faly did. ♪ warm welcome to "street signs." in case you are wondering, where is one person left in the city of london. me, steve sedgwick. these are your headlines. honda shares surge for the best day in over 16 years as it launches a $16 billion share buyback and confirms talks with nissan. the former chairman ghosn tells

cnbc. >> it will be done. i think, honda will be in the driver's seat which is very sad to see. chinese stocks close higher amid reports of a record issuance of special treasury bonds. beijing looking for fresh ways to stimulate the economy ahead of mr. trump's return to the white house. more pressure from the current administration. president biden launching an investigation into chinese chips entering a probe into the semiconductor supply into beijing practices. and who's next? michel barnier picking the head of the cabinet as eric lombard is the pick for finance minister.

if you are watching at the end of "squawk box" i talked about the special host on "street signs." it's me. and honda confirmed merger talks with nissan. the two companies would create the world's third largest carmaker. the ceo saying the deal would create synergy and economies of scale. if you are watching "squawk box," i had a conversation with carlos ghosn. he spoke to us from beirut and gave his verdict on the deal given his experience, of course, in japan. >> is this going to fail? when i look at the deal the way it has been related by the parties in charge, it looks like a kind of nissan is in panic

mode looking for somebody to save them from the situation because they are unable to generate the solution by themselves. honda is coming, obviously dominating whatever partnership is going to come out of it and, by the way, this is not done because they said it is conditioned by the fact that the turn around of nissan which has been announced is successful. i have high doubts with this. so, first, it's not done and if it's done, it's going to be tough. and third, i think without any doubt, honda is going to be in the driver's seat which is very sad to see after having, you know, led the nissan for 19 years. brought nissan to the forefront of the industry. to see they will be the victim of carnage. there is practically no

complementary here. if they want synergy, it is cost reduction and plan duplication of technology. we know who will pay the price of it. it is the minor partner and it is going to be nissan. >> to give you a bit of context. carlos ghosn is one of the most fascinating people in business. he's on the run from japanese, really. he fled japan in 2018 to lebanon and has been fighting interpol since. there's no extradition. he wants serious questions over his tenure in japan. he is fascinating for so many reasons. who is the automaker who led the way on ev? you find a hard argument to say it wasn't renault or nissan leaf. pretty visionary. extensive interview.

i'll write it up and put it on cnbc.com. fascinating man. fascinating to get his views. european bourses. are you watching? you are. good. ftse is open. .4% higher. cac 40 is open. .4% of 1%. the aex and spanish and my friends in the netherlands and madrid and spain as well. i hope you are having a quietish day. there's no bourses open in germany or italy. i hope you are enjoying yourself in germany and italy. not working too hard. it is not a most exciting session. it has been really interesting december and month that normally people calm down a bit. words from the fed and moves on nvidia and mergers in automakers and plummeting novo nordisk. it's been a fascinating, fascinating month. really has. what have we got? we have pretty flat trading call

on the u.s. futures. let's have a look at dollar crosses where they are currently trading. what have we got? the pound is 125. not moving too much. how down squib. 103 handle on the euro/dollar. do the bears mount a charge on parity given the differentials given what the guards said and it is hard to see not having a crack to the down side. what do i know? dollar/swiss trading .998. right. 2024 delivered the first rate cut in the current cycle as they moved quicker than the federal reserve in reducing rates. risks of tariffs cloud the path ahead and traders eyeing the impact on the euro and inflation in particular. a lot of my colleagues have been

working hard putting tape together for you. annette has been looking at what 2025 has in store. >> reporter: after rate cuts, the ecb is expected to cut rate at a very stable pace. 25 basis pace at each and every single meeting until we are going to see a terminal rate of 1.5% and 1.75%. the reason behind that is inflation is expected to come back to that target and at the same time, we are having a very uncertain outlook for the economy. that's because of geopolitical risk, but also because of potential tariffs levered by the new u.s. administration. that could also mean that the fed might actually stay with higher rates that the euro could fall below parity. loads of analysts are bearish on the euro area currency and that could also have effects on inflation. so, once again, the monetary

policy picture is one of many uncertainties stemming from geopolitical risk, tariffs, economic activity, but inflation should come back to target which gives the ecb more room and more confidence to keep on cutting until we see that terminal rate sitting between 1.5 and 1.75%. this is annette weisbach for cnbc in frankfurt. >> why don't we ask carl chapman. hi, carl. i get lonely on this day when not a lot of people are around. seriously, is there a reason why the dollar shouldn't remain ascendency? >> good morning. it is absolutely justified by the rates in the last few months.

the labor market has stabilized. the news is up and up in the eurozone. i do also think that potentially the move is slightly abstract. i think the markets and the fed is in rate cutting mode. i do think we will see more progress to 2% on inflation. as for me, that is more than the one and a half to two cuts the market is looking at right now. >> many factors. let me talk about the euro side of the trade. let me answer one of the questions. why shouldn't the bear s challenge parity? >> i think parity is an option although my view with the euro should strengthen slightly. a q1 and q2 is a huge event. i see a cut in parity possible.

on day one, trump comes out and slaps tariffs and goes full force with the economic policy and parity is probably the most likely outcome in that scenario. >> who is driving? i heard a lot about where the next vigilantes are going to turn up. are they turning up with $1 trillion short? doing the rounds a couple of months or so ago. where do you think the most tension is at the moment for the biggest swings in forex? >> biggest swings in forex, i think trump is going to be any big swings or bounce in volatility, it is going to be trump led and the currency is sensitive with the trump trade policy is chinese yuan and the australian dollar. then the neighbors in the

canadian dollar. if he stays true to his word and slaps 25% tariffs on canada, that would be ing to canada. >> do you chinese, which is absolutely pivotal to the relationship, do the chinese want a weaker yuan given the fact they are looking for a catalyst to regrow their economy? >> yeah, i think to an extent, the weaker yuan is a boost for exports and the impact to tariffs with the u.s. want tariffs. at the same time, it isn't a free lunch on china. i think they will be looking for more stability than anything else because they've already had a large amount in the past few years and they have ambitions for the yuan to be the stronger currency.

if you get significant weakness on the yuan, that hits their goals. i think 750 is a relatively reasonable target there. >> kyle, it is not lost on you. there is only one international leader who has been invited to the inauguration in late january. that is xi jinping. i hear the concerns from the forex, from everyone, about the chinese-u.s. trading relationship. i look at xi jinping being invited to the inauguration. i think to myself, are we being sold a pop here on the risks? >> yeah, it is a strange move, i think. more than anything here, he has particular goals to reduce the trade deficit and things like that. i think the negotiating table is full and if the time will be

much more pared than trump 1.0. they go straight to the negotiating table. that is the same in the eurozone. that should sort of reduce -- i think that leads to the extreme scenarios that people were worried about and significantly less likely the market is assuming. >> fair enough. >> at the same time -- >> please carry on, sir. >> at the same time as well, they also have stimulus in the bag. if we do get the large tariffs and that effects the chinese economy, i think you get they would resort to the consumption stimulus in that people are looking for and level of that i think will depend on the relationship with the u.s. >> kyle, i believe you are in leicester. i know it has a great party scene at university back in the day. i'm sure is still has. i remember back fondly. in terms of the effect of the government on leicester and on the pound. tell me where you think the

pound is going to go in 2025? >> yeah, i think sterling might actually be fairly vulnerable in 2025. the reason for that is there's been a hawkish pricing for the bank of england path rate next year. it is a path for the ecb. at the moment, they are pricing in two interest rate cuts which to me is conservative. we see in the weak data the last few months, the economic data has stalled largely due to the crisis confidence in the budget. i do believe inflation has been sticky in the past few months. i think we can start to see progress on that over the next year. if the economic data continues to worsen or we don't get recovery in 2025, the bank of england will have more willingness to cut rates. i through is desire or appetite to do that on the mpc.

we had three rate cuts in the last year. for me, i think the pound could be set for quite a bit plunge if this happens quickly. >> fabulous. kyle, thank you very much for whatever you are working on. lovely to see you, sir. magnificent uk city of leicester. kyle chapman. right, we are going to take a break. a new year, a new government for france. let's count one. let's be optimistic. let's take a look at the lineup in paris at the bid to break the political impasse. we'll do that after a very short break on "street signs." you know. at betmgm, everyone gets a welcome offer. so whether you're courtside trying to hit the over... or up here trying to hit the under. whew! or, hitting that win with your crew. ohhh! yes, see defense!

or way up here with a same game parlay. yaw! betmgm's got your back. get your welcome offer. and play with the sportsbook born in vegas. all these seats. really? get up to a $1500 new customer offer in bonus bets when you sign up now. betmgm. download and bet today.

welcome back to "street signs." this is fascinating, isn't it? you have the biden administration which has opened an investigation, assuming it will be carried on by the trump administration. anything new that biden does now, i wonder if it works in accord with the transition team. mind you, after last week's shutdown debate, maybe not. the biden administration announced a new investigation into chinese made semiconductors. the move could see more tariffs placed on chinese chips in a bid to protect u.s. semiconductor producers from chinese state driven build up of supply. the investigation will be handed over to the new administration for completion when trump takes office. the commerce ministry called the investigation quote protectionist. let's move on. china will have $400 million of

treasury bonds next year. it would mark the highest bond issuance on record as they look to boost the stalling economy. they are expected to retaliate on the u.s. tariffs when trump takes power next year. the south korean opposition party is launching an investigation over the impeachment bid into president yoon's failed bid to impose martial law. got it? the bill could be debated as soon as thursday according to local media. prime minister took over from president yoon after he was impeached earlier this month. let's go back to france. new prime minister michel barnier has picked eric lombard as his finance minister. he has been tasked with the tax

and spending plan for 2025 to be approved by the hung parliament. he is looking to reduce the french deficit by the end of next year. it is ambitious. the goal set by his predecessor michel barnier who was removed by a vote of no confidence last month. let's get to our guest. n't andre, they don't have a problem with the tax and spend bit. tell me how this works forward in 2025. good morning, sir. >> good morning. so, i think you put it very, very well. essentially, i think the new government has the same task as the previous short-lived government to try to fill part

of the budget hole. a bit of taxes and bit of cutting expenditure. i believe this is not going to be very, very simple, but i think the life of this government may be longer than the previous one and i think the only way to understand what is going on in france is not really to use an economic lens, unfortunately, because there are plenty of economic problems that need to be attended including the budget. the game that is being played is about the next presidential election. so, everybody is gearing themselves up for the election and only meant to be in 2027, but some parties want it earlier. some want it earlier and not pushing for more of a crisis and others are trying to gain time. my sense is this new government will be able to gain a bit of

time and then we navigate with essentially the same job as the previous one, but with a little bit more political space and navigate with some progress, but very, very limited progress. but there is a finance minister now that i think will be reassuring and will be able to buy time. >> it's very interesting. i know your point, andre, and great answer. let's hope it lasts longer. i think barnier last ed 90 days. it's fascinating you mentioned the presidential election and maybe we bring it forward. this has been typified as the domestic wrangling. the president created this problem in many ways. what i don't understand is how a leftist or rightist or centrist can change the dynamic and math in the national assembly.

ergo, is france vulnerable at the moment? >> yes, i think in a sense you could say france is not governable and, indeed, that's why i'm not expecting much progress on the budget. really minimal, really the minimum to be able to go through, but i think the parliament is divided. people say divided into three parts. the center party, let's say macron, the left and then the right. i think at the moment, it is more divided into two parts. those who want early elections and early elections mean like in 2025. so, you know, to push again this government to fall in order to hope that macron will have to step down. i think it's probably true that if this government was going to last not more than barnier's and

then after the government again for a few weeks or months, then it's probably true that the president would have to resign essentially because it then would be ungovernable. i don't think that it's going to be the case because there are other parties that don't want election next year for a variety of reasons, including the fact they're not ready for election next year. so, i think this is the division now. it's not the division. it is the early election next year and those who don't. there, it is not fully clear at the moment on which side is the majority. >> is madame le pen waiting in the wings to become the next president? clearly she thinks she is. how is this likely to transpire? we have seen the move to the right and we have seen reform in

the united kingdom and extraordinary election of donald trump. is madame le pen the most likely next president of france? >> i would say at the moment she has a high chance. i don't know that she -- she will make it, but it's true that, you know, when she stood against macron in 2017, she did a pretty good score. then when she stood five years later in 2022, she did an even better score. then macron said at the start of the term, he said the enemy was le pen and hoping to bring him down. i think it is the exact opposite. at the moment, she is in good shape, but, again, if the election were to be held in 2025, then i think a chance would be fairly, fairly high. that's why the others, except

for the candidate against her and he believes that gives him at least a 50% chance. many others don't want either le pen or michel. this is the game played. yes, for her, it is an ideal term. 2025 would be ideal time and then this government falling in more political crisis would really be very, very useful. >> andre, does that finally bring about something that many people thought actually would have done france good to have had out of the way in 2008 or 2010? does that create a crisis? we know with the nations in ireland fell under the microscope under the sovereign debt crisis, france was protected. was protected at the center as

well. is france, potentially the slowest burning debt crisis this century? >> i think france is in the difficult position from the budgetary side. about 115% of gdp level of debt. it has high deficit around 6%. it has one of the highest public expenditure and one of the highest taxes in the world, essentially. i think the combination is very, very, very, very difficult. i don't think that france is yet close to a debt crisis, but i think you are right that melechon government or le pen government with this high debt would be recipe for great difficulty. i would personally be worried about that possibility. whether they would be really a

debt crisis like in greece, i really don't think so. first, for the reason that very simply the euro area is much better equipped this time around to deal with the debt crisis than back in 2010 when it started with greece. there, the euro area did not have any road map and no institution to deal with the crisis. that's not the case this time. then again, france, you know, has famously said france is france and presumably the central bank and other european institutions would come to the rescue much before we would be headed for crisis. so the crisis will not come in this manner, but i think it's going to be a slow decline of france if it doesn't deal with its debt problem. i'm more fearing debt and the slow decline than the sharp crisis. >> i really hope it doesn't have

a slow decline. it is a country i adore. have a spiffing christmas. nice to see you, andre. i really appreciate it. andre, senior fellow at egel. i thought it was interesting. i spoke to the former chairman and ceo of nissan carlos ghosn. i'll bring you some of that after the break.

very warm welcome to "street signs" or at least the second half of the show. i'm steve sedgwick. these are the headlines.

it launches a $7 billion share buyback program and confirms merger talks with nissan. former chairman carlos ghosn said it say desperate measure. >> it is not done and it is going to be tough and third, without any doubt, honda is going to be in the driving seat which is very sad to see. chinese stocks closing higher amid reports of the record issuance of bonds. beijing looking for ways to stimulate the economy. this made more important with trump returning to the white house. president biden has launched an investigation into chinese chips entering a probe against beijing's trade practices.

the french prime minister, the new one named his cabinet picking eric lombard as his finance minister. thank you for joining me. it makes wrapping the presents easier. shares on track for the best day in more than 16 years after the japanese automaker announced $1.1 trillion buyback program and begun merger talks with nissan. is it a takeover or merger? what do you think? i suppose we have to call it merger. anyway, the two companies together would create the world's third largest carmaker by sales with honda saying it creates synergy and economies of scale. i think one of the most

fascinating people i've spoken to this century is the former nissan/renault ceo carlos ghosn. he was speaking to me from beirut after he escaped in the most dramatic fashion from japan. the japanese, of course, want to get him back and potentially convict him. all kinds of things proven not guilty of, but alleged to have committed. he gave his verdict on the deal, the nissan/honda deal given his enormous experience in corporate japan. >> is this going to fail? when i look at the deal, the way it has been related by the parties in charge, it looks like a kind of nissan is in panic mode looking for somebody to save them from the situation because they are unable to generate the solution by themselves. honda is coming.

obviously, dominating whatever partnership is going to come out of it and, by the way, this is not done because they said it is condition by the fact that the turn around of nissan which has been announced is successful. i have high doubts about this. so, first, it's not done and if it's done, it will be tough and, third, without any doubt, honda is going to be in the driver's seat which is very sad to see after having, you know, led the nissan for 19 years. brought nissan to the forefront of the industry to see that, you know, they are the victim of car carnage. there is duplication with honda and nissan. if they want to make synergy, it will be through cost reduction, duplication of plan or duplication of technology. we know who will pay the price of it. it's going to be the minor

partner and it's going to be nissan. >> carlos, you and i lived in the united states for a period of time with the japan phobia. japan buying everything in sight. you name it. are we now at the polar opposite of the extraordinary ascendency and enormous crisis is engulfing japan inc. on the way it does business and the way it's structured? >> look, we should not under estimate the strengths of the japanese industry. i never underestimate them. maybe in term of innovation and strategy, but in terms of execution, they are still, in my opinion, one of the best in the world. this being said, japan today has nothing to do with japan of 20 years ago and frankly when it comes to the car industry, i'm being shocked by the lack of creativity and lack of audacity when it comes to really put

together the car of the future. it's always the same solution and on top of this, you know very well that nissan was successful in the alliance with renault up to 2018. when the plot happened in 2018, they said they will continue and it will be successful. you know, this was nothing because nothing happened and they are not cooperating together. why an alliance which didn't work with renault and which full of complementary with those will work with honda? i would like to tell you when you get into the management culture of japan, when i took control of mitsubishi in 2016, the top management of mitsubishi did not care about working with renault. they felt well about it. they were very afraid about cooperating with nissan. they said we don't have a very

long experience of a good, open relationship between two competing companies on the japanese market. so, i think there will be a lot of trouble. this is going to be very tough. let's look at the european bourses. we don't have germany and we don't have italy and limited trading to those you see on the screen. we have progress to the upside after the european equities. they have underwhemed this year by and large. that's the german market as the exception. u.s. futures were from lat as a pancake. nasdaq putting on 18 points. let's get to alex morris of fm investments and joins us from d.c. alex, thanks for joining us on christmas eve. i hope you are having a festive time coming on cnbc at the really early hour. look, the trend was your friend in 2024. it is a point you made well in the notes you furnished me with as well. in terms of 2025, you just got

to hold the course with what made you money in 2024 or is it a bit more suspect? >> first of all, happy christmas. always great to be here. i think the short answer is yes until we really get some direction from donald trump as to what is going to happen and then i think you will move from following the trend to really having to do exactly what the fed is doing. pay attention to inflation which is going to be one of those words we'll talk a lot about more in the new year because it is going to be the item that matters in 2025. it seems that donald trump's policies are inflationary and as of this morning's headlines, even for the geography for the united states with greenland and canada back on for the destiny plan for the new administration. >> i know he's trying to find out if panama canal and green greenland is for sale. is canada for sale? >> i don't think we had

scuffles. it seems that's back on the agenda. >> thanks for that, alex. you have to move quickly with the tweets overnight. the man who is moaning about and most stalled ally is elon musk. i heard people call him president musk trying to get under his skin. it is all jolly to a point. for your viewers and your clients, is the ownership of tesla has become with the valuation a barometer of the relationship with donald trump? >> it certainly is a barometer of the relationship. we had been in and out of the name and added back into it last year and rode much of that wave. whether it's tesla itself, bitcoin, there are all of the volatile assets that are trying to play now with the fear around the trump presidency. it worked up until four years

ago, but it will still work this year, but that is a mileage may vary trade. reading into politics is hard and doing that in 180 characters and what relationship the trolls out there can really incite donald trump will be hard this time around. >> i know momentum will always trump valuation, different kind of trump, but it matters. as we go through 2025 and as we see more clarity on trump policies, the valuation will come to the floor or actually is it about reversing momentum and different kind of moomentum? i.e., are we looking at the time where forensically look at

the valuation? >> we look at the broad indices and say it was a great year and you are up 26% on the s&p 500, but the obvious thing to do january 1, 2024, was put your money in nvidia and sure enough, that paid off. i think that if you just did the simple thing and stuck with it, you would have made a lot of money. it will take time to change mentality across the market. even many professional investors were secretly doing that in the personal accounts and made a fair bit of money for it. >> i have to be dull with nvidia. am i missing the point and when i look at the valuation of tesla and i look at the valuation of nvidia, i actually look at the latter and don't see an expensive stock. yes, i get it. nvidia has had amazing value and wobble from the recent highs, but up 182% year to date as

well. simplest question on the planet. is nvidia cheap or expensive? >> we think it is cheapish. it is not the biggest bargain on the market, but it is still a reasonable bargain. valuations are high for the mag seven, but not as high in the dot-com bust or some of the traditional metdowns in various sectors. there's plenty of good things to say about nvidia. its customers are happy. its problem is it can't serve as many customers as it wants. that's not a sign of imminent collapse, it is a sign of imminent profitability. nvidia is doing a good job of managing that. the problem with companies historically, they decide to do 15 other things they are not typically good at and fall in the weight of it. we see a lot of that from the

mag seven names. apple in particular, we often joked about a value stock, but really is at this point with the business hod model and income stream. we don't see valuations being an issue there. rather than the run on the bank, it is not the bank running out of the money, it is the run on it and too much discussion of valuation will pull it back in as folks take on the market rumors and will eventually be coaxed into some of the other names also where in the broad indices. >> alex, i'm always surprised of the ability of the market to find a story and wobble where i don't think there is a story. i have to be honest, i thought the s&p and comments from powell were logical at the time when the market was nervous. he is saying the u.s. economy is strong. we are not a million miles away from the trajectory to get to the neutral rate as it is even

if it is a slightly slower dissent. is the market prepared for a stronger economy and no landing? is that a good scenario or bad scenario? in my head, if the economy is strong and people still have their jobs and the consumers are out there and strong, that's a good thing. >> we agree. it's a great thing actually. that's what we are working for for decades to put forward economic policy and principle. the market gets upset they will not see zero interest rates again. we think that's really the taper tantrum we are seeing here is not the policy or theory being done, but rather than we're just not getting back to zero interest rate policy. that's reality. the market has no choice, but to accept that and be ready for that. we are also seeing for the first time with the rates, more

participants playing in the rates market. we see more exaggerated swings based on what chairman powell says. it is also worth noting many folks were hoping for lower rates. they're now seeing inflationary policy come in. you see that on the long end of the curve with the ten-year today versus where expectations were a year ago. folks are really starting to wonder what is that going to look like. less so than looking at what chair powell said and being upset, i think we are starting to see pricing in of what if some of the economic theory is right and inflation does come back and it's not two cuts, it's zero or maybe a hike. that's what folks are really reacting to. at least i hope so. >> the hike. the wobble with the hike. that will be interesting. i'll get my tin hat. alex, thank you for joining us this very early in the morning. have a brilliant christmas and new year. i'll speak to you next ear.

alex morris. i did something brave. i wept to the airport. i was picking something up and it was heaving. it was the sussex irport. nearly 6 million passengers from the uk and 54 million from the u.s. flying out for the holidays. i might fly out. don't tell the family. monica petrelli has more. >> reporter: most will head home for the holidays, but others on the move as well as places that are seeing an uptick in year end visitors. in asia, the story is dominated by japan. among expedia destinations among travelers from hong kong, seven from japan among hiroshima. then the island of phu quoc,

vietnam. it is a different story in europe. paris and london the top spots this winter, but interest increased in vienna where bookings are up 147% year on year and followed by budapest and zurich. warsaw saw a move from across the atlantic. in the middle east, the uae will see the most visitors this winter, but georgia and tunisia are experiencing the biggest upswings with twice the bookings from 2023. hotel occupancy rates and data showing it is set to be the highest in lihue, hawaii and followed by montego bay, jamaica. hotel occupancy rates are up 4% this holiday season compared to 2023.

that's where people are going, but where would they go money and time notwithstanding? a report showing the most searched destination for travel is london. for cnbc, i'm monica petrelli. >> that's good to hear. i'm the only one in london. i assure you. london is the most searched destination. the head of tv news is here today. i can't remember. abby is in. roger is in. we have a few. trying to name a few names and give them a shoutout. coming up on the show, just testing if i know them all. coming up on the show, president biden is set to make the final call on nippon steel. more on that story in the final segment before christmas. i can barely wait.

nippon steel's $15 billion bid for u.s. steel has been referred to u.s. president biden to review. the committee on foreign investment in the united states, which reviews foreign investments in national assets for security risks was unable to reach theconsensus on the deal. the house released the report in matt gaetz which found evidence of the former representative had sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and paying women for sex while he was in congress. the doj vestigated gaetz. gaetz repeatedly denied breaking the law. let's get to my friend chris

pollone who is in washington. chris, shocking relate vaxvelat so. how on earth was he the pick for ag? where was the due diligence on this one? >> reporter: yeah, that's the broader question, steve, obviously. you know, president-elect trump wanted matt gaetz to be the top law enforcement official in the federal government. ultimately, this investigation sank that nomination. the ethics economy report now public contains dozens of pages of chat logs and financial transactions detailing payments made to 12 different women totaling $90,000 that investigators believed was used to pay for sex and illicit drugs. testimony highlights a woman who had sex with gaetz when she was 17. there was no evidence gaetz knew the woman was under age. gaetz denied breaking laws

calling his past embarrassing, but not criminal. the committee closed the investigation. gaetz withdrew his bid for attorney general only after details of the report started leaking out and even though gaetz resigned from congress, a majority of committee, democrats and republicans, felt it was in the public interest to release the report. just this weekend, we asked will this derail any political aspirations he has? just this weekend, matt gaetz said to a conservative conference he might run for senate from florida next. steve. >> chris, a quick question from me about other picks as well as other people who need to go through approval process in congress as well. the lightning rod is gaetz, but other names are contentious or less contentious as we get nearer to the inauguration? >> reporter: you know, people like pete hegseth to run the

pentagon and, you know, also some others, like you said, have incredible baggage about them. it seemed like when some of the allegations, especially with hegseth, allegations of excessive drinking and possible, you know, sexual issues as well, at first, it seemed like that might be like you said something disqualifying. as time has gone on, they have taken these meetings on capitol hill, it seems like some of that furor has died down. the question now is with this explosive report of matt gaetz coming out and the fact his bid was derailed, do they double down or keep pushing these candidates or when the hearings start next had month, will it bubble up? we will see. >> chris, thank you. i appreciate it. working an early shift in d.c. have a brilliant christmas. i can't wait to hear more reports in 2025. chris pollone joining us from washington, d.c.

the gabbard and hegseth nomination nominations. extraordinary as well. let's get to the european bourses. the german market with a solid out performance this year. the cac 40 which has been understandably underwhelming this year as well for not just domestic economic reasons, but the politics. we've had four different governments in paris in 2024 as well. you've got a few of the indices you see on the screen. the ftse 100 up 5.3% year to date. a real slog. there was hope in the united kingdom would galvanize growth. we have concerns with the rachel reeves budget was a dampening and not growth factor. in terms of these markets, the dax is up 1.1 month to date. cac 40 up 1.5% month to date.

the ftse has been down. it is a trying ownership of uk stocks. some falling form today. the u.s. futures, we can take a look at where they are trading around the flat line. the out performance has continued in the month of december. we have seen the nasdaq up around 2.8%. the dow, i think the dow, we need to take with a pinch of salt. i have tried tro o supply expla united health. i'll leave you with the rockefeller tree. have a brilliant holiday. i'll see you between christmas and new year. from everyone on cnbc, have a wonderful and rested time.

jen b asks, "how can i get fast download speeds while out and about?" jen, we've engineered xfinity mobile with wifi speeds up to a gig, so you can download and do much more all at once. it's an idea that's quite attractive. or... another word... -fashionable? i was gonna say- "popular! you're gonna be pop-uuuu-larrr!" can you do defying gravity?! yeah, get my harness. buy one line of unlimited, get one free for a year with xfinity mobile. and see “wicked,” in theaters now.

it's 5:00 a.m. here at cnbc global headquarters. welcome to "worldwide exchange." here's your "five@5." concern over the traditional year-end rally as markets face a dual threat. a $15 billion steel deal in president biden's hands and he's on the clock. netflix going all-in with sports. will the company score big or fumble? and the worst performing sector and meet your new room made siri. apple making the leap from the smart phone to the smart home. it's