dividends. dividends increase as business increases. lauren: michael, the bell is about to cut you off. the market is up, oh, can it hang on to a green arrow? that's it for "countdown." "after the bell" starts right now. melissa: we were thinking maybe zero. it looks like 11. stocks fighting for gains right into the close as u.s./china trade talks resume in d.c. the president's optimism on trade boosting the dow earlier in the session. the dow, though, ending the day, looks like it will be up 11 points. it's still a win. i'll take it. connell: very nervous into the close today. melissa: we were biting our nails. the s&p 500 appears to be closing up for the second straight day. and for the nasdaq, where is that one going? positive as well. all right. we like it. i'm melissa francis. connell: i'm connell mcshane. this is "after the bell." we will have mror ore on the ma movers in a moment. first, this is what's new at

this hour. making it official, bernie sanders officially joining what is now a crowded field of democrats vying for the chance to run against president trump. the democratic socialist already taking aim at wall street and your wallet. striking back at the trump administration. more than a dozen states now are suing the president over his decision to declare a national emergency and try to build the wall at the southern border. the latest on the state of that lawsuit coming from the white house. and southwest airlines under investigation. the potential safety issue that is being addressed by the faa. melissa: back to the markets. the dow ending in the green for the second day in a row, boosted higher by shares of walmart, walgreens and procter & gamble. deirdre bolton is on the floor of the new york stock exchange. held positive into the close there. good for you.

reporter: i do my best. i'm here to cheerlead. if you look at walmart, this really was a big contributor to the dow's gains, about 24 points of muscle, if you like, came from walmart. the company beating earnings estimates on the top and the bottom line for the quarter. more importantly, saying for this year, reaffirming a sales forecast and i think it cleared up a lot of worry about the u.s. consumer. we talked about that 35-day shutdown at the end of the year and people really wondering if consumers were going to show up at walmart, if they were going to spend and as a nation, one of them, the largest retailer, it was a pretty important indication as to how the u.s. consumer is holding up. the ceo of course saying, i quote him here directly, a favorable economic environment has been helping walmart grow sales and gain market share, and their online presence was a big part of their strength. so really helping out all these consumer names that was one of the biggest bright spots in the market. technology shares, we have to take a look at those as well,

because if you look at the nasdaq, quite a winning streak, up for seven days in a row. on pace for the longest winning streak weeks as well. you have to go back to august to see the nasdaq perform as consistently as it has been. before i let you go, just want to highlight one last standout stock. it is caesar's. that stock closing higher. carl icahn, famous activist investors, taking about a 10% stake in the company, making comments that maybe a sale is the best thing to do with caesar's and saying he will, in fact, or implied that he will stack the board with people who share his vision. so a big jump there. market movers, in the meantime, back to you in the studio. connell: as we move to trade, we are counting down to the march 1st deadline which apparently is not a magical date. a new round of trade talks between the united states and china did kick off today in washington. hillary vaughn is in d.c. with the latest on that. reporter: well, the president

suggesting that there could be some wiggle room around the latest round of tariffs set to take effect on march 1st. as you mentioned, china and the u.s. kicking off another round of trade talks today before this new round of tariffs kick in. >> so i know china would like not for that to happen, so i think they're trying to move fast so that doesn't happen. but we'll see what happens. i can only say that the talks with china on trade have gone very, very well. reporter: still, there's a lot at stake if talks derail, and the deadline drops. both delegations want to dodge a 15% tax increase on $200 billion of imports from china, raising the tariff from 10% to 25%, so lower level talks today setting the stage for the high stakes negotiations at the end of the week. ustr's robert lighthizer with a full bench of all-star negotiators, including treasury secretary steven mnuchin, commerce secretary wilbur ross, white house economic adviser larry kudlow and trade adviser peter navarro, china's vice

premier liu he will head his country's side of negotiations. both want a meaningful long-term deal out of this, not a temporary fix. china's top diplomats saying they are hoping for a bold trade agreement and the white house says they want structural changes in the u.s. and china trade relationship. so this is not just about china buying more corn and soybeans. connell? connell: hillary vaughn, china trade live from washington. thanks. melissa: ignoring the red flags. the german government is still in talks to allow huawei to participate in the country's high speed internet system. can you believe that? that is according to the "wall street journal." the initiative comes despite the u.s. government's multiple warnings about concerns surrounding the chinese tech giant. susan li is in the newsroom with the latest on this one. susan: so we have the u.s. pressuring allies around the world, that includes germany, to stop working with china's huawei. well, after ministerial review, the german government says they

found no evidence that huawei can be used as a conduit for chinese spying. the uk also in the midst of studying huawei, its use in the country's next generation of so-called 5g telecom networks. the results of the uk study expected to allow huawei to still supply equipment for what they are calling the less vulnerable part of the system, according to british officials. eastern europe, by the way, has also been reluctant to block out huawei as well. new zealand in week has reopened the doors to work once again with huawei in its 5g network, despite the fact, despite initially they say they would block huawei after being pressured by the u.s. meantime, we had a rare interview with huawei's founder who says the u.s. can't crush huawei and will just scale back if they lose any business. his daughter, meantime, remains in vancouver under house arrest awaiting trial for extradition to the u.s., accused of

misleading international banks to illegally evade iran sanctions. we still are waiting for a court date on that, but huawei still the world's second largest smartphone seller and largest network equipment supplier. guys? melissa: wow. susan, thank you for that. connell: all things china now with liz peek and daniel dimartino booth. good to see you both. liz, i was surprised by this huawei part of it. we will get to trade, although you could argue they are intertwined. but the idea that germany might allow them to come in, even with the spying concerns, what does it tell you? i know germany has business interests but boy. >> who knows what has gone on in that negotiation between germany and china. my suspicion would be that there's all kinds of things on the table that have nothing to do with huawei. but look, germany and other countries may feel that the united states has not proved their case. they have not really presented

hard evidence that huawei is acting as a mole, in effect, which is what they're saying. but there are too many allegations of this kind to ignore them. it must be that germany simply feels they can kind of out-fox huawei and figure out what they're doing. connell: big risk. >> pretty big. connell: dangerous, after the arrest and all those things we have covered. danielle, what about the trade negotiations now? we keep hearing about quote unquote, progress. now the president seems to be hinting that, which we knew, he hinted at it a number of times, the march 1st date could float. is that what we are kind of betting on, some kind of extension at this point? >> well, i certainly think the markets are banking on that. i think they are hoping the president is very flexible. part of the underlying reason is that china won't even begin to admit that they have been engaged in cyber-espionage and if you can't really admit to doing tonight the first place, then you can't acquiesce to say

we will stop doing something. that's part of the problem. if you start to bring germany and huawei into the situation and the escalating trade tensions between the united states and europe, mainly the german car making machine, things really start to get complicated, because of the china/german interrelationship on the trade front as well. things are getting very messy and i'm happy to see that the administration is saying they are going to have flexibility because the alternative is nine days from now, you have obviously a lot of upset in the markets. melissa: senator bernie sanders taking aim at wall street and amazon in his 2020 campaign announcement. listen. >> our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. i'm talking about wall street. we should not have a regressive tax system in which large profitable corporations like amazon pay nothing in federal

income tax. melissa: liz, what do you think? amazon, enemy of the people. it employs no one, it provides horrible -- wait. >> this is one of bernie sanders' favorite targets, for sure. formerly because they didn't pay a $15 minimum wage. now because they don't pay federal income taxes. he's in the senate. he's been there a gazillion years. if he doesn't like the tax code that allows amazon to carry forwa forward, he's in a position to fix that. this is demagogery at its worst. melissa: danielle, what do you think about that? >> look, i think this is grandstanding of the worst kind. if you were to poll the people of new york right now, i think you would find a distinct minority of those who felt the lost infrastructure spending, lost jobs, lost internships, lost broadway tickets, everything that was lost, if you were to ask companies that want to rebuild, that they would say

you know what, we wish that amazon would have been let in. bernie sanders, i think he's way off base with this. melissa: yeah. it's amazing, too, because he went and raised the wage, they went and raised the wage. there's nothing amazon could ever do to make bernie sanders happy. it's like new york. they come and do all these things, then they're like you know what, you guys are never going to be happy, we're out of here. >> that's totally right. he's offended that jeff bezos makes so much money. guess what, that's not a rigged system, as he calls it. that's how america works. if you're smart, work hard, have a brilliant idea, you can make a lot of money. that's what makes most people happy. melissa: opportunity. liz and danielle, thank you. connell: meantime, spoiling, playing spoiler to the democrats' chances of winning back the white house, why howard schultz is warning the left of self-sabotage. melissa: 16 states hitting president trump with a lawsuit over his national emergency declaration. we are live at the white house after the break with the latest. connell: a severe winter storm set to take over much of the united states, freezing rain and snow on the way.

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connell: the battle is on. 16 states are suing president trump over his use of national emergency powers to access funding in order to try to build a border wall. let's get to edward lawrence live at the white house with the latest. reporter: a lot going on. in fact, the president just finished signing the national space policy directive 4. that in essence puts the space force underneath the air force. as the president was signing this, he was watching the lawsuits over at his declaration of a national emergency relate torelateed to the border. the lawsuits claim the president acted in an unconstitutional and unlawful scheme. the lawsuits say the states need to block the president's

national declaration because they want to protect the natural resources and economic interests from president donald j. trump's flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of power principles. the president saying this could end up at the supreme court but maybe not. >> we are going to be very successful with the lawsuit so it was filed, it was filed in the ninth circuit, and i actually think we might do very well even in the ninth circuit because it's an open and closed case. i was put here for security. reporter: in all, 16 states have signed on to this lawsuit. all of the states have governors who are democrat except for maryland. maryland's attorney general is democrat and the attorney general made this decision. now, the democrats who are running for president in the 2020 cycle have already started to use this as a political issue. >> the idea that he is trying to say that we have people that are trying to invade our country to

commit mass crime is a crisis of his own making. reporter: president trump does say that walls work and in fact, we need the border wall in order to stop the illegal flow of drugs as well as illegal immigrants who could possibly commit crimes in this country. back to you. connell: edward lawrence on the north lawn. melissa: here now, james freeman from the "wall street journal," also a fox news contributor. james, give me your opening thoughts first on all of that. >> yeah. it's the flip of a coin. there's a case here that congress has given the president a lot of authority. you have talked about this 1976 law. the presidents over the years have declared lots of emergencies. usually in this case, congress has authorized wall building but not for this particular amount that he's seeking. i think it's possible the state attorneys genuieral win in the first round in california. that's why they filed there. long-term as it goes higher in the judicial system, i think the

president has a shot. melissa: the president laid out pretty clearly that he thought it was going to go all the way to the supreme court and that he thought he was going to be able to prevail at that level. what do you think? >> yeah, when we look at presidents, obviously president truman didn't do well claiming the ability to nationalize the steel industry but this is something that i think most people would recognize is more clearly in the president's authority as commander in chief and obviously, given the changes in law since then. on the other hand, it's pretty clear congress did not want to fund this expenditure and you look at the constitution and it's congress who is supposed to decide how much the federal government spends. so i think it's going to be an interesting argument. probably loses the first round, like you say, in california, then after that, who knows. melissa: if you look at the breakdown of the different money, you know, that the president has looked to use for this, there's only a small portion of it that actually pertains to this national

emergency. john roberts has done a great job of illuminating where a bunch of it is coming from and it's only a little bit over $3 billion that's coming from this. the rest of it, he can use to get started right away. some are wondering is then putting this court battle in motion, is that a way to kind of keep the issue at the forefront as they begin working on a portion of the wall, and maybe making it more of a political fight that extends over time into the 2020 election? do you think that's possible? >> i suppose it could. i think once it starts grinding its way through the courts, this could be, as you say, a very long time, a couple of years. i think that kind of tends to make the issue fade into the background a little bit. but yeah, as you mention, whether it's counternarcotics or military construction, if you think we need a wall there, this seems roughly in the ballpark in terms of what the money's used for. melissa: you think he's winning on this issue politically in terms of the perception out there in america? because you see kamala harris

comes out and says it's a manufactured crisis, there are people you run into on the street who think that. obviously there are a lot of people out there who wanted a wall. what's your general take on where americans are falling on this right now? >> his approval rating seemed to have bounced back roughly where they were before the shutdown fight. not great, but i think his standing is largely going to be based on the economy going forward. this probably isn't going to determine it either way. melissa: thank you so much. connell: southwest airlines is under investigation. why the faa is now sounding the alarm. we'll have that plus new housing numbers that reveal some insight into the industry. what it all means for the economy as a whole. that's coming up. (indistinguishable muttering) that was awful. why are you so good at this? had a coach in high school. really helped me up my game. i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches?

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connell: watch your weight. the federal aviation administration is investigating whether southwest airlines is

miscalculating the weight of checked luggage on its flight. it's a potential safety issue that ashley webster has been looking into. he joins us from the newsroom with the latest. ashley: not a good thing. according to the "journal" the faa began this investigation a year ago. federal investigators want to know if employees with southwest airlines frequently miscalculate the weight of checked baggage on its flights. mistakes, by the way, that can cause pilots to compute the wrong weight of those planes at takeoff. the errors were described as systemic and significant, occasionally causing the reported takeoff weights to be 1,000 pounds lower than the plane's actual weight. that can cause a host of problems, including the need for higher take-off speed, reduced cruising speeds, decreased maneuverability and higher stress on the landing gear. safety experts agree that that's the greatest risk, coming from potentially incorrect pilot responses to an engine emergency. unlike other large u.s. airlines, southwest does not rely on computerized scanners to

count bags as they are loaded into the belly of the aircraft. instead, southwest ground crew actually count the bags, then average bag weights are used to calculate the overall weight of the checked luggage. according to southwest, distracted baggage handlers and last minute bags are the major cause of loading discrepancies. the faa has not linked any accidents to inaccurate weight estimates. southwest says its system carries minimal risks for passengers. however, the airline is fully cooperating with those investigators and plans to phase in new baggage counting procedures by year's end. by the way, connell and me liz melissa, the "journal" says the faa hasn't decided whether to impose fines or other punishment. connell: they are way off on this stuff. my mother-in-law is well known for having an extra shoe that puts you over 50 pounds. ashley: i'm not going there. connell: thank you. melissa: i didn't know where he was going with that at all. that's a big risk. does your mother-in-law watch

this show? connell: every day. melissa: good luck with that. entering the 2020 white house race, senator bernie sanders giving it another shot in hopes of becoming the democratic nominee. what changes is he making from the failed 2016 run? plus, howard schultz is sending a warning to the left. why he's saying democrats could end up sabotaging the chances of beating president trump. it's absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer.

melissa: here we go again. senator bernie sanders announcing he's running for the democratic nomination for president in 2020, saying he wants to complete the revolution that he started in 2016. correspondent peter doocy is in manchester, new hampshire with the latest. reporter: the sanders campaign just confirmed to us it only took the senator four hours to make $2.4 million today. that's a sign he's already piecing back together the coalition that helped him win more than 13 million primary votes in 2016. >> we are going to win. we are going to also launch what i think is unprecedented in modern american history and that is a grassroots movement to lay the groundwork for transforming the economic and political life of this country. reporter: sanders says he surveyed the landscape and realized the things he pushed for last time like medicare for

all are very popular with top tier democratic hopefuls but there's one thing those hopefuls aren't planning to copy, his title. democratic socialist. >> the people of new hampshire will tell you what's required to compete in new hampshire but i am not a democratic socialist. reporter: one thing bernie sanders needs to do to compete in the democratic primaries, become a democrat. the dnc changed their rules to require everybody who wants to debate or be on a ballot in the primary sdwroin tto join the pa serve as a member of the party. here in new hampshire which sanders carried easily in 2016, the chairman of the new hampshire democratic party says names don't really matter. >> we in new hampshire consider him a democrat. he's been very supportive of our candidates and party for decades. he can call himself what he wants. reporter: this afternoon, president trump welcomed sanders to the race, saying he likes the senator but the feeling is not mutual. during a radio interview today, senator sanders accused president trump of being a pathological liar. back to you.

melissa: doesn't mean he doesn't like him. thank you. connell: let's bring in from the hill, bob cusack for his analysis. peter points out he has to become a democrat. just minor things in the democratic primary. he didn't do it last time. it is interesting, this kind of narrative on economics which we focus on, bob, where all these bernie sanders ideas, you can name them, throw them out, break up the banks, $15 an hour minimum wage, tax the rich, on and on, some of these things were out there last time around but now they seem fairly mainstream. >> that's right, at least in the democratic party. sanders is right, he got a lot of his policies in the 2016 democratic convention platform and a lot of others have followed his lead, whether it's on the minimum wage, medicare for all. now, these things in the house, even though the house is now democratic, they don't have the votes to pass but they are very popular with the base. i think bernie's a top tier contender. you got to watch him. but there are a lot of contenders out there. connell: does he have a more

difficult time because there are a lot of contenders out there and many subscribe to his policies? it's not a or b like last time, not that it necessarily was at the beginning but it certainly ended up that way, you want to be with hillary or are you with bern bernie. >> there are so many more choices but at the same time, if you compare his launch now to his launch back in the 2016 cycle, it's night and day. very few people knew who bernie sanders was. he's got a base of 15% to 20% and in a crowded field with a lot of money that he can raise, listen, he would win some states just with 20%, 25%. connell: it's crazy. a lot of people made a big deal money-wise what kamala harris was able to do. bernie sanders has been in it before and has this network of people set up. that's a lot of money in not a lot of time. he still i guess has the energy with the young people which is obviously ironic given how old he is, 77 years of age. >> that's right. that's right. he had the young vote last time. i imagine he will get a good

portion of it this time. however, the lane that he's in is certainly elizabeth warren's lane or sanders' lane, depends on who is going to get it. but as you know, there's a lot of anger at bernie sanders, why he stayed in that 2016 race as long as he did and why he still calls himself an independent. that's maybe elizabeth warren, even though warren and sanders are friends, this is going to get nasty all around. connell: the president wants a shot at either/or. he talked a lot about elizabeth warren, now talking about bernie sanders like they're buddies. this is a crowded field, and it already includes a number of candidates who have adopted some of the sanders positions we just talked about. could that be strengthening maybe an independent bid from howard schultz as he's looking to run third party? >> he wrote a piece, howard schultz, former ceo of starbucks, saying mistakes are too high to cross our fingers and hope the democratic party nominates a moderate who can win over enough independents and disaffected republicans and even

fellow democrats to defeat trump next year. any opponent can oust trump no matter how far to the radical left they are is a fallacy. what do you make of that? >> certainly republicans have been seizing on the litmus test now in the democratic party ranging from abortion to single payer to opposing the wall and to a number of things that you have to be on certain sides of the issue, and that plays into schultz's argument. he's got the money, is he dynamic enough to actually win a third party, well, no. but could he change how the vote goes? absolutely. but republicans here, they are seizing on this shift and in this shift for the democratic party to the left, that's why these candidates, they have to appeal to the base, and that moves the party even farther to the left, and that does play into trump's hands. connell: it does seem like if he's going to have an actual impact on the race, maybe, correct me if i'm wrong, it seems like the impact from schultz would be to make the democrats choose at least, i don't know about moderate or pragmatic type of candidate as

opposed to someone like elizabeth warren or bernie sanders, that if they went with klobuchar, for example, or somebody along that, kamala harris, schultz would say forget it, i'm out. he says he doesn't want to be a spoiler. >> that's right. it depends on who the nominee is. it also depends on howard schultz. i think a lot of people don't know who howard schultz is at this point and he's still introducing himself to the country. how much power is he actually going to have. is he going to get big poll numbers. otherwise, what he says is not going to make much of a difference. however, if he does get in the race and takes 4% or 5% like jill stein did in 2016, it could make a big difference in these close battleground states. connell: right. if you read that piece, he wrote this piece referring to this. it sounds like he's saying he won't do that. he's saying if i'm the factor that will push trump over the top for re-election, i'm out. >> yeah. he said that and if he's a moderate candidate, he won't run basically. he doesn't have to decide for a

long time because he could wait the year, the entire staff, i'm sure he's paying them well. connell: he's got a lot of money. that's a good point. we talked about that with mike bloomberg. he could have more of an impact if he doesn't run. bloomberg would spend it on democrats. wonder if schultz would get involved if he isn't a candidate. would he spend his money on something else? >> i think when you get in the spotlight, you kind of like the spotlight. i think he's going to stay in the spotlight. connell: that's right. melissa: hey, wait a second. that's my favorite. connell: thank you, bob. good to talk to you. talk to you again soon. melissa: that's what you say about your mother-in-law. connell: why do we have to go back there? melissa: you are picking on me. you will get it right back. walmart celebrating a strong holiday season. what does it mean for the rest of the retail landscape and for the fight to take on amazon? a messy winter storm set to hit nearly every state in the u.s. when you can expect landfall in your state, coming up.

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you know walmart. >> i shop there frequently. connell: and report from there all the time. >> in the parking lot, though. i don't enter the store. connell: good numbers. >> really surprising, especially given that we were talking earlier about the commerce department numbers. seems like they were off. take a look at walmart. if you look at comparable store sales, we are looking 4.2%, revenue up 1.9% and as you point out, e-commerce, look out, amazon, up 43% for the quarter, up 40% for the year. as you point out, the stock was up a little bit today, up for the year about roughly what the s&p has done. nothing tremendous there. but if i look deeper into the numbers, amazon versus walmart, i was just interested in this. of course, market cap, well, let's look q4 first. amazon revenue q4, $72 billion. walmart, $138 billion. walmart only gained 2% whereas amazon gained 20% but online,

that's huge and that is probably what boosted the stock. the other thing i would look at, market cap, the two of them, that doesn't mean anything these days because you look at tesla, got the same market cap as gm. amazon, though, three times the market cap almost of amazon. amazon, three times walmart. connell: that's interesting. amazon is a behemoth, to your point, but we talk and sometimes forget about how walmart really hasn't been outfoxed in this whole online competition. >> no. they're not sears. connell: right. they're not sears. very good. they have made the adjustments. >> yeah. and they keep swinging. that's something that famously, sears is on my mind only because chicago and we have covered them forever. they didn't make the adjustments. connell: no, they didn't. everybody kind of thought hey, here's this kind of investing genius who will get things turned around. just never could quite do it. whereas walmart, i guess they saw the future and were able to --

>> bezos willing to put the money back into it. that's what sears wasn't doing. connell: right. >> and willing to make tough decisions. i mean, you could look at the new york decision -- connell: on amazon, you mean. >> amazon now. you know, you could look at them as making a hasty decision there, but he seems to be willing to make a short-term hard decision unlike the "enquirer" thing. connell: making a lot of quick calls. the other day i said maybe he will make a quick call and buy the knicks. apparently they're not for sale. >> i was going to say, these guys when they have money now, doesn't seem to translate to victory. i don't know what the deal is. having money doesn't solve everything. connell: does make you happier, though. you always told me that. >> it's always good when you lose half your stuff. connell: jeff has been on the show three times this week and made a divorce reference each and every time. >> is melissa married?

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melissa: feeling better about the state of the economy? home builder sentiment hitting a four-month high, marking the second consecutive month of gains and rising consumer confidence and falling mortgage rates. here now, someone who really

understands the constant changing landscape. bill darcy, national kitchen and bath association ceo. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, melissa. great to talk with you. melissa: i love to have you on, because you have your finger on the pulse of the economy, really, because everyone who is part of your group is out there building kitchens and baths and restoring them and replacing them all around the country and around the world, actually, so you know exactly what's going on. >> absolutely. melissa: i know one of the biggest issues for you right now is something that is a huge topic in america. finding the right workers, finding the right labor, finding the people who can do the job. it's been tough in your industry. talk to me about that a little bit. what are your members telling you? >> you know, since the great recession, a lot of businesses in our industry left the market and didn't return. for every five people leaving the industry, only one comes in. so you know, attracting the youth to the industry is our biggest challenge right now.

melissa: what are you doing to try and make that happen? i mean, how do you close that gap? is it about immigration policy or is it about trade vocational schools, is it about the manufacturers getting more involved in training the people they need? what's the solution? >> you know, our investment right now is educating the market. we have a new next up initiative that we are partnering with skilled labor fund, we are partnering with other institutions supporting the growth and education of young people, but it's about getting the message out to the middle school student right now. my oldest son is 11, so whatever billy decides to do in his career, i will talk to him about the lucrative jobs in this industry and educating that middle schooler right now is i think what we have to start doing in order to increase the viability and the health. it's a tremendous opportunity in growth right now in the industry and getting -- educating the young people is what the focus needs to be. melissa: that's astounding. you are saying middle school, because my oldest son is in

middle school. that feels very young to start thinking about what you are going to do. but ace ss i see it in my own children, they start veering towards math, science, computers, wrapping their mind around what they might want to do. >> it's interesting. again, with my kids being similar ages as yours, it's a lot about tech right now. so what we are trying to do is bridge the gap between tech and our industry. there's so much happening in tech, in the kitchen and bath space. we need the young people and the future, you know, designers and remodelers to join and help people connect these appliances and all the great things happening. but yeah, it is young, you would think, but when do you start thinking about college or you know, we have a lot of our population that need college educated trade but you also have skilled labor that you might not need to go to post-high school education for. melissa: there's both those things. you talk about the tech revolution and working in your industry isn't just about being able to use a wrench.

it's about using really cool and complicated technical programs in order to design the kitchen of the future and design the appliances that talk to each other and all of that stuff that's going on. so it's kind of the whole spectrum, whether you work with your hands or you are a creative design person or you like to work with computers. a really rewarding field, really rewarding jobs in your field. that's why you want to get the message out. let me ask you, because you have such insight into the economy, what are consumers doing right now and what does that tell you about how everybody is feeling? are they remodeling, building new, are they spending a lot? what do you see? >> what we are seeing right now at the kitchen and bath industry show we are hosting this week, we are up 30% in registration so we know the trade is very interested in learning and educating themselves on products for what these consumers want. we are seeing strong remodeling, strong trends in remodeling despite softening in the housing market. we see continued strong growth in remodeling. so what people want, they want

to understand tech, they want a transitional style, transitional to contemporary. but a lot of tech is being introduced as we all know in our lives, and what defines a smart kitchen and what defines a smart bath, they are finding out here this week, because we have 100,000 trade professionals in las vegas educating themselves over the next three days. melissa: yeah, technology is driving that change because people see the new things that you can do and you can have in your kitchen. i have one of those coffee makers and it's unbelievable. totally worth getting. >> they make fantastic products. glad you're enjoying yours. melissa: thanks for coming on, bill darcy. connell: interesting conversation. it's all about the design, any industry. if you can be the person with the idea. melissa: and their challenge is the labor. like so many other places, getting people with the right skills. here in new york they have that apprentice program. people line up around the block for plumber's apprentice because

it pays so well. connell: very, very true. the weather is coming up. brutal winter storm with snow and heavy rain hitting the majority of the nation, really. we will track the path. fox weather center up next. ♪ i'm a little bit country. and i'm a little bit rock 'n' roll. i'm a little bit of memphis and nashville. with a little bit of motown in my soul. i don't know if it's good or bad. but i know i love it so. with a little bit of country. and a little bit of rock 'n' roll. the all new chevy silverado. it's a little bit country, and it's a little bit rock 'n' roll. ♪

each day our planet awakens but with opportunity comes risk. and to manage this risk, the world turns to cme group. we help farmers lock in future prices, banks manage interest rate changes and airlines hedge fuel costs. all so they can manage their risks and move forward. it's simply a matter of following the signs. they all lead here. cme group - how the world advances. connell: we have billions of american in path of this giant storm, 39 states are expected to get hit with heavy snow, torrential rain in some case,

adam at our weather center. >> a huge storm maybe 200 million from philadelphia to dc to midwest, getting into chicago, minneapolis, all the way into portions of northern new mexico, areas of arizona. this is lifting off the gulf of mexico. this continues to lift farther north. you see it there in center portion of plain states, the. turning to snow, ice, snow, and it will continue to be on the move, cover a large area, anywhere, where it is warm enough, in southeast, that is where we have rain, then ice, farther north it could be a snow maker, that snow, begin tonight running overnight to early morning, it looks like plain states run-up to upper midwest,

all areas where you see snow fall, some spots to a foot of snow, then this thrifts -- drifts closer to midatlantic, maybe an icy mixture, dc area with three to 5 inches of snow, i will continue future radar, on wednesday morning, through wednesday, to wednesday night, lifting up to new york city. on the back side, becoming rain. it maybe washes away from location, temperature rise on the back side. this is going to take a couple days, by time we get to late thursday afternoon, the system has moved on. how much? i showed you some total, not a lot of snow here in new york city. but plenty other place, 200 million people need to pay attention to that on. connell: thank you, adam. we do stories all of the time, getting hammered be we seem to dodge a bullet for whatever it

is worth. melissa: you just jinxed us. it snowed in las vegas. connell: weird. melissa: that does it for us. connell: thank you for joining us, bulls and bears starts right now. >> feel the burn a big name entering 20 within -- 2020 race, bernie sanders announcing he the run against for president. >> i'm going to run for president, that is correct. >> what is going to be different this time? >> i'm going to win. >> this is bulls and bears. joining me. bernie sanders is self proclaimed democratic socialist making his big announcement a day after president trump gave a speech, slamming socialism, saying it promises prosperity but delivers poverty. sanders takes credit for