areressssodownwnloloadadabay anand d ststayay c conon .. anand d ststayay c conon futures pointing to holiday cheers. investors hope santa claus rally comes to get the market momentum. apple hitting record levels. why dan ives says the rally may be getting started. and shutdown averted as some lawmakers are questioning the role that elon musk played in the drama. honda and nissan are talking

about creating one of the world's largest all owe utomake it's monday, december 23rd, 2024. you are watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. good monday morning. thank you for being with us. i'm frank holland. we kick off the look with the u.s. stock futures with the dow notching the third straight negative week. futures are green across the board. s&p up 20. dow up 65. the nasdaq up over 100 points higher. one stock to watch is apple. shares up 2% last week hitting a new all-time high. apple up .1%. take a look at yields.

the benchmark a tick below the level it was last week. now at 4.54. we have seen it above 4.5 in recent days. we have to look at bitcoin falling below $100,000 and staying there. below 97. that to be an area of resistance. bitcoin below 97. up 1% right now, but well below the all-time high of $107,000. remember, bitcoin trades around the clock. you see last week it fell double digits down 9.5%. we want to look at the asian markets mostly in the reen. the nikkei up over 1%. the shanghai pulling back .50%. we want to look at the early trade in europe this morning. keep an eye on that trade. a mixed picture right here. the dax flat. the cac down frags ctionally.

that is the morning setup. we get a look at the top corporate stories with silvana henao. good morning. >> good morning, frank. congress kick the funding can down the road until next year. president biden signing a bill to avoid a government shutdown just hours after the senate approved it early saturday morning. now the package funds the government at current levels through mid march, but doesn't remove the debt ceiling as president-elect trump demanded. sticking with trump, naming a key member of the incoming team. selecting stephen miran as chairman of the council of economic advisors. miran served in the first trump administration has been a critic of the fed and jay powell and

saying the chairman was wrong politically to recommend a stimulus package in 2020. honda and nissan announcing they've agreed to start merger talks confirming reports from last week. they will sign agreement in june and list a joint holding company by summer of 2026. the merger would include mitsubishi and create an auto giant worth $50 billion. >> silvana, thank you very much. turning attention back to the overall markets coming off a rocky week. investors are hopeful the santa claus rally will help stocks and this year on a high note. the period covers the last five trading days of december and first two of january. if you go back to 1969, the s&p gained 1.3% over that time according to the stock traders

almanac. the dow down 4%. the s&p down 1.5%. the russell has dropped 8%. losing all of the post-election gains. nasdaq bucking that trend up 2%. joining me now is doug bonaparth. >> good morning. >> it should be a good few days for the markets. i want to go to more recent history. friday, austan goolsbee giving dovish talk there. john williams adding to the dovish fire. how does that influence the market? we see goolsbee who is a voting member next year. >> maybe that will help that lift that we saw friday into maybe hat sclaugs anta claus ra. eyes are moving into 2025. >> i want to play that austan goolsbee.

it sounds like you were agreeing. i want your take on what he said and if any response to this if you are an investor that you need to make. let's play it and take a listen. >> they think that the ultimate rate is around 3% with the inflation of 2% and real rate of 1%. we are still above that. i still think it is meaningfully restrictive. that's why i say over the next 12-to-18 months, if conditions keep on the way they have over the last 18 months, i think rates come down a fair bit more. >> a fair bit more. still too restrictive. in your mind, does that mean january may on the table? does that change the outlook of when we could see these cuts or do you think january is a pause? >> i don't think really anything has changed fundamentally here. the big move was are we going to have four cuts next year or two? that's what investors bit council on and down on and that's the recalibration.

you are seeing that play out in real-time to the end of the year. muted trading. we will see how heavy it is. >> just quickly, any fears of a hike that could possibly happen next year? >> not for me. i hope not. that would be wild. >> let's talk about the fear we are not worried about anymore. a government shutdown. a bill to avert it. are you possibly worried of the u.s. credit rating getting downgraded? that's what they cited. ysfunction in fiscal policy. the insertion of the second trump administration and richest person in the world in this conversation. are you worried about the downgrade? >> i'm not too concerned over a downgrade. i would be concerned with the volatility with what you are seeing dysfunction in d.c.? you are kidding me, frank. we will see the markets move around to that and i hope people skip to their strategies.

>> speaking of sticking to the strategy. last time you were on, you said bitcoin should be part of the portfolio. let's look at the volatility or year to date post election. it has been a volatile asset class. it made big upside and down side moves. it is up .75%. it's off the highs it hit a few days ago. what have we seen ce the election? >> nothing has changed my views with bitcoin. doubling up on the all-time highs. its financial ties and etfs. i have never seen a siek cycle bitcoin with this many tailwinds with a extra strategic reserve. that is all happening right now.

exciting, exciting stuff. it will be volatile. >> i'll ask for one more answer. people ask me all the time. should you invest in bitcoin now or did you miss the move? do you think it really has more room to run? >> i think it does. one question i ask myself or would ask someone, i know people get upset if it is digital gold. do you think it is just as good or better or worse than gold? use that thinking to try to guide you as to where you think the price of bitcoin would be using the market cap of gold as your measuring stick. >> doug boneparth, great to have you here. thank you very much. coming up on "worldwide exchange," including the one word investors have to hear today and the under the radar areas that could have a very big 2025. first, digging into the action in 2025 and the retailer our next guest says is the top

pick in the year ahead. and the role that elon musk and the government standoff and what it means for the republican party. and dan ives is here in the house. the flagship device that he says can put the tech giant in a very rare club. we have a ryve busy hour when "worldwide exchange" returns. do not go anywhere.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." with six trading days left in the year, financial firms are looking ahead to 2025 and laying out the best opportunities. that includes the next guest that includes walmart the pick of the year. stock up 75% of the year. we have the vice president jeffries. corey, good morning. >> thanks, frank. >> the rest of the street is about 100. what are you seeing in the stock that's going to push it significantly higher than the rest of your peers believe it can go? i want to ask this one question. is the price target based on a strong consumer or stretched consumer? >> i would say that number one is the tree high of $111. this is based on presumptions

that the consumer health is likely to continue to stay as is. this is a consumer that is a little bit choiceful. we have seen a value conscious consumer. more customers going to walmart. the grounding of our thesis is really in and this started up 18 months ago and identifying the opportunity at walmart in our view one of the most transformational evolutions in the company's history. this goes back to when the company was founded by sam walton. they unveiled the super center in 1988 which allowed them to sell general merchandise and grocery and rebuild the online business in 2000. now today, walmart has the ability to grow the ancillary revenue streams to help drive profit growth faster than sales. that means investing in lower profitability and it means investing in waging which means

lower profitability, yet still because of the items i mentioned, expand margins. >> margin expansion, but eps contraction. that sounds like what you're talking about, but a broad based business. i want to hit on the themes. the use of artificial intelligence in the business. i heard a lot of people talk about the use of a.i. in the marketplace business. when we talk about the general retail business, there are other areas or the a.i. opportunity i should say you are seeing is mostly on the online marketplace business? >> there are several area where is walmart is using a.i. the first bucket is in the area of consumer experience. how does walmart use artificial intelligence to improve the consumer experience. it is the gen a.i. search function on the app. how does walmart with the next bucket on the supply chain.

how does walmart improve work force efficiency to then further enhance margins as we look ahead? that is adding in automation. automated forklifts and storage and eval systems. how workers interact through gen a.i. enabled questionnaires on their company interface. there's many different ways they are using a.i. that will enhance the p & l ahead. >> it sounds like mostly a.i. will enhance inn term.ternal su chain as opposed to the consumer? >> on the app, you will see, for example, gen a.i. search. traditionally, if i go on walmart and i'm hosting a including football playoff party, i might type in chips and hot dogs and buns. now, with walmart's technology,

i can type in i'm hosting a college football playoff party and it can load my cart. >> what does it mean for other competitors in your area? dollar general and dollar tree and target. >> i would say the market share is coming a little bit from everywhere. this is likely to be a detriment to a lot of other retailers. there are i'd yoe sin idiyosync issues. walmart, because they have what you need and want and serving higher end customers, a lot of that is nipping at the heels. >> with the choiceful consumer. good to see you.

thank you very much. coming up on "worldwide exchange," much more on the retail space and a.i. w e d t teatn. hothrehotech is finding its way into your holiday shopping cart. that's coming up next.

come back to "worldwide exchange." the holiday rush is on today. aaa predicting more than 119

million people will travel between saturday and new year's day. that would top the high set back in 2019. the tsa expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays through january 2nd. like they will you in the local newscast, pack patience. holiday travel is not the only source of stress for some as you get the last-minute gifts. chances are, you may come across a generative assistant while shopping. julia boorstin has more on your gift giving. >> reporter: a.i. is playing a key role in holiday shopping this year. 62% of consumers plan to use a.i. for gift recommendations and 3 in 5 retailers deployed a.i. chatbots for the customer experience. sierra a.i. is one company helping retailers from sonos to create custom a.i. tools trained

on the company today. it assists with the purchase. one uses a relaxed tone. it answers questions about visiting the islands. sierra co founder says during the holiday shopping season, many retail customers did not need to hire more support staffers because sierra's a.i. agent could pick up the slack. >> we can help companies in particular surge and scale around holiday times where one of the challenges is how do you meet peak demand without having call times go up and so on. there are meaningful operational savings there. >> reporter: there are companies helping customers who have not landed on the brand page. jeff bezos's perplexity a.i. launched an a.i. shopping tool to search for products based on photos and compare products and complete a sale on the platform.

this follows amazon and google tools to give shoppers personalized results. amazon asked over 500 million questions. down the line, you will be able to have voice conversations without the human or the wait. frank. as we head to break, check of novo nordisk shares after the drop on friday following disappointing results for the next generation weight loss drug. you see the shares up 8.5%. on the bottom are the u.s. listed shares up over 4.5%. let's go back to last week. shares fell 20%. they shed $90 billion in market cap. bouncing back this morning. we will be right back after this break. don't go anywhere.

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to policy in the incoming administration. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm frank holland. coming up, we will dig into elon musk's sway on capitol hill and his way of business could mean for washington, d.c. first, we take a look at u.s. stock futures. we check as we do at the half hour. we are in the green across the board. off their highs of early this morning. that's very important to note. the s&p up 14 points. dow would open 30 points higher. nasdaq up about 80 points. up over 100 points earlier in the hour. we want to look at the biggest gainers on the nasdaq 10. at the top of the list is qualcomm after it won a legal vehicle victory over arm. we are seeing tesla up 2.5%. co star and broadcom in the green. we are watching bitcoin after it fell below the $100,000 mark.

$97,000 is a level of resistance. now trading at $96,125. up 1%. remember, bitcoin trades around the clock. well off the high of $107,000. that is the money set up. we turn to washington. congress striking an 11th hour deal to keep the lights on for the federal government. that may be short lived for republicans facing big challenges for the 2025 agenda. we have emily wilkins with more on the story. emily, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frank. lawmakers managed to pass that measure to keep the government funded just after midnight on saturday. so that crisis avoided. the process to get there showed just how big of a challenge that republicans are going to be facing next year when they want to move forward major legislation especially when it comes to the debt limit. that has become a major concern for trump. remember, come january 2nd, the debt limit is no longer suspended. the clock starts again.

the treasury department has the ability to use extraordinary measures. while trump's push to uss spent the debt limit was unsuccessful, lawmakers came to a handshake agreement with trump. raise the debt limit through the process that will not require democratic support and find another $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. now, it's not clear what would be reduced or eliminated. lawmaker was have to find some cuts in programs like medicare and medicaid and nutritional assistance. represents said republicans said the agreement could change. that includes congress member tom as massie. listen to what he had to say. >> there is general agreement to get some cuts to spending. there is broad agreement to that. i think the 2.5 and 1.5, i would

be very surprised if that ends up being the numbers. >> reporter: so broad agreement there, but, of course, that 1.5 and 2.5 could change. trump has also floated the idea of doing away with the debt limit entirely. something that could reduce headaches on capitol hill, but deprive republicans of the opportunity for leverage if they want to reduce spending. it is, of course, frank, one of several major battles we have coming up next year on capitol hill. >> mily, speaking of major battles, what about house speaker mike johnson? will he have a battle to hold on to that role? >> reporter: frank, it is something you can rule out. he got government funding passed and he got trump and elon musk to buy into it. there was a lot of frustration with the process. thomas massie says he does not

plan to vote for speaker johnson. there are others frustrated with johnson not because of the funding fight, but fights in previous years. the question, of course, if not johnson, who? that was a joke johnson made a lot. that's not clearly either. you see folks who ran last time. we could have a rocky start to the beginning of the next congress. frank. >> emily wilkins live in d.c. great to see you. thank you very much. the latest funding fight put age puting a spotlight on the world's richest donor. this marking elon musk's first test as head of doge. it is raising questions over who is calling the shots. musk or trump. that is something the incoming president addressed yesterday. >> no, he's not taking the

presidency. i like having smart people. you know, they're on a new kick. russia, russia, russia, ukraine, ukraine, ukraine. all of the hoaxes. the latest is president trump has ceded the presidency to elon musk. no, no, that's not happening. >> for more on this, let's bring in tim higgins at the wall street journal and cnbc contributor. the piece is "elon musk brings his messy way of doing things to washington." tim, good morning. how are you doing? >> i'm well. thank you. >> i think your title says it all about the content of the article. the messy way of doing business, in your mind, how does it influence d.c. long term and how does it impact the relationship with the president-elect? >> even without elon musk, as emily pointed out, it will be rocky and hard to do business especially in the early weeks in the congress with the administration and not a lot of

margin for error for republicans who control all three. the house, senate and white house. in theory, they should be able to pass whatever they want. as we have seen, it's very difficult. when they think they have a deal, as they did last week, elon musk gets in the mix and has shown he can blow it up. the question with elon musk and the question that i heard in washington when i was there last week is can elon inspire republicans to vote for what he wants to do. it is one thing to kill a deal and another to get on board and we know he wants to cut government regulation and he needs to build consensus to do that. it is not clear that lawmakers want to give up their role in that. that's going to be the big question in the next few weeks and months. >> one of the things that's going on here is house democrats are some of the people raising questions that the president-elect was referring to basically saying elon musk has

outsized influence in d.c. how does that play between the two parties this idea of elon musk potentially having the outsized influence? >> it's great for democrats because it gives them a boogey man and helps in campaign fundraising and allows them, as we aw, in the initial days after the initial bill was vap . you saw the former president hinting at that when he spoke yesterday saying elon wasn't going to be president. we know from the develop trump administration he doesn't like to share the limelight. he doesn't like to share the idea of people around him to getting bigger than him. we saw it with steve bannon going away during the first administration. the question of observers here who follow these things closely

is how long trump and how long musk can see eye to eye with each other. there is a lot of history how this might not work. >> the palace intrigue is interesting. we focus on that. i want to go back to the funding deal that didn't work out. some house leaders say the language in the bill may have impacted musk's business especially in china. the reason it would impact his personal business. how does that play out with d.c. and the new administration? >> one of the questions that is hanging over a lot of this is is elon doing this for the country or is elon doing this for elon? we have seen him talk about how he's already the world's richest man. why would he do this to make more money, right? this is about saving the government and the country and all these other things.

without a doubt, it is part of the background conversation and oreground conversation about what government is doing and what elon is doing. it happens to help some of the companies. you have to remember tesla, spacex, these are companies that operate in heavily regulated environments. having the ability to shape those government regulations or what isn't regulated or what isn't enforced is very powerful and that could make having trump in the white house very beneficial to elon. >> speaking of powerful before we let you go, we have seen a consortium of tech companies trying to put their abilities together to get government contracts. would you imagine that spacex might be part of that. how does that work that potential conflict of interest with the incoming administration and elon musk trying to get those government contracts? >> it is interesting. elon is not part of the government and hasn't filed paper work to show conflicts.

going forward here, it's going to be probably democrats who are raising the concerns and pointing out when things happen. i imagine at every turn, that is one of the big conversations. how is this affecting his companies. >> we're showing his companies, starlink and x a.i. and other companies. i imagine president-elect trump is looking at what happened with tesla and elon musk. tim, it's a great read. good to see you as always. thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, palantir is looking to add to the stellar 2024. it is up almost 380% this year. the reported deal with the u.s. government that is lifting that stock. stay with us. palantir shares up over 1%. at least, not the way it could work. your people are buried in busy work. and you might be thinking... can ai make it all work? it can. on the servicenow platform,

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." time for the global briefing. honda and nissan agreed to merger talks confirming reports from last week. they will sign agreement in june and have a joint holding company by summer of 2026. a top german lawmakers calling to rein in elon musk and his power. musk has voiced support for a far-right party and called for

olof scholz to resign following friday's christmas market attack. president-elect trump threatening to retake control of the panama canal that the u.s. handed over 25 years ago. trump accused panama of charging excessive fees and warned of chinese than influence on the waterway. china does not control the canal. panama's president is pushing back on the canal independence and says the passage fees are not set on a whim. coming up on "worldwide exchange," the one word that every investor needs to know today. and dan ives says what will keep that record rolling in 2025. much more "worldwide exchange" coming up after this. (♪♪) (♪♪)

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we are watching shares of apple this morning. the stock hovering at an all-time high. shares up .75% right now. bloomberg reporting cupertino may be looking to expand the smart home offering with the apple face i.d. technology. it may be a flagship product that continues to power the stock higher. dan ives at wedbush out with a new note on apple today. dan, best dressed guy on wall street. >> great to be here, as always.

>> another bullish note. in fairness to the audience, you are bullish on everything. i understand the narrative. on a serious note, we're looking at apple. what pushes this company higher? >> our supply chain checks coming in bullish. i think right now they're trending 5 million to 10 million iphones ahead of the street. what that means is you have a strong holiday season, the a.i. revolution on the consumer side comes to cupertino. that's worth $30 to $40 a share. >> your price target is 300. the street is 255. right where the street is now. everybody sees the stock staying where it's at. i want to get a good note from you today. your estimate is for 240 million iphones to be sold in fiscal 2025. you say there are 300 iphones that have not been upgraded in four years.

that's a big chunk of non-upgraded iphones. >> this super cycle is a big one for apple. they haven't upgraded in four plus years. you see that play out across the globe, including in china. ultimately, we could talk about the a.i. revolution with the godfather, the consumer a.i. from apple intelligence will come from the iphone. >> dan, i know you talk to developers and they create apps for iphone and also for laptops. we are not seeing the churn in laptops. >> first off, that's the first step in terms of the developers. hundreds of apps built on top of

apple intelligence. when you look at laptops and ipads, that's coming. that's why this is a renaissance of growth for apple. first the iphones and the rest of the product line. that's why they're playing chess. others are playing checkers in terms of a.i. revolution. >> even if they are playing chess, there have to be benchmarks. 240 million iphones in fiscal 2025 on the strength of apple intelligence. if they do 220, is that a failure? it is still a lot of iphones and those have to be upgraded. what is the number in your mind for apple intelligence to be quote/unquote a success? >> 240 million. cook is going to be at the a.i. party. as this plays out, all of our checks coming from asia are

showing more to 240 million. that's why the bears can't see a.i. in the spread sheets. this is all just starting to play out for apple which is why i think 4 trillion on the horizon. >> it's easy to talk about apple. one of the most widely held stock in the market. i want to talk about the apple ecosystem. if apple reaches 240 million iphones, who else benefits? >> you will have other big tech players. google and meta from the advertising perspective on the consumer side. right now, it's going to be if you look, you look at roblox and other consumer driven names. frank, our view is we're just starting now. it's year three of what's going to be a five-to-six year bull market. apple and cook are the key player in the a.i. market. >> dan ives, one of the most bullish on the street. 220 to 240.

apple upgrades in fiscal 2025. that would be a big win for apple. dan ives, thank you very much. coming up on "worldwide exchange," citi is out with the wealth outlook for 2025. the firm sees opportunity for your money and the market in the coming year. if you miss "worldwide exchange" check us out oapn ple or spotify or other podcast apps. more "worldwide exchange" coming up after this.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." as we close in on the 6:00 a.m. hour, here are the stories we are tracking. president-elect trump tapped stephen miran as the council of economic advisors head had. and starbucks expanding the strike to four more cities. the walkout started in chicago and seattle after contract talks stalled over wages and scheduling. palantir and anduril industries are looking to join forces. other groups that could join the group spacex and openai. al music and amazon expanding with the label behind

taylor swift will collaborate with amazon music as it expands into audio books and live stream. and sonic the hedgehog speeds past the box office with $62 million this weekend according to com score. "the lion king" brought in $35 million. and the cooler read on inflation and the november pce data, but still a rough week overall with the major averages down 2% or more. looking at futures right now, a mixed picture right now. we saw the dow briefly flash into negative territory. the other three indices in the green. we take a quick look at the dow laggards. nike down .50%. 3m down a bit. we look at the stocks that are boosting the nasdaq this morning. we have qualcomm at the top of the list. up 3%. we mentioned qualcomm won a

trial against rm as it pushes into chips for the pc. also on the list is costar and tesla and broadcom on the list. let's bring in steven wieting at citi wealth. steven, good morning. great to have you here. >> thank you. >> steven, we saw a bit of a rally on friday following the comments from goolsbee and john williams. how do you see today shaping up? >> this is the holiday period. we can move markets around a great deal on an i little bit of momentum and inertia. there are physics terms of investors participating. you can have markets move off in a volatile way. it is not meaningful in price setting in figuring what the economy will like in the coming year during a week like this. >> we mentioned the rough week for the markets lasts week.

what is your word of the day? >> again, it is momentum. it is that we can just find periods where investors latch on to a rising trend or a falling trend and push it just a bit too far. you know, we had a return in the last 24 months of 58% in the s&p 500. we think, again, that momentum is going to change some. we will have positive returns. we are not negative on the outlook for the economy, but the rebound we had from the awful 2022 is out of the way now. we're going to focus in on some changing fundamentals. a decade of double digit returns in the s&p 500. we think there are wider investment opportunities, especially for the decade ahead, if not the year ahead. you want to make sure your portfolio is not attached solely to the performance of the drivers that are behind us. >> so, again, your word of the day is momentum. while we look at things that

happened in the past, i p want go back to the previous government shutdowns. we avoided one this time. when you look at the disruption on the markets and investor confidence. is this something we need to worry about? the fiscal dysfunction in d.c. and the country's grading and when you are advising people and the idea we could get downgraded and that could lead to bond yields rising? >> government shutdowns have been really short lived and at minimal, lasting impact on the economy. markets have looked through them largely. the issue of debt ceiling funds have been more meaningful. it really comes down to is there a small possibility of some accident that will harm the bond market that will cause capital flight from the united states? it's a remote possibility.

there are plenty of different roads to higher and lower interest rates. stronger growth. the end of disinflation. some inflationary policies and tax cuts beyond what we already have could lead to us higher bond yields. we do think the higher end of the yield curve will gravitate a little bit higher over the course of next year. we think the federal reserve is still easing. it's not going to ease quite as much as everyone thought the middle part of last year or the fall of last your. we still have taken some of the risk of disappointment about the fed out of the market this past week. 85 basis point rally in the two-year yield. we're now probably pricing in a little too much tightening or just not as much easing as we actually see from the federal reserve after the comments from powell last week. >> steven, i want to get to your pick right now. what is your pick for us today and why? >> well, i don't have a pick for you, but i will tell you the

healthcare sector broadly speaking, has been trading with extremely low confidence. weak earnings right behind us and we're expecting that eps gains will continue on this recovery track. this is the secular growth industry like tech, but traded again with very low confidence. we think that should be part of the portfolio. >> steven wieting, good to see you. thank you very much. >> thank you. before we let you go, we want to look at what to watch in the holiday week. we get econ data and durable goods and new home sales and jobless claims. the s&p 500 gets two new members joining the index. we will watch the moves on those stocks. i want to look at futures a short time ago. the dow went lower. while i was talking. right now, just up a few points. close to being flat. again, it moved fractionally lower and now back to the

positive. the s&p up nine points. nasdaq similar story up 70 or 75 points right now. let's look at apple as we mentioned earlier. dan ives joined us. bullish on apple in 2025. shares of apple close to the all-time high. up .25%. that does it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" starts right now. good morning. lawmakers averted a shutdown in washington. president-elect trump announcing new picks for the incoming administration, including a key economic post. and honda and nissan announcing plans to merge in 2026 just days after the company said they were exploring a deal. it's monday, december 23rd, christmas eve eve, 2024.

"squawk box" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. on this monday morning. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm randrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky is out this holiday week. with futures at this hour, the grinch hasn't arrived yet, but maybe the grinch arrived two weeks early. the dow off two points. nasdaq off 67 points. this coming after friday's rally in which the dow gained 500 points and the nasdaq and s&p gained 1% for the month. this is where the grinch came in. the nasdaq is up by 1.8%. that santa claus rally idea might have gone