thank you. back to the markets. i'll buy now back to the markets as investors are shrugging off the hawkish jay powell during his press conference following the central bank's policy meeting yesterday. powell made the case for a faster taper time line. >> if you look at the state of the economy and the strength of demand, the strength of just overall demand, the strength of demand for labor, look at inflation, look at wages, i think moving, you know, moving forward the end of our taper by a few months is really -- it's really an important thing to do,

and i think omicron doesn't have much to do with that >> so what should all of that mean for you let's bring in lee baker, owner and president of apex financial. lee, welcome back. listen, again, it's all about covid, it's omicron now, whatever the next variant may be, hopefully it won't be one, we're not ep didemiepidemiologi, medical doctors maybe you are, i am not but how does it affect your thinking >> you have to think about it. you can't ignore it, get away from it. you were talking about going to restaurants we have hundreds of professional athletes that are sidelined right now. from a consumer standpoint one of the things we talk about when we talk about the tapering happening a lot earlier we have to be concerned about it we're coming out of the christmas season, if you racked up debt in the season, put it on

credit cards these buy now, pay later plans you have to be careful because those tend to closely follow interest rates. if you wracked up that debt, get it paid off before march when we're likely to see the first rate hike. >> listen, interest rates matter they matter to -- well, they're supposed to matter to bonds, right now they don't -- >> not so much. >> maybe you can talk to that because bond yields are still low. inflation is supposed to matter to everything, right but it's amazing how little the bond market seems to care. >> sometimes what we think we tend to get in the markets is that when we're not surprised, that's okay. you know, you can anticipate bad news, if you will. you can anticipate things like, hey, listen, just a few months ago yeah we're going to start tapering so we're going to speed that process up some. but the dynamics of what's been

going on indicate that was a likely outcome i think, had we seen something drastically different than what powell said on yesterday, we'd have had a different outcome but this was within the expected range of possibilities is the best way i describe it >> yeah, the expected range of possibilities for the stock market and our viewers, lee, is long, but everybody seems right now to be reluctantly bullish, all the surveys, i'm worried about this, that, but they keep powering stocks higher are you reluctantly bullish or truly bullish on certain parts of the market? >> i guess the best way to describe me is being reluctantly bullish. you know, until enough things come together to say we're going to have this downturn last longer than a few days or perhaps a week put me in the reluctantly bullish camp, there are things i see in the markets

that i like. hey, everybody that has anything invested in any large cap domestic fund has to love apple, apple seems to be rolling along, dragging everything else with it you have a dynamic where you get a bit of the best of the both word, the tech sector, the stay at home play and that thing. apple is a tremendous company, you get a little bit of a dividend yield there again, i love it but put me in the reluctantly bullish camp. >> you talked about apple, lee is that maybe not your best idea i called it a utility on the air the other day, people said it's not a utility, i feel it is i pay a monthly fee regardless of thinking about it. is apple one of the best bets for 2022 >> yeah. if you want to call it paying the monthly fee here with a wife

and two daughters, apple gets a lot of our money, candidly, for full disclosure, i have a holding not that it matters with a $3 trillion valuation. i would say apple is one of my best picks from a 2022 perspective. >> lee baker, apex financial lee, thank you very much for joining us appreciate you getting up early. merry christmas, happy holidays. >> always good to be with you brian. >> take care >> when we come back, the biden administration announcing new steps to try to fight supply chain bottlenecks. taking aim at the truckers. plus a look at the record breaking year for the deal makers and whether the momentum can carry over 2022. >> is red hot reddit ready to go blic we'll tell you why it may be after this

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premarket gainers there, in fact, dow furthers up more than 200 points, nasdaq futures up more than a half a percent could be another good day for stocks following the rally

yesterday. pwc is out with its annual report on mergers and accusation, it's not only looking at the trends that define what was a record breaking year for deal making overall but what may lie ahead joining us now is collin wh whitmer. we appreciate you coming on, all of my buddies in private equities or attorneys for private equity, i can't go out to dinner with them, going back to our previous topic, because they're too busy doing deals and your numbers back it up. the amount of deals has been staggering tell us about it and what you expect for next year >> brian, thank you for having me back, it's good to see you. you are right it's unprecedented in terms of the amount of activities we're seeing. we're as busy as we've been and the entire system is the same way. as i reflect back on 2021, it was unprecedented in terms of

volume and value, one the tech nick cals were good we have gdp growth, corporate earnings growth you step back, looking at coming out of compvid, companies neede to transform, they needed to get more digitally fit, that accelerated coming out of covid. and you think of supply chains, a lot of deals that got done because thaw ey needed a more resilient supply chain so there was a push coming out of covid for people to transform their businesses. >> i remember reading a great book, "barbarians at the gate" about kkr's takeover of nabisco at the time, the biggest deal ever at the time there was a line in the book where henry kravitz was saying why do a small deal, same amount of work as a big deal and you

can make the same amount of money. apparently people listened the number of mega deals, over $5 billion is 29 more this year than the next biggest year it's crazy >> when you look at it, and you look at 2020 versus 2021 omega deals, it went from 54 to 99, so quite a jump we define mega deal as greater than $5 billion. the interesting trend underlying that, the not so quite mega deal so a deal from 500 million up to 5 billion, those increased substantially, they used to be between four and 500 a year and there were 800 this year the reason for that, for some companies a mega deal is not within reach or the competition for that asset is too great. so you see them piecing together smaller, although quite substancive -- substantive

deals, so we saw a lot more activity in that space this year. >> interest rates should matter, money is cheap you buy companies. our viewers think this is mysterious, it's not same reason they refi their home or buy a car when rates are low, you can't make money sitting around if rates tick up a little bit, because nobody is saying they will a lot, will that slow it down or maybe trim the party around the margins >> i think it's the latter there are many factors that impact m&a, you have growth and corporate earnings, yes, interest rates tick up debt. i was watching your show before this, saying the fed may do three interest rate hikes this year but where that lands is still a very low interest rate

and private equity is an incredibly important part of the market if you look at the numbers, now they're up 37% of the market two years before that, they were 28%, two years before that, 24%. so a tremendous amount of liquidity. >> and private equity execs do not get paid sitting on cash, they get paid for deals and returns. let's be clear, they are getting paid this year collin whitmer, pwc, hope you're getting paid my friend thanks for getting up early, we appreciate it. really fascinating stuff. >> thank you, brian. >> very welcome. on deck, could your grocery bill go higher than it is right now? yep. we'll tell you why including challenges some farmers are facing and what it means for you and what you pay at the store we're back right after this.

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welcome or welcome back and good thursday morning, let's check this morning's other top headlines outside of the world of money or business we go to phillip mena in new york good morning. >> good morning. a powerful and fast storm brought snow and wind gusts of up to 107 miles per hour in colorado that system is now stretched all the way into michigan, knocking out power to over 400,000. and there have been reports of two possible tornado touchdowns

in southern minnesota if it's confirmed that's the first time that state has recorded a tornado in december. serious damage reported across iowa and nebraska also the biden administration will no longer hold undocumented migrant families in detention facilities they'll use ankle bracelets and cell phone monitoring to track families last week they released the last 100 plus family members from detention. facilities will now only hold singl single adults. the administration is turning away thousands at the border citing covid high school's number one football prospect is going to jackson state. finally, the urban meyer era in jacksonville is over after 13 games. in a statement the jaguars said they told meyer he was being

fired saying he did not regain the team's trust and respect meyer went two and 11 after signing a five-year deal with the franchise in january his tenure was marked with controversy on and off the field, including a new report where a former kicker alleges meyer kicked him during the pre-season the 57-year-old meyer called the description of the incident completely inaccurate. regardless brian, his time in jacksonville is over did not even last a year >> it was -- i think dumpster fire would be sort of the primary way of -- you wonder, is he going to get paid for the whole five years a lot of these pro and college coaches, they sign big deals, don't perform, get paid out per their contract, so i get it. it's like, they're set -- generational wealth for winning two games. amazing. maybe not meyer he's won a lot of games in a previous life.

>> he sure did he did not look happy the entire time it was distraction after distraction. they had the number one pick in trevor lawrence there, maybe they can get on track. after they play the texans next week maybe they can get on track. >> that is going to be -- talk about a dumpster fire, jaguars versus the texans, i know you like the texans, but that's going to be the worst football game it's go to be like 7 to 5 is the final score. >> the great american pillow fight we'll call it. >> tomorrow i'm going to be a dumpster fire, i'm a chargers fan, i'm on tomorrow night, i'm going to be a disaster with the game on tonight, please don't watch. your morning, rbi on what may be one of the most important stories that is off the major

headlines right now. and how the european energy crisis is actually getting worse. you will not believe some of these numbers. and they are coming up in your morning rbi. dow futures, by the way, up more than 250 good morning aofe.fe we're back right after this.

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it work? steve liesman is here to break it down. stock investors, shaking it off, futures are up once again stay home, the latest big company to tell employees not to come back to the office. it is thursday, december 16th and this is "worldwide exchange." welcome or welcome back, and good thursday morning, thanks very much for joining us here on "worldwide exchange," i'm brian sullivan let us get to the markets and your money, following the nice gains on wednesday. it looks like the gains could be nicer today. futures are higher across the board. dow futures up more than 200, but nasdaq once again the star nasdaq futures up more than one half of 1%, about 100 points for the nasdaq we have the big move higher for stocks on the fed move wednesday, dow up 1%, but the

nasdaq up more than 2%, that was a more than 300 point move higher truly remarkable move. internally, 86 of nasdaq 100 stocks rose. 12 of those moving up 4% or more led by amd, nvidia, asml and crowdstrike. so three of the top stocks were semiconductor names. wednesday's move was a case of investors buying the actual news once the fed confirmed what most of the smart money thought it was going to do. here's the three key takeaways from the federal reserve one double the pace of the taper, see a couple of rate hikes coming vis-a-vis the dot plots. speaking after the fed wrapped the policy meeting, jay powell citing the increased impact of inflation for the latest move. we'll get more on the fed in

just a moment. but first let's get more of this morning's top stories. bertha coombs is back with those. bertha >> i love being the warmup act for steve liesman. the biden administration this hour announcing new steps to combat supply chain bottlenecks. the white house rolling out a plan for workforce changes, including more than 30e million dollar in funding to help speed up commercial driver's licenses, and expand and create apprenticeship programs. reddit, meantime, has announced that it has -- or rather, it made its first steps to become a public company the social media company re revealing it submitted a draft statement to the s.e.c. in order to do so the company did not say how many shares would be offered or the price range for the proposed

offering reddit most recently announced it raised $700 million in august at a valuation of more than $10 billion. wonder what the red diters will use diamond hands for this one. and apple is delaying return for corporate employees to the office they'll no longer be going back in february as planned and the date has now been pushed back indefinitely cook added that apple will be giving employees $1,000 to spend on home office equipment separately, apple announced it has temporarily closed three stores in miami, maryland and ontario amid rising cases. nike taking a difference approach, the company plans to move forward with employees returning despite heavy opposition employees must return to offices

three days a week starting january 10th apparently more than half in an internal survey said that doesn't really work for them >> they've probably moved. they don't want to tell the company. sorry i live in boseman now, no longer eugene, oregon. bertha, i saw your tweet saying you're impressed i'm going out -- my team is playing tonight. tomorrow the show is going to be a disaster you said you're ordering in. what is the ordering of choice what's your go-to in new york city need to know >> you know, i don't know. it depends oftentimes it's asian. i'm in the mood kind of for a little padsu, thai >> i like that with the wider n noodle. >> i like the thicker noodles.

and the sauce is better. >> bertha coombs thank you. >> drink plenty of water tonight, that helps in the morning. >> depending on what the chargers do in the game depends on what i'm drinking wednesday's move higher was a case of the investors buying the news once the fed confirmed what the smart money they were going to do. if you were paying attention to what steve liesman's survey said it was going to happen we said his name and he pops up, that's how tv works. you and your survey called it, the market loved it, what's going on >> the fed just delivered on the guidance to quicken the pace of the removal of the pandemic emergency relief, and it reversed course and it's taking steps now to fight inflation, which is now a primary focus of

monetary policy. here's what they did you just gave them the rundown here it doubled the pace of its taper, or reduction of asset purchase but then fed powell said the employment needed for rate increases was close and pro projected about three rate hikes next year and three more in 2023. >> we are phasing on out our purchases more rapidly because with a rapidly strengthening labor market the economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support. in addition, a quicker conclusion of our asset purchases will better position policy to address the full range of plausible economic outcomes >> so powell wasn't shy saying higher interest rates were included in there. 1% by the end of next year

the funds right now expected to hit 1.6% by year end 2023. in fact, ten of the 18 committee members see three rate hikes next year. the markets seem to cheer the pivot was not more hawkish but the long run outlook projected fewer rate hikes than expected the question is not when the fed will increase hike rates but when rate hikes are being teed up because of inflation but the pandemic could still have a say on whether the fed swings the tightening club in arch, may o june what's the market say? the probability of rate hike in march priced at 32%, while 57% for may. so the fed now seen going on a hike come the spring, brian. >> and they remain flexible, do they not we're watching omicron or whatever the next strain is, we're watching covid, all this stuff.

the jay hawk as we will call him, he has the power to change him or his teammates' minds, does he not? >> yeah, he's pretty good at this brian, i'm wondering if he's too good let me explain why this gets complicated by monetary policy. when you think about how fed policy works it works by on the -- to battle inflation by tightening financial conditions what did the market do it went higher what happened to interest rates there are unchanged. there's been very little tightening of financial conditions the question is is fed policy working the way that powell wants it to. they're very confident in their ability to flight inflation but they do so through the markets if you don't tighten financial conditions you're not going to do much to fight inflation. >> here's the delicate balancing act, seeing an explosion in omicron cases in the uk, luckily

most are asymptomatic. if we get this renewed slow down in the northeast due to covid in the winter, steve, but inflation remaining hot, i don't know if you read greek literature, the two rocks, you do wonder if jay powell is going to have to get through that, because the siren of inflation is calling here, but then he might be facing a slowing economy over there >> here's the thing, brian, about the powell pivot that was the most momentous part and the first thing that clued me in it was monday night, whatever the date was before his first testimony, i think his first testimony was the 30th, so it would have been the evening of the 29th when his congressional testimony came out he said, you know, what, we can get another round of this virus or variant, and the concern here is that it's going to be inflationary the pivot here is that the fed

now sees future variants as inflationary and not weak demand the story here, brian, is that consumers, and the united states in general, has found a way to work its way through and continuing economic growth and activity through each variant. and the problem is the supply side, not the demand side. and that's why the fed has firmly here pivoted towards fighting inflation even in the face of a coming variant. >> we're looking at the futures alongside you, steve and dow futures up nearly 300, nasdaq up half a percent the market buying the news, but if they listened to your survey, they would have known this already. forget about the news, listen to liesman. >> thank you, brian. >> you're welcome. coming up, is your already-high grocery bill going to go higher

itikis lely due to farmers. that story is ahead, when wex returns.

[uplifting music playing]

♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ welcome or welcome back, and good morning it's not a great time to be a farmer a new study from purdue university and the cme group shows farmer sentiment is at the lowest point of the year, the mood in november 30% lower than the year before. that says something. joining us is jim minter, director of the center for

commercial agriculture at purdue university and the principal investor of the barometer and grew up on a farm. welcome to the program let's talk about this. in a former life, believe it or not, before tv i traded chemical commodities, many were fertilizers, so i'm very aware of what is happening in that market the prices are out of control. is this all about fertilizer costs or is it fertilizer plus other stuff? >> that's a great question and it's really fertilizer plus other stuff. but you highlighted the number one issue for crop farmers fertilizer prices are off the charts nitrogen, the single biggest input for corn production has tripled in price since a year ago. i'm going to say that again, it has tripled in price you were talking about inflation earlier, this is much more than

inflation. i think from a lot of agricultural producers' persp perspectives, it's about the supply chain issues. so it's not just the general inflation taking place it's the huge disruption with the supply chain and the most severe aspect is fertilizer. the follow-up is what's taken place with respect to pesticides those prices are up sharply as well and in both cases a supply issue with respect to whether or not farmers are ableto get what they want and need to produce a crop in the 2022 crop season. >> it's all about natural gas. that's why we highlighted stocks like cfe industries and mosaic the fertilizer makers in many america. this is going to be a next year story. i didn't grow up on a farm like you did, but i know crops don' grow overnight if i'm a farmer, buying fertilizer now, i'm going to pass through that price next year >> well, farmers in the short run are price takers

so it's going to be determined by how many bushels of corn and soybeans are produced as opposed to what the actual costs of productions are. you're right from a longer run perspective. if prices remain elevated you'll see prices elevate in 2022 it's going to be about whether or not farmers are going to be able to obtain the supplies they need to put a crop in the ground in 2022. right now i think the expectation is we will be able to get those supplies, although it's unclear and this is going to be a debate that takes place all winter long with respect to availability, transportation sna snafoos you name it. >> and i talked to a wine store owner yesterday, don't judge me, jim, i know that's not crops but it does come from grapes and he

was moaning and groaning about his shipping container problem i would imagine it also impacts farmers in indiana and wisconsin and nebraska trying to, a, get their stuff to market and, b, the prices they're paying if they can get a rail car or a container. >> yeah, the issue right now is probably more the container side with respect to imports. a significant portion of crop inputs, such as the pesticides and fertilizer are imported. and i guess the other thing to think about is, this is a worldwide issue. this isn't just facing american farmers. it's also facing farmers in south america, europe, and elsewhere in the world so these fertilizer prices are elevated in the u.s., elevated elsewhere. pesticide prices are elevated in the u.s. and elevated elsewhere. this is more of a worldwide

phenomenon but it's really about the supply chain disruption and the inability to move products around the world and a by-product of the factwe moved to the model of distributing production across the world and bringing it to the locations we need it in a timely basis. that's been disrupted and it's create add tremendous amount of problems >> it's like the butterfly effect it flaps its wings in a port in china and a farmer in indiana gets hurt. thank you for the story, it's an important story. >> thank you, brian. stock futures are -- you're very welcome stock futures are up we're going to talk about it more after the break firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin.

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today's rbi is about something that we have talked about before on this program and this is europe's growing energy crisis. though covid and omicron are stealing the headlines, this is

a really big story that needs to continue to be told. because something incredible happened, natural gas futures in the netherlands, the key place for the trades in europe, just hit another new high the january contract trading above where it was in october. let me repeat that, spot natural gas prices are higher than those incredible eye popping records we talked about two months ago you're probably looking at the chart thinking, it looks bad but what exactly does it mean? it means a few things. this chart is priced in dollars per megawatt of energy so prices are basically around the same as $40 natural gas contracts in the u.s. the ones we show you on cnbc where we're paying less than $4, so europe's natural gas trading is 10 times the price of ours. also, it means that any power company or supplier that is paying these prices to use as fuel to generate electricity is

going to do two things, jack up rates to consumers or go out of business we have seen more than two dozen of these fail already in the uk. the bottom line is this. electricity prices have never, ever been higher across europe france and germany, they're now paying more than 400 euros per megawatt hour. here in america we average about 20 to $40 for the same amount of power, depending on the weather. so europe at 10 times more than the u.s. for power and if it gets colder it could get worse. this is not just a business story, it's a human stories because millions may suffer, can't afford to pay their heat or have to make tough spaces watch this space and learn lessons from it, it's a big

deal back to the broader markets, bringing in kevin simpson. i'm glad we live in america where we have a steady supply of relatively low-cost energy at least for now, that's good news. we have a steady supply of buyers in the stock market, you are one of them but in select spaces and there are oil and gas names that you actually kind of like >> we do, brian. and there's years where energy names here in the united states, under performers but as of late you look at the way these companies are pivoting into a greener space, a more socially conscious space we've been adding to chevron for the past few years and it's turned out to be a good investment not only from a profitability standpoint, seeing share prices appreciate but also a dividend standpoint and dividends become so important and within the energy space there's certainly

opportunities. not every name is a company you want to invest in. with the tightening environment we have to look at valuations. but if you stick with best of breed, you can do very, very well. >> we talked to the ceo of chevron and he said it's about fiscal worth best in breed also in the banks many would say would be jamie dimon or goldman sachs why? >> you have to check off the box with financials. it sounds easy, everyone talks about it, but if you look at valuations, looking at earnings, profitability, and especially with those two names if you look at dividend growth, very powerful quality is subjective a word we throw around all the time. we look at profitability, valuations, earnings growth, dividend growth, it's a common theme but best of breed makes

sense, especially an environment we get off zero interest rate trade you can't buy anything, speculate on anything, valuations will matter tomorrow more than ever before. >> yeah, and i was reading the notes, kevin, not like i pluck these names out of thin air, by the way, even if viewers think i do, i'm not. i saw you were a buyer of cisco, not a name i've heard a lot about, it's been left out in the trash heap of tech but you like it now why? >> we like things when they get beat up, buying when there's blood in the streets, when they came out with earnings they bashed the company, thinking of rising earnings, dividends it's an old school tech name if you want to call it that, but the reality is, i think we're up 8 or 9% since that drop after earnings this is a name that would give you and lend itself to more quality. there's big names out there from a valuation basis. they've gone like a meteor to

the moon i loved what you said about apple as far as it being a utility. i was thinking the same thing as you were talking about it earlier. we own microsoft, apple best in breed but sometimes when you get into a world like this where everything isn't going straight up, you have to look at value, cisco is one of those plays. >> we like it. opportunity in all the names you brought us thanks for getting up early, have a great day merry christmas. >> merry christmas, good to see you. >> thank you very much with that we wrap it up on "worldwide exchange. dow futures up, nasdaq futures 'rgl wee ad you're up and squawk and the gang are up next see you tomorrow

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good morning, stocks jump yesterday, big time, after the fed announced plans for a faster

taper of its asset purchases and forecast multiple rate hikes next year. now futures are pointing to more solid gains. they're like records records on some of these averages, or close covid outbreaks taking a toll on pro sports teams the nfl said omicron has been detected on multiple teams and could be a deciding factor in the playoff race. bruce springsteen has reportedly sold the rights to his music catalog to sony, price tag half a billion dollars it's tuesday, december 16th, 2021, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everyone welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin.