2024 and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. and so far this morning, it looks like the futures are under a little bit of pressure. right now, dow futures down 90 points. s&p futures off 9 and nasdaq off 50. when you see the gains from the recent months, it is not much anything. nasdaq closing at 20,000 for the first time ever. we have more on the tech gainers in a moment. if you look at the mag seven, the massive amount of gains in mag seven in one day, with apple

shares down $20 billion overall in terms of the market cap, we will talk about in a moment. it was something to behold. you are still seeing this play out today. let's look at treasury yields. the ten-year moved up to 4.3%. the two-year at 4.18. still below 4.20. on today's agenda, the european central bank's final rate decision of the year is due at 8:15 a.m. overnight, the swiss national bank surprised forecasters with the 50-basis point cut. more than 85% of economists polled by reuters expected a 25-point cut. meantime, as joe mentioned at the top, tesla climbing to a record high in yesterday's session rising nearly 6%. the stock up 70% since donald trump won the november election. you are looking at $426.35.

lifting it from the previous high of november of 2021. the move in tesla was interesting for usk and valuation for spacex. his net worth surging to above $400 billion. as of yesterday's close, his fortune estimated at $447 billion. >> it is hard to think of that. >> when a lot of it has to do with equity, i mean, that doubles. that's not ridiculous it could double in the next five years. >> no, it's not. >> he will be a trillionaire. >> he could be the first. >> his adjusted income is more than rockefeller or carnegie. >> i don't think there is another trillionaire. unless the aliens flying the

drones. >> over jersey? >> theoretically. i don't know. they're pretty nice drones. on this planet, no one is worth a trillion. maybe putin. >> had bill gates held on to all of his shares, he would be a trillion trillionaire today. >> remarkable. take a look at shares of alphabet. up 12% for the week. this is surreal. on monday, the company revealed a breakthrough in the quantum computing chip. it closed yesterday above the prior high it reached back in july of this year. president-elect trump invited chinese president xi jinping to attend the inauguration next month according to cbs report citing multiple sources. i saw it yesterday. it is not clear if xi accepted the invitation.

they are making plans for foreign ies to attend. in the meantime, president-elect trump is scheduled to ring the opening bell on the new york stock exchange. we figured he was a finalist. who else named "time" magazine's person of the year. "time" declined to say it. >> i think the cat's out of the bag on that story. >> i guess it's the run one tim might say "time" in reference to the magazine per year where we actually have a centilla of ref advance. >> we talk about the list. >> maybe. i guess. list. it's sad. that's what they have been relegated to. >> the magazine industry. it's a tough business.

>> it is. >> as are newspapers. >> will they use -- maybe they'll get a picture of him ringing the bell. i don't know. >> i wonder if it would be after he was shot with the bullet. >> yeah. that's so iconic. maybe so. i did try to get him on today. i spoke to him. i don't know. he stayed -- you are coming from trump tower. >> it's on the way. >> you can stop by here. he said i have a car full of people. the secret service, you know, that's a loaded term now. yeah, go ahead. >> mr. president, if you are watching and you happen to want to stop by, drop by. >> he is probably going down 7th. >> i think he would go down 5th. >> from trump tower. >> mr. president, you can cut over from 43rd. we have food. >> we do?

>> we do have some food out there. >> no, we don't. >> is there anything good? >> no. >> we should get sausage and egg mcif you muffins. >> i can't laugh. oral surgery. i can't talk. i can't laugh. i have stitches in my mouth. anyway, the house voted yesterday to approve a nearly $900 billion annual defense policy bill which includes the provision that would block transgender bills. more than half of democrats voted against it. the bill is expected to be fast tracked in the senate. separately, a bipartisan group of makers are threatening to split up unitedhealthcare and cvs health. a bill introduced yesterday by lawmakers would prohibit

companies that own drug middle men from owning pharmacy business. the pharmacy benefit managers would not be allowed to be owned by pharmacy companies. there is a companion bill introduced in the house. this is the right and left teaming up to go after what we have been anticipating could be a problem, the pbms. that is something that president trump mentioned in the interview with "meet the press" as an area they will be looking into as well. in the next hour, we will talking to mark bertolini. he is now the ceo of oscar health which is a smaller insurance company. we'll talk to him about what he has seen over the years and what he thinks might be done and where the problems are and how you deal with the public furor that has broken out after unitedhealthcare and the killing of that ceo. >> it does kind of seem like

there should be an arm's length between the pharmaceutical manufacturers and pbms. >> this is the pharmacies and pbms. the pbms blame the drug companies and the drug companies blame the pbms and everyone blames the hospitals and everyone involved blames the insurance companies. it is a tangled and complicated system. we will not get an answer with mark in the 15 minutes we get to talk to him about it, but he has some deep insights. >> and what would be wrenching that the employer funded insurance -- >> i hate his thing he will talk about. >> the employer funded model can't work. we count on it. i don't do things by myself. you have to be a self starter and know how to do it

individually so you plan and move goes with you. robert johnson with the retirement plan. employer funded, you know, parts of your life, have been part of what we do. >> employer funded healthcare tends to be better healthcare because you have the bulk to negotiate. >> what if you are not employed? >> we get our insurance changed here regularly. we are going to be joining unitedhealthcare from blue cross blue ield in january. it doesn't keep you in the same planning forever. there is an advantage having an employer with a lot of employers negotiating and this takes me back to obamacare where if you like your plan, you can keep it or not. we'll get into this. mark's got really deep insights into this. he will put his finger on some of the problems. every guest talked about other

problems with transparency. if you can't see the denial of services and you don't know that before as you are an individual navigating the system, it is completely complicated. >> the fixes to obamacare and it is almost repeal and replace. not quite. there are so many things. >> we should send him in the white house with trump and figure it out together. >> figure out how to do it. coming up, more inflation data or more inflation is due at 8:15. inflation data hopefully. we get the november read on % producer price index and the prices. "squawk box" is coming right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com.

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we'll get another read on inflation today. this time it's the producer level. ppi from november is expected to show a slight increase from october and from a year ago. for more on inflation and the markets, let's bring in carol, chief investment officer of bmo family office. yesterday, it's amazing, you know, what a couple of basis points on the inflation rate can mean, carol. this was the lead story in the

journal that inflations is bubbling up again. basically what we thought yesterday. no huge surprises, but it didn't go down and today, i understand that the fed's, you know, preferred measure is ppi and cpi component. if this is warmer, not hot, but warmer than expected, this could be a little unsettling. do you expect that? >> we don't expect that, per se, when you look at the ppi, which is inflation in the pipeline, a lot of distribute ors, some of the inflationary pressure is coming down. we expect to see it in line. back to the original statement. the overall inflation rate is hotter than the fed's stated 2%. then again, when you look at what the average inflation rate headline inflation since the 1950s and you average it out,

it's been 3.5%. getting down to that 2% level is -- is a difficult task and the fed's warned us a long time it will be a bumpy road down. you know, the important thing is you did see the homeowner equivalent rent come down in there. that is one of the sticky components in that factor. the fed has a lot on its plate not only at the meeting next week, but as 2025 starts. >> a lot of what happens with -- whenever earnings are reported, it is always about expectations and companies manage expectations and analysts manage expectations. do you think the fed painted itself in a corner? why is 2 cast in stone? as you said, the average over the last 60 years or 70 years has been higher, but they can't move the goal posts now or else

they will lose credibility and i don't think they will get down to two. why are they cutting? >> i think they want to get around two. the reason they're cutting is the policy rate is substantially above. if we're talking two to three, it is substantially above that at 4.75% to 5%. the fed can deal later with it at 2% or 3%. if you recall, it seems like a long ago era, but the fed for a long time fought to get inflation up to 2% because it was running below that for 10 or 15 years. that's what we're all anchored to because we want the 2% mortgages and 5% car loans again. >> if we really are restrictive right now, then we should see some evidence of that and you're using the actual numbers and

that's kwaun iable the way you did it. maybe you point out we're not as frothy as the late '90s. we could be fully priced at this point. if you look at everything else, gdp and unemployment. there is not a lot of evidence that we're restrictive that's ing through the economy. >> i think there is more anecdotal evidence in the market than the numbers show. clearly, there's pain in the economy that's being felt also that the aggregate numbers don't show. when you you look at the bottom of earners, there is pain. the overall crisis is substantially elevated. you look at the markets and some companies are trying to horde workers. you are starting to see weakness

there. you are seeing technology starting to come on the scenes that was put there as a reaction to tariffs and supply chain and pandemic. a lot of that technology is starting to come through in the productivity numbers. so, we're able to put out more goods with less people in seat, if you will. some of those hopefully have that deflationary impact to counter the inflationary impacts of the system. >> if the one weakness you pointed out was the bottom 20% are still being hurt badly by inflation, it seems counterintuitive you wouldn't make sure you were dealing with inflation by not lowering rates. lowering rates when that's still the main problem -- it can come back and it can rear its ugly head. some people thought that yesterday. wages was in that as well.

>> there is a little bit of that piece in there, although wages for the last two years, again in aggregate have been bove the rate of inflation, but nobody feels it. wage increases is something that you feel you earn. >> with all that, we have to go. taking all this into account, would you be putting a lot of new money into the stock market or would you -- where would you put it? in small caps or mag seven? what would you do? >> we continue to lean into and overweight in u.s. equities in particular and moving down the capitalization scale because we think a lot of ies that come through with the new administration will be supportive of making things and selling things in the united states and focusing on rebuilding infrastructure in a

lot of other things. we remain there. we love to see pull backs. we do expect to see more volatility moving into next year because there will be a lot of headline risk as every new policy proposal is announced and working its way through to whether it actually makes it into -- into law or not. there's a lot going on underneath in the economic fundamentals of the united states. sort of irrespective of whoever's in washington running the show. there's an awful lot to be happy about what's going on here. again, i would love to see some pull backs as an opportunity to get in. >> carol, first time i worked on your name and i got that right. then we don't call it bmo. i immediately think of the flying disc when i see bmo. somebody's got -- beamo. do -- >> what's bmo? >> the flying discs.

bmo. they're big. you know what they are, carol? they're big? >> like -- >> i can't change it. >> i didn't know. >> made by beamo. now i can't get this back. >> oh, boy. >> that's funny. when we come -- >> thanks, carol. now it's off. >> the nasdaq rule over board diversity. details next. adobe falling after missing guidance and what the ceo talked about monetizing products. that's after this.

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welcome back to "squawk box." the appeals court ruling nasdaq could not increase rules by diversity by requiring companies to have women and minority directors on the board or explain why they don't. this is an interesting rulings. it was9-8. the rules approved by the s.e.c. ran afoul of federal securities laws. s.e.c. is reviewing the law. it respected the court's decision. interestingly, they would not appeal. we talked to gina freedman about the original decision. the original decision was aimed at requiring disclosure about the diversity of the board. you didn't have to do anything in particular, but if you didn't have a divorce diverse board.

this came in the aftermath, i don't know in the aftermath, back in the 2020 era with esg and what we talked about with the big backlash have come back. >> there was backlash from a lot of companies who were irritated by this and when there was talk of the texas setup of the competing -- a competing -- >> exchange. >> in texas. companies were saying we're tired of getting harassed about this and the expectations on this and the competing exchange in texas were what people were talking about. >> i remember the conversation with her in davos and a conversation with david solomon. they made efforts to diversify the board. there has been a move afoot, but

clearly the move is going in the opposite direction now. we're going to talk about new jersey congress member josh gottheimer. he admitted yesterday that he faked his spotify wrapped list. the list summarizes each top played songs for the year. gottheimer posted the songs appearing to be all by bruce springsteen. the font and numerals in the spacing looked off. he created the list for fun. just relax. he said he shares an account with his children and the play list he posted was a reflection of what his would look like if he did have an individual account. gottheimer is running as governor. >> i'm glad that got cleared up. this is big news.

>> he then posted his actual one. it had drake and taylor swift in the top five. he said, yeah, those are my kids. >> i have -- i don't know. i'm like a father. >> my bigger spotify problem, i don't know if you share with your family. we have a family account. if you are playing it somewhere and all of a sudden, it stops, i think some viewers will understand because they are playing it somewhere else and you have a competition with them. >> i do that with matt. i keep trying to override. >> you keep playing to override them. you need the family account. if they are under their own account name, it should be fine. >> i do this with matt. no, no, i'm not listening to heavy metal. >> i have favorites on sirius xm. i'm tired of it. i have settled on real jazz. real jazz. i think it's 67.

leave it on. you know, people are riding with me are like, you know -- >> loser. apparently, the account by bruce springsteen and drake, travis scott and taylor swift. those are my kids. >> i live in new jersey. that's just me. miles would be my top. >> springsteen crosses party lines. >> i'm not saying it has anything to do with party. he was on the cover of "newsweek" and "time" in the '70s in the same week. >> was that with the bandana in the back pocket? >> after "born to run." not a fan. when we come back, steve liesman has survey data on inflation after today's ppi data. we will have that story next. and later, billionaire sara

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well good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." live from the nasdaq market site in times square. checking out the futures this morning. in the red. price of bitcoin is back above 100. it is down. >> the nasdaq was above 240urks 20,000 for the first time ever. we didn't talk about this a lot. the mag seven.

$416 billion in added in market cap yesterday. more than proctor & gamble. >> more than elon musk. >> no. that was what it managed to add yesterday. in the meantime, we have the latest results of the cnbc all america urvey. it looks like the consumer is feeling the chill of inflation. steve liesman is here with more. good morning, steve. >> the americans are getting a visit from the ghost of christmas past. inflation. the cnbc all america survey finds inflation haunting the buying public according to the average season for retailers. just 16% say they are spending more. that is down from 18% last year. 48% say that is the same. that's okay. spending is less. average predicted holiday spending is $1,114. that is about the average level

of the past several years, down from the outlier of $130 0 in te survey. 28% say they are spending more. republicans are feeling a bit more in their step after the election. they will spend more. urban core counties and latinos also are above average of who is spending more. how about less? those with a lot of debt will spend less. women aged 18 to 40. if you don't have money in the stock market, you are also not feeling it when you go to the mall. those who see the economy as fair or poor. this is where it gets interesting. one reason they are spending more? 37% said because of higher income. 25% said they are spending more because things cost more. some people have more to give gifts to and some people are up beat on the economy. then you look at the reason for spending less.

inflation is also the top reason there. 36%. some people have lower income. some people say they have trouble paying their bills. those who are downbeat on the economy. overall, 64% of the public say prices are higher this year compared with last with 34% saying much higher. for the record, the cpi is down 0.4% from last year to 2.7%. goods prices have actually fallen year over year. we don't know if those are christmas goods or goods. keyed in on ghosts of prior inflation. price level. >> some of the 18 to 34 spending should be shifted to the 60. i think that's parental, you know what i'm saying? >> providing the funds. >> they give the money to the kids? >> exactly. >> is robert frank coming up talking about the great wealth transfer? >> it is. personally.

the inflation -- i guess the feeling about the economy, the people who are worried about it are citing inflation, but the bad economy. is that a concern they may be laid off at some point? >> it could be. the new york fed survey is on this. some people are confident of keeping jobs. not worried about losing it. i don't know if that is so much at play. i do think there is a little bit of politics in the inflation answer. >> you've said that. >> here is the way it breaks down. it's roughly this. 75% of republicans say prices are higher. only 40% of democrats. 75% of independents say prices are higher. that's part of the perception out there. this price level thing is really the thing and it's not something that economists have figured out how to deal with when it comes to policy. you have this rise of price of i don't know two or three or four years from now that people think, oh, prices are normal now. >> this is, i thought about this

yesterday, the way that we try -- some people want to excuse the inflation that we've had to the supply chain issues after the pandemic. if it was purely supply chain issues and bottlenecks at the time and not all the money we've put into the system at that time. you know the milton freedman idea. larry summers warned about that idea. if it was just supply chain pandemic, why didn't it go back down? >> i heard that conversation yesterday driving in my car. somebody mentioned it. i had a reason for it. it's because labor costs went up. labor costs went up. >> that stays there. >> right. part of the supply chain problem we had was people. right? we lost 1 million people from the covid. we also lost people from the work force. they dropped out. we had to bring them back.

that high level of labor. look, joe, there is definitely a role and big role for the spending. the supply chain was a big part of it. a lot of that went away and inflation went down. why didn't -- joe, also issues of is there competition out there. >> you think some of the inflation is caused by -- >> yeah. remember, i was arguing against that amount of stimulus at the time. i thought there was a way to target it at people who were poorer and also to give it to local governments so they didn't layoff teachers and those sorts of things. that would have been a more limit the stimulus. >> wages don't go back down. >> they can go back down. music is playing. i have to say this. this is the reason why we don't have deflation or don't have deflation as a policy. when prices come down, it means

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we welcome back to "squawk box." servicetitan getting ady to make the public debut on the nasdaq. joining us first on cnbc, joe will do the introduction. bingo. co-founder of servicetitan.

>> good morning. >> tell us how the story began. you were trying to solve an actual problem which i argue is the best way for a business to actually begin. >> that's right. we were born in the trades. we were raised in the trades. it's in our blood. it's in our dna. growing up, we saw our dads manage their small trades businesses and spend hours and hours doing so. they would spend 12 hours in the field and then manage the quote back office and do it from the dinner table and figuring out receipts and the schedule the next day. like most parents do, they sacrificed for their kids and we learned software engineering. when we figured out what we want to do, most engineers want to work for the tech companies, but we have to solve a problem for our parents.

we built servicetitan. our parents are no longer our only customers. our toughest critics to the biggest cheerleaders. we get to partner with the salt of the earth contractors and easy operating systems to power their businesses. >> you are going public today. before you came on, we said whether this was on your list of things to do. i imagine, at least in the mast past year or two, people would say can i buy your company. what was the decision to stay independent? >> we are on the mission. this is a long time coming for us. the idea of not pursuing that mission has been our life's work since we started working. so, it's been something that we have been focused on for a long time. >> who are your biggest customers right now? >> you know, it might be surprising. we serve customers that might be family owned businesses with a handful of employees doing

roughly $1 million a year in revenue all the way up to the largest contracting businesses in the country. these reach surprising levels of scale. $1 billion or $2 billion of annual revenue across multiple states. >> what does it do? what does the product offer to somebody in the trades? >> sure. we think of it as a business in a box. if you run a business, you need a managing tool online and call center and dispatching schedule and payroll. everything in the back office. our solution is a perfectly tailored suit. >> who are your competitors? >> they're a lot of other companies that serve the trades. many of them started their businesses 10, 20, 30 years ago. in many cases, hese were former contractors, the brother or cousin was an engineer.

they have the same mission as us. you can imagine as a tech company, we built something sophisticated and powerful. that's why customers choose us. then this simply happens to be an industry that is historically under served by the technology industry. there are great software companies out there that are great for other types of businesses. you can imagine the work flows and trades are so specific and how trades businesses sell market and everything else very different. those solutions are typically not a great fit. hence the opportunity. >> two questions. one is the investor opportunity and am i sup the valuation. what do you think are the fair comps? the fair comparable companies when the bankers sat with you and made powerpoints and say you should be in this value range. who is on that list for you? >> there are a lot of companies that we admire. we are in the category of vertical sas.

toast. a lot of companies that we look up to as we consider to be comps. >> what is the defensive moat with the era of artificial intelligence. i know you use artificial intelligence, but there is a view there is a day, maybe, where i would be able to go on to some a.i. service and say make me an app that does that. customize that for me. i'm a contractor and i want to build my own version of this or maybe i'm a competitor and i can do that, too. we can spin this up quickly in this new era? >> you are absolutely right, andrew. the scale and platform we built and amount of roi we create for customers is our secret sauce. speaking of a.i., what is quite ironic is such an incredible blue collar industry is actually the industry that has such great

applications for a.i. this is not hype. this is already actuality. our customers already use three a.i. based products from us to help them optize how they do their marketing and scheduling and dispatching and optimize the level of service they provide the end customers the businesses serve. >> we look forward to following your progress. good luck today with the big bell. you will be on the screen next to president trump who will be ringing the bell at the new york stock exchange. they usually do picture in picture. a lot of eyes. >> for us, it is the national day of the trades. we're excited everyone is hopefully willing to honor and celebrate with us. thank you. >> all right. >> thank you. >> i'm practicing.

>> perfect. >> you nailed it. >> damn good. coming up, adobe shares tumbling on disappointing guidance. what the ceo told cnbc about the strategy. that's next. in any business, you ride the line between numbers and people. what's right for the business and what's best for everyone who depends on it. solving today's challenges while creating future opportunities. it takes balance. cla - cpas, consultants, and wealth advisors. we'll get you there. ♪ (animatronic santa) ho, ho, ho! (vo) time to move? make it easy with opendoor.

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the ceo addressed those on "closing bell overtime." >> the tiered subscription price and cloud. profitability continues to be something that we are uniquely positioned to deliver in addition to top line growth. >> including today's move, the stock is down 17% year to date while the ishares etf that tracks software stocks ticker igv is up 32%. coming up, the greatest wealth transfer in history is even bigger than expected. robert frank is going to tell us how many trillions will be handed down and who will benefit. e. ♪♪ because we stay agile... actively managing investments to uncover opportunities... and build etfs designed to outperform the index. that's the power of curiosity.

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about 7:00 a.m., two minutes before. among today's top stories, president-elect trump scheduled to ring the bell at the new york stock exchange. we will be watching that because trump is also likely to be named the magazine -- "time" magazine's person of the year. we may learn about that as early as 7:45 this morning. "time" is telling media they are not confirming any selections ahead of this morning's announcement, but the expectation is that he will be at the new york stock exchange to ring the bell in his own honor in some ways for being on the cover and being "time" man of the year. >> if taylor swift hadn't been last year's it might be more of

a horse race. >> elon musk. >> elon musk was, you know -- >> i thought -- >> i thought there was a chance they might put them together. >> elon musk he's amazing but pig by piggy backing off the guy that will be person of the year. >> in terms of betting right, elon musk has bet right a lot. >> it may not be just a bet. he may honestly believe that's -- -- >> i understand. >> meantime the consumer financial protection bureau adopting new regulations how much banks can charge customers for overdrafts. the bank can charge a flat $5 fee that covers their costs and losses or treat the overdraft as a loan and then disclose the terms as they would for any other loan. the agency saying the rule would save customers about $5 billion a year. and microsoft saying it expects to face an $800 million charge over its stake in gm's cruz unit. we talked about that yesterday.

the automaker is shutting it down. microsoft took a stake in cruz in a regulatory filing the tech giant expects that charge to equal a negative impact of 9 cents on second quarter earnings. >> gm had so much on its plate making cars. why think you are in a position to do that and spend $10 billion. >> the question is whether gm should have invested. the answer is no, but there was a period of time where people were giving companies like stellantis a hard time because they weren't investing in this stuff. >> they weren't. >> their thought was -- >> you're going to get your lunch -- >> gm said we need to build it ourselves. so many go down this road. uber had gone down this road on self-driving and the like and said we're getting out. now this really does leave effectively tesla and waymo as the winners. >> but you think about like kodak, eastman kodak, somebody

internally invented the digital camera and they buried it instead of running with it to their detriment. >> right. cannibalize your own business. >> in terms of the capital base, gm had to be able to develop something so sophisticated versus the mega -- the behemoth tech companies in a position. it's a small part of their, you know, resources toothsds it. who has the talent to do the insular -- >> if you remember the other conundrum you did have shareholders who were screaming -- >> you got to get into this. >> if you don't get into this you'll be left behind. by the way, some, you could argue, that was a push for evs. a lot of these automakers were being pushed by the shareholder base that was saying, hey, look at tesla over here. what are you guys doing? >> that might not work either. >> we'll see. >> if someone wants an ev they might buy tesla. >> it's easier to make these decisions what was smart and what wasn't in the aftermath.

>> ice cars for the next 15 years will probably be the dominant -- >> they're begging us -- >> they are. >> we have to get to the futures which are unchanged. >> we also have to get robert frank sitting here on set. futures down, down by about 65 points for the nasdaq and the dow. s&p futures are down by about 11. frank holland -- >> frank is involved here. >> hello, frank. >> becky, joe and andrew. we're going to kick things after with movers, kroger up 2.5% right now after announcing a $7.5 billion stock repurchase program yesterday. all this comes after the grocery giant's planned merger with albertson fell apart, blocked by u.s. court and then terminated by albertson's. another development, albertson's filed suit against kroger for the breach of the merger agreement. kroger called the suit baseless without merit. you can see shares up 2.5%. kind of hard not to call it kroger's. in the middle east they call it

kroger's with an "s." at&t, you can see essentially flat down fractionally after the telecom giant named a top pick at goldman for to 25. analysts see a 70% upside from the current price. you can see it's trading at just about 23.50. they're bullish on at&t's fiber rollout and an opportunity to pick up wireless shares. shares of hershey's, those shares down over a half percent after a downgrade to underweight from equal weight at wells fargo. wells citing near term profit pressures in the downgrade due to skyrocketing cocoa prices. this chart, cocoprices are up 37% over the last month. the downgrade comes after reports came out on monday that fellow candy maker mondelez exploring a takeover of hershey. both have declined to comment. head over to cnbc.com/pro where subscribers can get more access of detailed analysis of the big

calls and big stories. back over to you. >> all right. frank, thank you. we will check in with you a little later. some are calling it the largest wealth transfer in u.s. history with trillions of dollars expected to be passed down over the next two decades. robert frank joins us now with the details. miss the boomers. >> we all are. so let's get to the numbers and they are big numbers. more than $124 trillion expected to be passed down from older to younger generations over the next 25 years. they call it the great wealth transfer and it will be by far the largest in history. $18 trillion of that will go to charity, so threat a at's a gre thing. the rest spouses, family members and children according to au into report. gen-x the biggest beneficiaries in the next ten years. after that, it's going to switch to millennials who stand to

inherit 45 trillion dollars. more than half will be from the wealthy, worth $5 million or more. estimates for the great wealth transfer keep going up thanks to rising stock markets, inflation and increased wealth concentration at the very top. this year $2.5 trillion will be passed down. that will go up to $4 trillion by 2036 and then by 2040, $5 trillion a year will be passed down. women will control a growing share of wealth. almost half of that more than $100 trillion being passed down will go to women. now for more on where the wealthy are investing in the great wealth transfer read my newsletter out in the next half hour. if you scan that qr code or sign up, www.cnbc.com/insidewealth you can get the newsletter and read more about the great transfer. >> in stock market rallies of the past, i don't think anything is comparable to what we've seen

from 1980. what i'm getting to is that inflation adjusted, is this much bigger than any previous wealth transfer? not just the total amount trillions as you say, but did the boomers inherit any money from the greatest generation? >> no. because we -- just think about the -- the amount of wealth that the boomers enjoyed created. starting from the '60s and '70s and '80s. you know the huge amount of wealth, even on an inflation adjusted adjusted basis, compared to the gilded age or even the sort of pre-civil war era, at that time you had a small number of people making huge fortunes. now just the number of millionaires people worth $30 million and a billion dollars, doubling every seven or eight years. >> a much bigger portion of the population invested. >> the baby boomers the amount of wealth created, held in the

country now, by those over 60, is like two-thirds of the wealth held by those over 06 years old. at some point actuary tables catch up with that wealth, and it has to go somewhere. >> i guess look, they're living longer, they're -- living better. more money invested in a greater portion of the population. >> you still can't take it with you even if you're king tut. >> the issue for wealth management how to engage these younger clients and women and how to educate the next generation -- >> why do you keep change -- >> the husband is croaking -- >> yes. >> is that what's happening. >> that's what's happening. >> you said almost half would go to women. slightly more than half because it's more than half the population. is that a new thing for women to be getting the money? >> so in this short term it would be more than half because there will be what's called horizontal transfers from the husband to the wife. >> the spouse, right. >> eventually depends on the gender of your children and

family members that get it so, therefore, it's going to be about half. therefore, women will make up a larger share of millionaires and billionaires. >> still a little less for men and i guess -- >> that's right. they tend to marry. >> do you expect under this administration as we're looking for revenue and other things, that there's going to be shifts around things like trusts and -- >> not with this administration. >> all of these devices that are used for some of this? >> not with this administration, but in order -- most of this wealth will not be taxed and at some point given the deficit situation, somebody is going to look at that -- it will not be this new irs chief, won't be him, won't be a republican congress and won't be the white house. >> transfers need to happen now. that's the other -- the flip side. you might want to do -- >> or set up the structures now. they're putting a lot of this in trusts and that's why 80 or 90% of it, my guess, will not be taxed. no one pays the estate tax

anymore because you don't have to. >> second [ inaudible ]. >> yeah. >> okay. robert, thank you. >> more coming up on "squawk" this morning. bank of america releasing its latest data on the health of the consumer. we will break that down right after the break. a special interview, mark bertolini will be here, former chairman and ceo of aetna, boy, does he know about this health care industry and also right now the outpouring of anger against health insurers and corporate america. we're going to talk about that following the shooting of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. "squawk box" will be right back.

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consumer resilience remains strong in november with the latest bank of america data showing a 0.6% year over year increase in household spending and around thanksgiving a 6.1% rise in holiday purchases compared to a year ago. joining us is liz everett. these numbers look really strong. can you offer a little insight what's happening here? >> sure. as we look at the data we are not seeing any sign of the consumer resilience waning any way. some of the data is softer, cooling a bit, but in general we continue to see tailwinds. >> cooling meaning it's not growing at quite the same space. >> exactly. >> still growing. >> but still growing. but still growing. that's looking at spending, it's looking at wages, it's looking really across the board at everything. the consumer still is in good shape. >> we talk about things this

holiday season like the calendar shift with thanksgiving being later, with there being fewer days with thanksgiving to christmas, and with inflation numbers. if you add all of those things up, does it still look like a really strong consumer? can you seasonally adjust it? >> here's one of the things you looked at and forget about the wonkiness, an extra weekend day relative to last year. >> i didn't know that. >> the wonkiness in the calendar, i feel like we've been talking about it every month since really labor day, so one of the things we looked at, we looked at the last three months and seasonally adjusted and what we see from an annualized spending data is up 2.3%. >> that's still strong. >> still definitely strong. i think one of the things that's interesting to look at those, the composition of that spending, and retail transactions are flat, but the spending is down. why is that? some of it is deflation and things like gas, but another component of it is, consumer behavior change. so we are seeing consumers

trading down to more value options, so they're spending less on the retail side. but where are they putting that money? where are they going to use it? on the services side. it continues to be a services story. we're seeing it in restaurants, we're seeing it in travel. i mean you saw the tsa numbers as it related to airline travel in november. those were high. you look at the number of gas transactions, people were driving to grandma's house too. taylor swift her era tour still going on, spending up 50% in oronto when she was there. >> overall. >> in toronto during her tour days was up 50%. we've been tracking this through the eras tour in europe, and toronto was the highest, 10 percentage points higher than in any of hers -- >> was that based on hotels and restaurant spending? >> bank much america card spending for household in the city where she is. >> that's crazy. >> yeah.

she's her own economy. >> but that's overall, everybody and not just people who traveled there to see that. >> correct. yes. but i think what that speaks to is again, this shift in just services. american consumer still is focused on experiences, services, and that's what we're seeing in our data. >> okay. so if you had to look at the consumers' health and compare that in another time in history for as long as you've been there at the institute and watching these things, what does it look like? >> i think in order to understand you have to look at the labor market, right. you were talking to steve about this earlier. when we look at wages coming in to deposit accounts in november it was still up for every income group about 2%. what's interesting there is, that 2% is down for lower -- the lowest income households. for middle income households it's flat at 2%, but there are still -- again, it's still moving as we talked about earlier we are still seeing consumers getting more income coming in. that also being said, when we

look at what's gone on over the last five years, lower income consumers their income is up 26%, which is double what higher income consumers have moved up. but higher income consumers are driving most of the spending. >> lower income consumers use more of their salary, just paying for the basics and basics have risen so much in terms of inflation. >> they're not participating in the market upside, they don't have the investments contributing and helping support the higher income spending. >> if you have a job you are willing to continue spending. >> that seems to be what they're doing. spending more, the spending growth f we look at the last three months, spending growth seasonally adjusted up 2.3%, wage growth up 2% in november. that is starting to compress. but if you look at deposit data, how much money people have in their checking and savings accounts, it still is up at least 30% higher than it was before the pandemic. seasonally adjusted it's up depends on lower, middle, higher

income, but up between 8 and 20% higher. so there is still money in the account. people have it to spend. and they are. >> liz, thank you. we appreciate these updates and giving us a pulse of what's happening with the consumer. >> happy to share it. >> great to see you. coming up, plumbers, roofers, contractors, and now investors, a look at the much anticipated ipo. we were just talking about servicetitan. as we head to break, td cowen naming amazon a top idea in '25. the firm says key drivers for the company next year will be amazon web services and advertising while the e-commerce margins will benefit from lower costs from its fulfillment work. stock is up more than 50% this year. td cowan price target. "squawk box" will be right back.

servicetitan which provides business management software for plumbers, roofers, landscapers and other contractors, will begin trading on the nasdaq this morning. the company priced its ipo at $71 a share. that was above the expected range. at the ipo price servicetitan is worth about $6.3 billion.

>> meantime meta has now donated a million dollars to president-elect trump's inaugural fund. the donation coming two weeks after ceo mark zuckerberg had gone down to mar-a-lago to dine with trump. the atest step to try to improve his relationship with the incoming president. meta banned trump, if you remember, from facebook, and its instagram platforms following the january 6th capitol riot but removed restrictions during the 2024 election campaign in july. we'll talk about that and so much more after this. a special interview coming up with mark bertolini. the former chairman and ceo of eta. we'll talk about the outpouring of anger against corporate insurers and corporate ari meca after the shooting of unitedhealthcare brian thompson. we're coming right back. etfs designed to outperform the index. that's the power of curiosity.

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earlier this week an ivy league educated man in his mid 20s became the prime suspect in the murder of a health care executive last week. in the aftermath of the killing there's been an outpouring of much anger that's been targeted at the health care industry and corporate america, making many wonder if the incident could

change the way the health care insurance industry operates. joining us with his expert insights is mark bertolini, the ceo of oscar health and the former chairman and ceo of aetna, among a lot of other different positions that he's held in the health care industry. i want to thank you very much for being here. >> great to be here. thank you, becky. >> you are somebody who has so many insights into how the health care industry works, and i know you've got some big thoughts about what should change. been thinking about this for a long time. we've talked to you for many years about these things. there's a huge amount of attention being put on this in the public and in washington, and there might be a real opportunity for change. just wonder, first of all, what you think about what you've been hearing back from the public and the anger over denials and where we stand at this point? i mean it's kind of crazy we've gotten to this point. >> i think the anger is justified. you can't talk to anyone in this city and not get a story about a

claim denial or a prior authorization. i was talking with some of the people outside getting the right drugs, whatever. i think what's happened is the provision of the health care, the investment in people's health, has changed dramatically while the insurance industry hasn't and the way we buy health care hasn't. 80 years ago we created this employer sponsored system because we were trying to offset inflation so no wage increases, but we could offer benefits. at the same time, there's an expected population explosion in. and then we had the hill burton act in the '50s that built hospital s everywhere and created demand and supply increases that have not slowed since. the population boom happened and all of this costs. i mean if you look at the percentage of gdp going to health care, it's now just under 20%. and in 1984, it was 9%. so as you look at these changes

over time we've just outrun our ability to afford the way we do it. >> there are questions about whether we get appropriate outcomes for the amount that we are spending on it. i would argue that since 1984, health care has gotten better for the vast majority of americans but still falls short and falls short of expectations when you're talking about spending 20% of gdp. >> and life expectancy has gone up. >> yeah. >> is it -- is it lifestyle or is it -- i mean the health care is better and we -- the best -- we have the best technology and health care in the world, but if we're going to -- if 50% of the population is going to be obese, it's running into a buzzsaw. there's no health care that is going to be great enough to handle the lifestyle problem. >> your zip code matters more than your genetic code and health. how you live and where you live matters. and so we have huge issues in rural communities around the country, but probably the most

important thing is that health care has become very individualistic. i want it to be fit for me. and when my employer buys my health care coverage they buy for the average. >> what would you do? i mean, look, elon musk was out there earlier this week, we were talking about it yesterday, suggesting that the answers, if we can get a huge percentage of americans on glp-1s, we could bring the costs down of health care in a remarkable way, especially if you could get the price of glp-1s to come down in a remarkable way. what would you do? >> what i would do is i would eliminate employer sponsored insurance. >> you say that, and it stops my heart a little bit. those of us who have employer health care think oh, my gosh, getting thrown in, so everybody is dealing with medicare advantage that seems like a terrible thing. i would argue my health care insurance, while i'm not always thrilled with it, at least i have an employer who can go and argue for the mass of us. there's a lot of us and that at least has some bulk. if i'm out there on my own, it feels like there wouldn't be any

protection that comes with it. >> the ability of your employer to negotiate against a large insurance company that has a larger relationship with the provider community is very stinted now. you can't get do it now. and -- >> the companies have no leverage? >> the companies have no leverage now. >> interesting. >> when you look at the basic foundation of our economy, which is small business and middle market, they have none. and they're seeing double-digit rate increases when just over in the individual market, our trend has been 3.5% each year. why? >> but do the claims get turned down more readily in the individual market? >> no. >> than they do -- it's the same? >> our denial rate less than -- it's 12%. is our denial rate. >> unitedhealthcare it seemed 23 to 33%? >> yep. and the only one that's lower than we are is kaiser because they don't do it. kaiser doesn't do it because the physicians are taught to practice in a certain way with one another so they know how to

refer within the system to the right people. >> here's what we hear. we hear things like ai systems being put in place at unitedhealthcare that are turning down claims and overruling doctors that are requesting it. i've heard aetna where you used to be the ceo, that were health claims officials who testified we turn down -- we turn down -- denied people's requests without even seeing their medical records at times. it's that much of a system where doctors complain they have to higher multiple people to sit online to get through to insurance companies to be turned down. >> what we've known more than 20 years in the insurance industry is the large majority of prior authorizations that we do always get done anyway. but yet, we make everybody go through the hoops. and so -- and the reason is, again, employers buy for theage of their employee population. they buy large networks because their employees use a lot of providers. the ability to negotiate a better rate with that provider group is a lot less because you got everybody in.

but when you get narrow networks, which is what's happening in the individual market and you have everybody in, an individual can find their network. they don't have to rely on their employer to build the network. >> as an individual if i'm healthy and young i can get a better premium. >> yes. >> if i'm somebody who has a family using the health care system i'm going to be paying more? >> here's how you have to think about it. think about the employer giving to employees what they've traditionally given to them for benefits. it's defined contribution and defined benefit. you allow that employee with assistance to understand what's going on in their use of health care to get them into the right plan. >> here's the question that i'm worried about -- >> yep. >> -- i'm worried parts of this country are not fully financially literate. this is a complex situation. i was telling joe yesterday that i broke my toe, i broke my pinky toe, which i don't think should be that big a deal, you should be able to wrap it and that should be the end of it.

hasn't gotten better. i went to a doctor. couple hundred dollars. you have to get an x-ray. that's a couple hundred dollars. went to get a machine that's like $4,000 and want you to come back. this is for the pinky toe that i can -- >> p it off. >> maybe. >> keep it wrapped. >> the whole thing is a little bit of a crazy -- >> it is. >> -- situation, and i'm able to do that and blessed to afford to go back and forth, maybe i shouldn't be doing it frankly. >> yep. >> but i don't know if everybody out there is going to do it the right way and going to figure out how they're supposed to handle their own health care. >> so everybody is doing it individually when they're with their doctor. not when they buy their health plan. when you buy your health plan in the individual market, 94% of the people that choose a plan choose it with a broker who sit downs and talks about what they need. when that happens, you now get a plan that works for you, versus getting the employer's average plan, which in a lot of cases

may make you over insured -- paying for more than you're actually getting -- >> but what you're talking about is if you need insurance you're going to pay a ton of money. if you don't need any insurance you're going to pay a lot. that is frightening because you don't know when you might end up in a position to need it. >> a large number of people that have zero premium plans with us have a silver base plan, which is a good plan in the aca, and they hardly ever use it. why do they buy it? they buy it so they don't lose the house if they get in an accident or really hurt. >> right. >> so people have different needs for insurance. and so what we need to do is we need to allow that greater freedom of choice. our most -- our most sought-after plan is a plan for diabetics. because we actually bring them in, get them into care, and get them under control. and they end up in a better place. >> you've talked about that. when you were at aetna, trying to do preventative care to keep people from the big things. i guess, when i think about

health care insurance i think about people who have paid in their whole life, think they're getting ance, put in a claim for cancer, get denied. if you don't use us you're fine, but that sounds like what people are mad about right now. >> you don't pay very high premiums. when in the largest risk pool today in america is aca, 23 million lives. the most stable risk pool in america because what we do at the end of the year is we actually level the risk across all the plans. we're a net payer at oscar. we pay over a billion into the pool because other payers have negative numbers. we level it out so we're at the same place from the standpoint of risk adjustment. it's not like medicare where everybody is competing on their own for risk adjustment. we level it out. at the end that creates stability in pricing and stability in trend. >> two issues. first of all, the pharmacy benefits managers are under attack in washington. you saw this legislation that

elizabeth warren and josh hawley put together, right and left, republican and democrat, saying they should not be allowed to be owned by a company that also owns a pharmacy company. that they want to break things down. you sold aetna into cvs and part of that build up was a huge part of consolidation. what do you think about consolidation at this point? what do you think about being too big >> what do you think about the pharmacy benefits managers? >> so the first thing, being too big is not working in health care because it's hard to make change. both on the provider side and on the health insurance side. at united or any of the big carriers, they have the c team on their -- on their aca plans. we have the a team. it's all we do. so when you look at focus and attention and making sure you're doing the right thing for the end consumer, and that's why we have an nps of 66 and the industry average is at 0, we get better retention -- almost 20 points higher than the rest of the industry in the aca -- and

we get a lot of growth because people want what we have to offer. we have to tailor in a world where people want personalized care we need personalized benefits. >> you think more competition is the answer to that? >> absolutely. >> second of all, just we had bruce ratner here earlier this week and one of the points he said is that we need much more transparency and we hear this all the time when we talk about health care. i still don't know where i'm going to get the best price for an x-ray or whatever diagnostics i get sent out for. we still don't have that clarity. his point it can be simple, make it easy to see the denial rates for insurance companies when people are shopping. that sounds like a good idea? >> we should all report that. >> it should be clear. >> do you believe that you could get legislation that would require that? do you think you would -- the industry would take that on on its own? >> well, here's the proby with the ai agenda most insurance companies, the databases are so strewn all over the place and there's no version of the truth. it's hard for them to do a lot

with ai. they talk about it. but they don't. and at oscar we do a lot of our work on the back end of the business where it's administrative, not clinical, but administrative. last year we reduced our operating costs by 800 basis points in one year using large language models because we have one database, one version of the truth. so we can use it to get a fact on the administrative side -- >> what does that mean? what did you -- what did you find when you started putting large language models to work on that database? >> for example, fraud, waste, and abuse. 7% in florida of claims made. >> finding? >> fraud, waste, and abuse. >> coming from the doctors or coming from the patients who are putting this? >> everybody. >> everybody. >> how did you identify it with a large language model? >> so we -- there has been -- since medicare started in 1967, i had the first check at aetna sitting on the wall because aetna was the first financial for medicare, we started a

strategic investigation unit that went after fraud, waste, and abuse in medicare where everybody in the industry shared all the potential cheats that were going on in the system, what system are they billing from, what time of day, all those sorts of things and shared it with everyone. we should be doing it everywhere. >> that's smart. >> a lot of us are pulling that in, into our nonmedicare operations, to do it in a way we can drive that cost. we used to have to pay vendors $30 million a year to help us do that. we can replace that with a large language model when we've done it enough. our database is singular and only has one version. others are multiple in these institutions that merged -- >> created companies. >> and it's hard for them to make change. and some of them have 30 different systems. so what we have to do is consolidation has not worked well. number one. number two, we're not doing an individual approach and a good

member experience for anybody in a large organization that average by the big numbers. >> mark, i want to ask you on a personal level, i've known you more than 15 years, the entire time that i've known you, you suffered with chronic pain. >> yep. >> from a skiing accident that you had more than 18 years ago. >> 20 years ago this last february, yeah. >> tell me about how you found out how to handle chronic pain and living now? >> so i broke five of my vertebrae in my back, level 7 to 10, slept an hour a night for 18 years. and i had decided that i was going to end my life in switzerland. >> sglooer in february. >> 2023. >> i just couldn't do it anymore. i was exhausted. so as i was going through the process i had to prove i had pain, i went and saw a doctor, howard, and another gentleman named alan gourden in california, wrote a book called "the way out" and sent me the book. i read it. he saw me speak. he said, you know, just call me.

we finally connected. and what they -- what they showed is that -- and this is -- i'll use a baseball analogy, baseball hitters when they look at their brain the best baseball hitters their visual cognitive and motor cortex lights up. there's no latency. people with chronic pain, the 42 pain centers in their brain light up when they get touched with anything. they always have chronic pain. that's what i had. i had a neuroplasticity, taught my brain how to sense everything as pain. what we needed to do is help me understand that, which pissed me off in the beginning to tell you the truth. i was like wait 18 years and it was my brain all this time. and then they had -- when they disconnected it with transcranial magnetic stimulation, put me in virtual reality to reeducate it i'm pain-free a year and a half later. >> everything has changed. >> the right side of my brain works. i have empathy. cry at stupid dog movies.

all these things where i didn't have it before. i was a machine. >> you're back in the gym working out. >> yep. >> what are you going to do with this knowledge. you told me this is a trillions of dollars a year -- >> we're building a company around it out for funding right now. we want to take it -- we want to take it -- not going to take it public. we want to roll it out as soon as we have the funding set which should be in the first quarter of next year. >> funding a lot of it yourself. >> i'm starting to get other people from other pes saying bertolini you can't have that all on your own. it's so profound. $1.5 trillion a year problem. chronic pain. >> let me ask you a different question about the murder of brian thompson. >> yes. >> you know, i was saying before you sat down, that i'm -- i'm -- the conversation we're having now is an important conversation. >> yes. >> about health care. it upsets me that we're having it in the context of it being inspired to some degree by a murder. >> absolutely.

unconscionable. >> it's unconscionable. and wish in many ways we weren't having this conversation now, maybe a couple weeks from now -- >> yeah. >> -- because i would want to separate these things. what i don't want to have happen is there to be copycat situations around other industries. there is lots to complain about and things that need to get fixed in this country, but i desperately don't want them to get fixed on the basis of violence. and so -- >> totally agree. >> -- i am curious as somebody in this industry how you're processing what happened and what your colleagues and peers and others in the business are even saying about all this? >> when i was at aetna i was a high-profile person and had two people on me all the time. i hated it. nothing was private about my life. there were cameras watching my house and me and everything else going on. so when i retired, i was i can go on the subway, i can go in the park with the dog. i don't have to worry about myself being somebody else. now i still get -- people still

think i'm the ceo of aetna for reasons i don't understand but think it is, and so there's always the -- i get these letters from people and say i'm sorry, i haven't been there five years, six years, i can't help you. and then they move on. but now what's happening -- and i have security again, and i hate it. i don't want to be tied down like that. but it's important for, you know, the company believes it's important because for the company, but they also believe it's important for me personally, but i think you're right. i think this is not the way that we should be acting as americans. >> do you think -- i mean it also put a focus just on profit incentive -- >> yeah. >> -- and there are certain things where there can't be run like a fire department or a police department. >> yeah. >> is there enough historical precedent to say some type of profit incentive even in the health care system is necessary to stimulate innovation and --

and watching -- minding your ps and qs and that a -- i don't know -- a not-for-profit government-run, we're going to have -- whatever you need we're going to give you and tax people to pay for whatever it is you need and not really watch it? can you put -- lay to rest the notion there should be a health care system that doesn't involve profits at all? >> every one well run organization for profit or not for profit needs to generate a margin in order to sustain its business. we don't take our profit -- this is the part that most don't understand -- there are two economic systems. there are shareholders and then companies. we don't take our money and give it to the shareholders at the end of the year. we put it back in the business to support growth and better services and all those other things. >> the whole notion of the -- of a -- i mean the capitalistic system is based on the profit incentive and that's questioned when -- when -- it's questioned by a large swath of the

population -- >> while i was at aetna we had a 652% total shareholder return as ceo. two-thirds was the p/e. why is that? because people believed in the credibility of our story and ability to grow the company responsibly and continued to have people want our services. >> would the government be more efficient if it had to actually show a break-even on everything it did. >> yeah. >> don't you think it would? if there's no accountability you get the dmv, that's what you get. >> i was in the conversation with a bunch of investors over whether or not the enhanced subsy i subsidies are going to stay and doing ten-year nonadjusted math -- i said you must be from the cbo. that's the way they do math. >> you've always said no money no mission. >> right. >> when you're doing charitable -- >> no margin, no mission. the chairwoman of ascension health system said it first, she gave me the phrase, a nun, no

margin, no mission. we have to be able to reinvest in our mission. >> mark bertolini, thank you for this extensive conversation. we'd love to have you back to talk more about the new venture you're undertaking too. i think there's a huge amount of interest in it and appreat ei y. cie >> thank you very much. >> "squawk box" will be right back. way, you have... the fearless investor. the type a cpa. the boot strapper. the boot maker. hee-ha. but many do have something in common. we all trust schwab with our wealth. thanks to our award-winning service, low costs and transparent advice, every day, over a million multi-millionaires, trust schwab with more than three trillion dollars of their wealth. ♪♪ holiday shopping is on! up to $300 off callaway, taylormade and more. up to 50% off select basketball hoops. up to $500 off table tennis tables. plus, $1100 off sole f63 treadmills.

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president-elect trump has been named "time's" person of the year for the second time following his victory in the 2024 election. he will be ringing the opening bell at the new york stock exchange where he's expected to arrive somewhere around 8:15 or so. we should be able to at least see that arrival. and then he could -- he's going to i guess speak a little bit and could be as early as 8:45. and we would probably take some of that speech.

i don't know how long it's going to be. but that's the actual one. >> we were discussing what would be the cover? would they use the fight image we were talking about. >> fight, fight, fight. >> he was -- he was shot. here we are. >> remember the -- the exact last cover the first time that he was person of the year. we're moving on. we'll take that when it happens. the kids online safety bill has stalled in congress after passing the senate a while ago. the freedom of speech questions. the senators working on the bill have updated the wording with the input of social media platform x and elon musk in the hopes of getting it across the finish line in the lame-duck session. joining us now, republican senator marsha blackburn and democrat senator richard blumenthal. the authors of the bill. senators blackburn and blumenthal, welcome. it's good to have you on this

morning. >> thank you. >> thanks for having us. >> it's been a long road. are you expecting to reach the finish line shortly or -- is -- from what speaker johnson says, i'm not -- i can't tell whether you're really there yet, senator blackburn? >> well, we continue to work, as you said, language has been updated, clarified. we've taken away any objections that they have expressed with the bill. if you put this bill on the floor of the house, it would get about 400 votes, and we know that. we know that from the bill's sponsors in the house. there are two people over in the house -- johnson and scalise -- who are pushing against this bill. they've been given misinformation. we know that each of them have former staffers that are now lobbying for meta and google. we know that there is

misinformation. bear in mind, senator blumenthal, and i know that when our children are online, they are the product. so much so that meta has even assigned a dollar value to what a kid scrolling online is worth to them. so we're pushing. we want to get it finished. the bill's sponsors, house members are calling us every day, saying what else can we do to get this across the finish line? >> there's some pushback from both sides, senator blumenthal. i don't think -- this is not a popular bill with lbgtq advocates and others. that -- how do you -- what do you say to people like that? >> actually, the lbgtq plus groups are largely neutral on the bill. there are some elements who are

opposed to it and there are some so-called free speech advocates who have raised issues. but essentially this bill is about product design, about those algorithms, about the black box ai mechanisms that drive toxic content at kids, about eating disorders, bullying, self-harm. every parent literally every parent who has young children these days or grandchildren, knows how harmful this content can be. so our bill really should appeal to advocates of free expression and the first amendment, such as it has to elon musk who is the foremost champion of free speech in the tech industry, but the industry associations continue to lobby against it. big tech continues to say it wants more profit because it makes more money when kids are

on the net for longer periods of time, more eyeballs mean more dollars for them, and so we're up against big tech, and we have only a few days to get it done. time is not on our side. kids are dying. that's what parents tell us. and i'm hopeful that the house leadership will see the urgency, rather than saying let's do it next session. we saw the substantive issues here. >> elon musk has sort of taken the mantle of free speech and that certainly is probably a -- a good endorsement to have. what about, senator blackburn, the acl u? there are still people who have problems with the duty of care provision, that could be misused in terms of what is allowed to actually appear online? >> yes. and we have made some changes on the duty of care language, and our goal here is to make certain that kids and parents have the

tools that they need to keep themselves safe and to not be exposed to things cyber bullying and we've heard some tragic stories about that eating >> kids are meeting drug dealers online, traffickers in a virtual space and the protections that exist for

children in the physical space should exist for children in the virtual space. >> senator blumenthal, you need mike johnson to be satisfied for this to happen. what is left to do? you mentioned lobbyists. i don't know how you have a workaround for that. that is truly what is, you know, what is behind it and transitive. >> great question. we are watching parents and young children walk the halls of the capitol. this measure passed the senate 91-3. let me repeat, 91-3. what you have here writing real time is bipartisan cooperation over

these years having hearings, gathering documents. we have done everything the right way. now it comes down to just getting a vote. so i think the path forward is pretty clear. speaker johnson may have some questions or objections, i just hope he gives us a vote because this bill has been threatening -- been through drafting, redrafting, visiting and revisiting and we worked very hard to save children so it will be a monumental step forward and there is an urgency that we feel is very important for the speaker to recognize, with all the due respect, this bill will pass overwhelmingly in the house of representatives, just like it did in the senate. >> we have kept an open door during this entire process. if somebody has questions, they have come in, they have talked with us. they have worked with us. we have worked on this bill for nearly 4 years. and there is so much bipartisan support for this and putting

protections in place for children in the irtual space. >> okay. it is an important issue, obviously. there are a lot of other things we could talk about, but it is good to spend all the time on this. do either of you, any comments on anyone you have met, you know, up for cabinet positions or other positions, senator blackburn, you have been meeting with people, are you meeting with anyone today? >> i have been meeting with people over the past two weeks and i am looking forward to getting the cabinet in place. really looking forward to moving on the hearings prior to the swearing in and then on january 20th, being able to begin the confirmation process. we think it is important that the president have his cabinet in place as quickly as possible. >> what about you, senator

blumenthal? can you tell me who you will vote for and to you will vote against? >> i am waiting for the background checks to be done. >> okay. >> i want facts about these, i have some reservation about them, no one has reached out to me, as yet, but i want to emphasize the bipartisan cooperation we have on this bill. quite honestly, i am hoping maybe president-elect trump will back the bill in these closing days and then both he and president biden could legitimately and rightfully claim credit for his passing. >> that's right. >> very good. senators blackburn and blumenthal, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> when we returned, a special interview. spanx founder is here sara blakely and we have her product showing it is flying off the shelves, we will show you what it is. disney. the top media pick for 2025

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♪ ♪ coming up, a special interview with spanx founder sara blakely on her new product that is drawing strong, but polarized , reaction from consumer. i tell you what, i love them. we will talk about this when we come back and we will show you with this product is. "squawk box" we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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all right, welcome back, everybody. our next guest is a self-made millionaire that started spanx which is $5000 she made selling fax machines door-to-door. she is amazing. sara blakely joins us now. she has branched out from shape or and clothing. she has a sneaker- stiletto hybrid shoe called sneex. this is not cheap, but a lot

of people think it is essential. sara, thank you for joining us this morning. it is great to see you. >> it is great to see you guys. >> you are the woman who made all of our butts look better and we were so appreciative. now you come along with the seal that makes your leg look longer but it does not crush her toes. it does not kill your feet . i stopped wearing heels except for like five minutes here or there, these are great. this is the mother of all necessity. why don't you talk about how you came up with this idea and how you are working on it. >> i love to solve problems for women. i was a frustrated consumer with spanx, i could not figure out a solution. i love heels but they have been so uncomfortable. i can barely walk in them. so i wanted to see if i could invent a comfortable stiletto. i started 10 years ago. it was a side hustle. i was doing it on the side

while running spanx and having four kids. after four years of development, i had not made it -- i had it made in europe, they're made in spain, i had been trying to get this may, tons of resistance, very experienced -- very similar experience with spanx 25 years ago. >> you had to go to factory to factory where they were making pantyhose. men had been making this the same way for decades and decades and decades and now what is wrong with you? we do it this way? >> it is very similar. it is wild. it is 25 years later my experience was almost the same. i am standing in factories, men have been making our high heels for the last 400 years, for the most part. i could not find one man in my journey had better never put a

pair of heels on. it was really interesting. anyway, i was really determined to make this comfortable stiletto after four years of creating it, i intended it to look just like a traditional high heel. i did not succeed in getting it comfortable enough, right? i have this rule, if it is not 10 x for comfortable or better than anything else on the market, i don't launch it. it is not worth starting a company or brand around something, it is pretty significant and needs to be different and better. at the four year mark i looked at the factory owner and said, it is more comfortable than i have but not exponentially more comfortable, i will pull the cord. i just want this to feel as comfortable as my sneaker. how hard is this? we put a man on the moon, which is what i said is the whole development of space. now i have to tell them we shot a go-cart from earth to mars and we are controlling it from earth. we have to be able to create a

heel. i cut my sneaker in half and attach it to the back of a stiletto and started playing with that concept, can i make it look, you know, beautiful, can i make this design collaboration between the two types of shoes work? >> both of you have them on. we should say, i have a whole bunch of friends who you know, actually, who wear these and owned them. they wear them with pantsuits, they wear them with dresses, jeans, different outfits. >> i have them on, too. >> one of the things i am fascinated by, the design choice. you are right. it is a shift from the traditional stiletto, but the other thing, actually, a woman was discussing this with me last week, two weeks ago, the walk, they are wider so your feet can spread out which makes him more comfortable but however, she said, from the front, they have a narrow profile so they sort of look like it, right?

speak to just that whole design process. >> so i design from the inside out. i think most designers have, they either go functionality or they go beauty. i am very fascinated by the merger of both. i don't think i need to compromise as a woman. and so, when i was developing this, i recognized three main pain points women have in our traditional high heels. the toe box squeezing our toes, the weight on the ball of our foot. traditional high heels, for hundreds of years, 80 % of the weight is on the ball of our foot and 20% is on the heel. that is really uncomfortable. >> right. >> i wanted to fix the ball of the foot pressure and third, i wanted to fill the whole shoot to fill the gap between the bridge of the heel and the ball of the foot for the woman so she is more stable and feels more supported in her old foot. it is really fascinating. you put this 3 inch stiletto on and it is a feeling you can't describe. >> my entire life, i can't believe you walk around in

those things. the holy grail, men, we have these now. we have sneakers that are kind of like that. >> this is the female equivalent. >> the female equipment -- equivalent i did nothing could be done. i still can't imagine. >> it makes your legs look longer and makes you look taller. >> it is not, you had never designed a shoe like that with that heel, they would never designed a pump that is just -- >> right. well, the fashion industry, for very long time, has cared a lot about how we work and not as much about how we feel. they even gave is a tagline. my grandmother told my mother who told me, beauty is pain. why does it have to be? so the fascinating thing, joe, is how many men have stopped me

in these shoes and say, i love those, i want to get them for my wife, my daughter. i have had men pull up the side of the road in new york and say, i love your shoes! >> sometimes my wife, other times when we are going out, it is like, what? how quickly she can walk. it depends on what shoes. >> now that this has been a success, how worried are you that others will be a copycat with what you have done? there are a lot of copycats with spanx. >> and spanx is still great and doing well. >> you have patent >> i have a lot of patents, have a utility patent pending for the utilization side of it. i always say, i wake up in the morning and you have the choice to be an innovator or an imitator. >> how far do you think you can go with these designs? >> i have lots of other ideas in my mind. this is the first product. >> brother shoes? >> yes, lots of other shoes. my point will be luxury and comfort. i have been spending $800-$1200 on shoes i can't walk in. i am really interested in

getting women an alternative to that. >> what i think is so interesting about this, hen you did spanx, you not only created this in factories but then you went to neiman marcus and you would stand in the store and store by store to try to tell women, you should really try these. you would sell them direct to consumer in a store. with this one, you are going direct to consumer at this point. what has made that decision or are you looking to get into stores, too? >> i love, because this product is so disruptive, i really wanted to do direct conversation with the consumer to start. i started spanx primarily wholesale for 15 years. it was a wholesale business. i was really interested in going direct to consumer to start. women being able to try them on, i have a great wholesale partner so i am sure there will be a moment when we consider

that when it makes sense for the brand but for now, i just love being.com. it is so fun. i have not been in start up mode for 25 years. when i started spanx, i did not have children . now i have four children. they are all very involved in the business, they didn't get to see me do spanx. now there are boxes of shoes in our garage. it is a full startup. it is a teaching moment for them, as well, that i really like. >> it is hard starting from scratch. what did you do differently this time, what did you learn from your first experience with spanx? >> i haven't done much different because it has worked out so i love creating. i think, people become entrepreneurs for two reasons. you invent something that didn't already exist or you make something exponentially better than it already was, whether it is a product or a service. i love filling that white space for myself and for other women. the shoe did not exist, i

assisted -- associated going to an event with pain. i would literally associate it with pain. >> i don't want to wear these things. >> who came up with sneex? >> i did. >> she came up with spanx, too. >> sneex is so good and it references that a little bit but sneakers, you knew that. which came first? i will call it sneex and then develop it? >> i developed it . >> you should pay yourself for that. >> you want to hear something crazy about that? i was looking at a lot of different names for a.com, they are so expensive. one of them was $1 million, $1.5 million for the name. tran nine was exactly the same price that i bought spanx.com

25 years ago. >> you didn't say but then they would try to rip you off if you say that. >> i bought spanx.com 25 years ago from a guy in oregon through a broker. by the way, the name -- >> i don't understand. >> the name spanx was shocking. people , stores refused to sell spanx because of the name. my mom said she sent her whole luncheon group to the website when it first launched. it is with an x. >> you thought spanx was better with an x. >> at the last second i typed it in and then i backspace it and put the x. i trademarked

spanx with $150 on my credit card for that website. [ laughter ] >> i have another line, joe. >> we could pick from that. >> we love having you here. thank you so much for coming. before you go, just because you always share everything, can you tell me about your shoes today? >> yes. i actually have on two different height heels today. packing, i grabbed a four inch prototype and i've got a four inch prototype on my right foot and a three inch heel on my left foot and i am walking like a pirate but i am here. >> yeah, okay, like a shopping cart with one wheel messed up but okay. >> i have done it, too. that is why we were laughing about it. it is a prototype. >> it is working on a lot of

different things but mostly listening to the consumer. it is wild how they, we have sold out so many times since we lost. most of the women, it is fascinating what percentage of our women by four pair or more and we have only been in business three months. you know, over 15 % are consumers have bought, you know, more than one pair. in 12 weeks. that is just testament they are so happy. the women that like this really like it. >> sara blakely, thank you. it is great to have you here. we have to speak again soon. n thank you, guys. >>asdaq. we come back, another angle on consumer spending. we will talk to the ceo of klarna in just a minute. president trump will be ringing the bell, as well. at&t, it's super-fast! you locked us out?!

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♪ welcome back to "squawk box" rick santelli live here at hq, breaking news. yesterday's consumer price

index gave way to the producer price index, expected 2/10, w, 4/10. that equals two, to find something higher you have to go back to april of this year. strip out food and energy, as expected, up to tense, 1/10 lighter than the three tents in the rearview mirror. if we serve up food, energy and tray, 1/10, to tense underwear we were last month, up 1/10 equals september, find a lower number, you go back to unchanged in may 23. yes, 23. let's take a step back and do year-over-year, not very good news here. 3% on headline year-over-year. that is a big jump. we were expecting 2.6, 2.4, 3%. we are going back again, 3%, you have to go back to february of 2023 to find a higher number. that was already at 4.7.

if you look at year-over-year in energy, that is 3.4, also hotter than expected, 3.4, find a higher number, you are going back to february of 2023. the last one, year-over-year, x trade up 3.5, exactly in the rearview mirror and the rearview mirror 3.5, back to back will print, that means we are looking at the highest back- to-back level since february and march of 2023 when it was 4.5 and 3.7. let's look at initial claims. 242,000, that is a heck of a jump. we are expecting to 20 is, rearview mirror to 25. 242 would be the highest since the first week of october this year. finally, on continuing claims, 1,886,000, the 26th consecutive

week above 1.8 million and, if we look at the number of 1.9 million, the last time we were there would have been november 2021. a few weeks back we did have a few of those 1.9 but they were revised out. after all of that and, once again, will warmer than expected on many of the mattress with ppi. some of the month over month numbers were little light so you have the analyzing crowd, you know, they will analyze this and come up with a lower rate. after everything we did, we are at 429 before the numbers, two basis points, 428 plus right now. if you look at what was going on overseas yesterday, bank of canada, this morning swiss national bank cut 50, down to only 50, now i have to send. down only 3 per set. in one eastern we have the last of treasury coupons in the war

need to of the 30 year bonds. today market seem to ignore it but they did not ignore it all day after yesterday's spectacular option, which pushed yields down. they zoom, zoom, zoom higher. you can always squeeze inflation for so many hours before pops out at higher rates at some point. today is the fourth consecutive session, tenure notes have traded higher than previous day's high yield. a lot of info there, sorry about that. you have to give it all to the viewers. joe, back to you. >> were, you are warmer and warmer and then you went back to hotter on these. this is different than yesterday. this is more. >> i think so. >> i think so. >> these year-over-year numbers in the headline number, those were sort of jumps. i think that is very significant but, as we can see by the market, the ppi never

extracts the kind of attention by investors, in terms of trading markets as the cpi does. >> we will move and talk a lot more about this for more on the inflation numbers. let's go to a senior economist on the economics team at ub and . i don't have a team. >> we are your team, joe. >> lindsey reiser, head of multisector extracting and steve, i will start with you, i've got a couple questions. one, you told me don't panic about the cpi because the fed combines the cpi to get the ppi. >> coming on national television i was wrong, that is what you are trying to say. >> i was trying to make you feel better. >> i am sorry i cannot make you feel better, this is number

two. >> they are not cut. they are looking right through this number, joe. i'm looking at this number. i looked at it eight times already in the last 60 seconds and it is unchanged. in fact, it is a little bit higher, 96 % of ability in december and unchanged, i will do the math here, 60 % a call it, for a cut in march, higher than it was before. i am trying to figure out, goods were of 0.7 % i'm trying to figure out why goods were up. i get why trade might have been up, i'm still trying to get that number but when the stock market goes out, the profits of investor banks goes up, i don't have a reason, joe. i think there is reason for concern there is some inflation in the pipeline. i am going to let our esteemed guests go ahead and i will try to find more data and will shout it out while you are talking. >> wonderful. i would say from what we heard, the core numbers, we like to look at the core, if --

>> a big jump in food. >> we would agree with you that even though we expect inflation to decelerate two % next year, this may just be a bump in the road, which we had expected. one thing to point out here, in the cpi numbers this week, we saw that food away from home prices were quite strong, as well. lodging prices were strong, as well. what does this tell us? we think of food away from home in the cpicomponent as an inflation trend, an underlying inflation trend which the fed has tried various ways to extrapolate. what we would say, while we still expect inflation in 2025, this does present an upside risk. >> i have to interrupt. for some reason, i have never seen this before, finished consumer foods and crude up 31 % to month, if i am not reading this wrong. i don't even know what that means, 31 % if that's a

misprint or something. other things are up three % i get that is high, but this finished consumer foods. >> what is that? >> i don't know. but it is up 31 % i've never seen, there is no other number in here that is even double- digit. >> you would still cut? >> i think someone who doesn't cook, i can probably validate that. you have a package that arrives in the box and goes in the microwave, i can attest to that. we very much believe the fed wants to cut in december. they want a nice, round number of 100 basis points behind that. we have very much been in the camp that they could go one more time in the first quarter and then they pause. pausing, from all the data we have seen here today, as well,

in case it makes sense, they need to take a breather and see where everything is. we absolutely have a cooling labor market. we have inflation going in the right direction and i would be remiss if i did not highlight that oer made some serious progress yesterday and that is really important but there are going to be these movements and that is something part of the process. so we don't think today's number, having gone through all the details, today's number really upset the apple cart. december should be a lot and then likely there will be one more cut of 25 basis points in the beginning and then they will wait. that gives them a beautiful moment to wait and see if policy evolves. >> a big jump in claims and hot inflation. neither one of those is good for you have a reason for both and tell us not to worry. >> yeah, we would agree that the fed is probably going to go 25 basis points in december so, next week. with that said, when will they pause? they already started talking about pausing. these numbers do not necessarily shed additional light on the potential of a

pause next year. >> steve, do you have the number yet? >> i don't have it. this is why you can't throw this number out because about 3 % in my right, guys, ill fold into it and the fed will use it and cause it to be higher. >> it was much lower then the cpi. >> it did not come in that way. it did not come in that way. >> much closer to the target. >> it should have been and should be, for your information. becky, this is fruits and vegetables, up 41 % and it's not like i looked at it that much but there are times when this thing spikes crazy, this particular thing. i don't know how much weight it gets in the index here. >> is that like citrus? >> i don't know. there have been some december and january numbers that have been hot like this in the past.

that is the word, hot, when it comes to this. i am looking down here, everything else looks kind of maybe towards the tepid side, can we use the word, tepid? lukewarm? not hot. that one looks hot. one thing i forgot to tell you yesterday, the used-car number, i missed this, i should have known it, you want to guess why it was hot? >> why? used cars? because of the floods. >> you are smart. no one is smarter than becky quick around this table. every time we have a hurricane the cars get flooded out. the warning at home, ladies and gentlemen, those cars could appear in other states. >> don't buy a used car. >> they just refurbish them. >> just like after sandy. >> sandy and other things. maybe one of our esteemed guests has a notion that

perhaps the claims number is the delayed number. i think, stagflation, i am still always leery of that. i was right before to be wary of it because you price adjustments that can happen. >> slow growth or high inflation. it seems like a stock market 23 times earning, neither one of those things -- >> that is right, relative to that. we have had reasonably strong growth. >> we have. we are definitely surprised in terms of the labor market alone. we are seeing them acknowledge that themselves. they are really here. the market was falling off a cliff when they went in for the 15 basis points in september. >> talk to joe. how worried should we be? >> it's fruits and vegetables and who cares? i don't like either one. i don't eat them. >> i don't like them. >> it is the risk for risk assets is that inflation re-

accelerates. we think it is a small risk, but absolutely something we are keeping an eye on. one thing i think, excuse me, that is important, we have not talked yet about potential tariffs. we think about one %, 1% tariff globally is the equivalent of 1/10 of a point. right now we are looking at 3%, 4% for inflation. naturally, there will be a bump up in inflation but the fed can look to see what the policy is driving that. that will be important going forward. >> do you think it is inflationary or one-time increase in prices? >> a tariff is a one time price shock from, you know, an academic, economic basis. >> sonia meskin and lindsay

rosner and steve, you know everything is about me. it is copying, little different, but the same thing. >> they have announced exactly what they're doing. >> i was in the process of doing that. the announcement of a new corporate structure to enhance strategic flexibility to industry leading divisions, global linear networks and streaming in studios. >> not spinning, keeping its structure. flexibility. >> inside the company operating the business lines as if they are converting. >> they can plan. they can plan consolidations. >> in the stocks? >> no, no, no. just puts them into position later on so they cannot help everything in advance and set it up. either they want to do a merger or an acquisition or sell, you can do it much quicker than you could have if you had not set it up this way. you know, it pertains to what

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you paying on time. >> it is very expensive if you don't. our late fees is on par with others but if you compare it to a credit card, this is actually savings, $2 million. for us, as a company, president trump announced he would invite acceleration of permits and licenses for anyone willing to invest $1 billion. we are willing to invest $1 billion in the u.s. and take on the big banks if we can get faster exploration -- acceleration. >> we are a bank in europe. >> we want to accelerate our transmitting license and we are willing to commit a half- million dollars to do that. we have these horrendous credit card fees. >> we keep actually talking about the credit card system in the future, the context, crypto, talking about sort of that stable point and how it may bring down the prices. how do you think about that and what you play in that?

>> so far, a lot of people have been interested in, it has not yet proven to be a more efficient way of transferring money, per se, between two. it is not necessarily faster. improvements to it yet, i definitely prefer open and we are investigating if there are better ways to use it. >> long-term, hate to ask you, it is like asking a big competitor, would you short the big credit card players because of the margin they have been able to capture all these years, does that margin disappear? >> it will definitely disappear. the future with a.i. and everything, we have digital systems, agents that can go and negotiate on your behalf with banks. today, this is an excessive market, it is not a well functioning market because we are too lazy, as consumers, to

switch between banks, getting an aia to drop a switch, you will wake up in the morning and your computer will say, i managed to get a much better interest rate. the thing you need to do is say yes so of course you will use it. >> how should the consumer class think about you? >> i think what we are is a part of that change to retail banking. there will be a tremendous pleasure on the excess profits the banks have shown. i think $200 billion of their interest rates that the consumers pay on annual in the u.s. it is a tremendous amount of money they are losing out on this. >> you feel there is more competition coming into your space, apple and others? >> it is, but it is a good thing. i come rom europe where change is regulated and credit cards are 40 plus basis cards. credit card in the u.s. generates 550 basis points in fees, both on the merchant fees and the consumer's side. that is a tremendous amount of money that has not had a lot of competition and it will come down. >> long-term, do you expect people to use buy now, pay later for everyday items, is

that happening? is that a good thing or not? >> i think, when i was a kid, i used to work at burger king. when people swipe the card, burger king would say press one for debit, two for credit. the banks removed that. as a consequence, we only put part of our pending on and we were less likely to evolve and make them less money and interest. what we are doing is bringing the back. every time you press the klarna button, there is one, pay now, most of our businesses pay full amount in debit and 70 % is credit, giving them the option back gives them control over the spending. for the credit side you only do fixed installment, take 0 interest and evolving is a bad concept with that. >> we had a guest on recently who talked about he is not seeing any slowdown in his consumers. consumers are building and the economy looks great with them. are you seen the same and you have the same concern? >> we definitely see that people are using our products.

i think the u.s. is doing better than your. we have a lot of big businesses in europe, as well. we see both markets. it is clear that the u.s. is doing better. but at the same time, we also see this major shift away from credit cards. i think some of that improvement is because buy now, pay later has done so well. >> but it is a younger demographic. >> partially. the average age isbo 3 aut4. is not like it is 18 years old. it is deathly a generation that, you know, my kids did a survey at 15, they called them self-aware avoiders. about 20 % americans are tired of the dirty tricks of the

banks and how they promote limits and so forth and they want an alternative. they want fixed installments, transparent fees, easy to use. >> sebastian siemiatkowski, thank you. i probably won't be able to comment. >> i am not allowed to, they tell me. >> we will be right back in just a moment. over the air gu. i've got another one.

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every time that commercial. all right, jessica sibley, ceo of "time" magazine speaking right now at the new york stock exchange. president-elect trump named "time's" person of the year. he will be ringing the opening

bell at the nyse this morning. >> i think jerry is speaking now. the chairman of the new york stock exchange. >> i think president-elect trump will have a chance to make some comments, as well. he will be ringing the opening bell. i tried to get him to stop by here, both bastions of capitalism, for a drive-by. he had a comedown from trump tower, but he did not agree to do that. but it is fine. he can go do the nyse, he can do the nasdaq some other time. i am sure it will be interesting. he will get a raucous reception . >> he is there, by the way, on the same day incoming president trump has been named as the person of the year of "time" magazine, which is why the portrait is behind him, which is why >> it is all in celebration of this "time" magazine person of the year award or at least honor, of sorts. >> i was hoping to take this,

it could have come as early as 8:45. that didn't work out. it will be running into the 9:00 hour. i think we will be taking the speech in full, if i've got that right. i think that is probably it. the bellringing ceremony right as is every day at cohen 9:30. we got about a minute left in our show. we will take a final check of the markets this morning after that. we went from warm numbers yesterday, some of them were hot. some of them ppi, the data was hotter than expected. as i always say, well, not to worry. food and energy, you take that out and it is fine. no one eats or travels or goes anywhere. i think we did see yields move up, not too bad. 428 at one point, >> actually, we started the show at 430. >> it ticked up in recent

sessions. we will take a quick look and look at crypto and then we will hand it off to "squawk on the street" , just over $70. we will keep that. remember where it was because we heard about it good thursday morning. we are here at post nine. on this historic day at the new york stock exchange. in 30 minutes, president-elect donald trump will ring the opening bell. it was ronald reagan who became the first sitting president to ring the bell nearly 40 years ago. >> if tax reform and budget control, the economy will be free to expand to its full potential. driving the bears back to permanent hibernation. that is our economic program for the next four ye