hasn't for many, many years, that could be quite a tough sell. well that's it for this week, for the latest show updates be sure to follow me on twitter facebook an instagram. and i'll be back here next week when i'll be talking about some of the biggest topics in the country today. with the attorney general william barr. that's right here on the wall street journal at large. thank you much for joining me. welcome to barron's roundtable where the sharpest minds on wall street need to get behind the headlines and prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack cotter. we will begin with what we think

of the three most important things investors should be thinking about right now. google cofounders larry page and sergei brennan star stepping down as alphabet ceo and president while investors see big changes under new ceo. despite a strong november report, this years jobs data may not sell the whole story. and the long-awaited viacom cbs merger is complete. what's next for the company and is it now and underappreciated play on streaming? on the roundtable tonight my colleagues ben and jack. loewen will start with you on alphabet. big changes in the sea sweep the people i talked to said this is an adult taking of. >> in many ways that's correct. the founders of the company, page and brin have been stepping back gradually over the years. this is an opportunity with the management change should turn a great company into a great stock. that's from our perspective. and we have a to do list for

them. to make them a more transparent, to be more willing to shareholders it's a wonderful opportunity. i think you know adam runs partners comments one of his biggest positions. he's excited about this. he wants to see a hundred billion dollars in buybacks. that's a lot of money back and forth. >> but for how long. >> a dividend would be a nice thing. >> we think the company could do about 30 billion a year in buybacks. they could easily sustain that. they could certainly pay 1% dividend which would take them to where apple is and where microsoft is. we think it's an opportunity to examine some of the other that's that alphabet has made. there's healthcare and other sorts of things. but trying to decide which of these largely money-losing properties. >> at theirs' your someone you by staples. it's like a staple but it grows. >> but its extraordinary decides

that company is. but not in monstrous companies like this. do we think that this kind growth is sustainable? >> i think so. i think there's a lot they can do here. i think the products are in great demand, and i think for a while it is. and the ideas to get earnings up to growth the same rate as revenue while also rewarding shareholders when the accompanying has a ton of cash flow. and it can do a lot more for shareholders. >> you can go to popular like maps where they've only begun to ring the register on maps. >> i thing there's a lot of room for them to make more money and they just bought fitbit. and now she's gonna bring them out there to do what you can have more place to look at their data. >> and maybe tiptoeing into healthcare. see maxell benson we had a blowout jobs number on friday 266,000 jobs created. upward revisions in the past, and yet you are not so excited about this. tells why. >> verse well let me say this was a fantastic jobs number beat

expectations. it was so good that it be the highest prediction of any economists out there. that's how good this thing was. but it's only one number. we see these numbers fluctuate a lot we've had a number came in below hundred thousand every freak south of the company is not doing well. now we have a great one and everything's great but these numbers are just volatile. >> he certainly looked the three month moving average but that's still good. >> that's a lagging indicator tells us where the economy has been that where it's not going. need to look at the leading indicators and were still seeing manufacturing is still weak. we had a very bad manufacturing survey this week. were seeing those things aren't looking as great. i want to see more. i would see more improvement elsewhere not just a great.jobs over. >> i was worried juergen and tried make lemonade back in the lemons. i'm glad to hear you say you like the jobs. >> jack i'll turn you now cbs viacom they split they got together they split they got to get another back together again

what's going on? >> paul patrol the cartoon about for a first responders has been popular in my household and i know yours, that's a viacom property. just to be clear it's popular with our children. the key here is that there is a war for streaming content disney is pulling its children's content away from netflix. now their support of streaming servers. viacom has loads of children's property nickelodeon, dora the explorer, mutant ninja turtles and so on. it's a position that symbian arms dealer during the streaming race. they combined cbs, suddenly the largest player in television there's loads of rooms with buyback stock. i've met a couple of times of bob bacchus, the chief here, and he strikes me as someone is going to pay very careful attention to free cash flow. he's willing to sell content to other people he is willing to use that is on streaming service. or is gonna try to double dip if he is able to.

so i think there's plenty of opportunity here. >> of course interesting chicago war it seems like viacom got the name, their taking over, but what talk to some of the cbs who pointed out that operationally is ahead a sales from cbs. you know the guy was running affiliates from cbs. so we might see a lot of that magic still there in even under viacom. >> viacom had some weaker assets to begin with, and bacchus has done a great job before stabilizing and then returning them to growth. to the paramount film studio, and cbs a much stronger set of assets that he could put that same magic to work on. still a lot of work at. >> coming of our small-cap stops going for breakout? the cannel panel is going to discuss that. on the outlook for 2020 why investors shouldn't let

political call decisions about their money.

every year barron's convenience assignment for the top women financial advisors in the country. this year about 700 women collectively manage more than $1 trillion joined us in palm beach florida. three attendees sat down with us to talk about the investment outlook for 2020. j.p. morgan's gabriella santos, valerie newell. gabriella, give us the 30,000 dollars jp and asset management 2020 outlet but are they have. we think for the global economy as well as the unisex economies resilience and stability. resilience we don't expect in a region to go into recession next year. in the stability in the sense

that after two years of deceleration and economic growth, we think were stabilizing here at a moderate but positive pace. so i think translating that into investing means that we should be able to see positive earnings growth for the major regions and that we should have a positive year for outlets. in terms of interest rates, we think that after quite a year of monetary easing from 19 different central banks, were probably closer towards the end. especially in the u.s. but rate should stay incredibly incredibly low supporting fixed income and supporting this recovery. >> so one thing work honestly telling people's don't worry about all the headlines in the tweets, think about the long-term. that said, and you report it, and i that you.out that geopolitical tensions are still our real risk we need to worry about. >> it is in two main ones really have been having an impact on economic growth on sentiment, and it's really the idea to rub trade tension. so one of the major assumptions

of had to make his were not expecting any further trade shocks are any further escalation. but this will remain a lingering issue into next year as well. the second when there is more important for the uk and europe the expectation there is that we will see some sort of resolution to the threat of note deal. these two issues are important, we shouldn't overreact day-to-day but rather look into the general theme that were saying and it's one of a slightly better 2020 than 2019. and one more thing really, annie think it's a great message for investors you have a chart showing the democrats with the comedy versus republicans. >> so the moment 80% of the republicans think it's excellent only 30. 33% of democrats. were looking at this same thing looking at google pulse. five years ago it essay democrats felt much for the republicans, for years before that it was the opposite during the george bush presidency. >> is the county much

difference? >> no it's not the message to us as we cannot let politics get in the way of our long-term goals here. >> so carmel tells your nonpartisan advice. what sectors do you like? >> i completely re- agree with her review that we should be focusing on the stable companies where the deceleration is slowing we are probably going to hit that inflection. so i would be arguing that you should add some they should have a company that has good secular growth and still will benefit if we get the trade deal. and from the rising growth in the economy. so the sectors i'll be looking at our one is healthcare, regardless of what the cycle does, regardless of what is tweeted or what happens with the trade work, there is a number of companies that are producing new technology and new therapies that are going to be idiosyncratic,. >> and that means they'll do

well number at the economy does? >> exactly healthcare in small and mid-cap cap names are where a be focusing for the long-term. >> on the other side the term we don't like. >> people been looking for somewhere safe. i would argue that that's arty priced in, so i'll be avoiding utilities why the evaluations are more than one state above the deviation of their average. and consumer's april staples we just don't have the pricing perry used to have. >> so can you give us one stock pick that the researchers like? >> one of the stocks like his apt t it gives you the sustainability with the resilience. it's a company that benefits from a secular tailwind of a thomas driving an additional parking features and so on, and creates essential for cars. if the economy starts to pick up and people start buying cars again, you get an additional bump to the earnings as well as a stock. cement got just so valerie, you deal with the clients on the ground in the trenches. what you're telling them right now?

>> so in the trenches the clients, whenever you have a great year like this and they've been pretty fully invested, they get a little concerned because of all of the news out there and the people talking about what could happen and if you have a good year on chicken have a bad year? so what were doing his were keeping our clients in the market like gabrielle said making sure that they don't get too overly concerned and think they need to get out of the market's really getting back, to have in the bravery to take some gains, put some money back into the less risky assets, more conservative stable assets. so that the asset allocation that make sense for the clients risk orientation is maintained. they take advantage of it. were keeping our clients in the market, they need to be in the markets over talking to them about that. >> 's explain why you don't just let that great gain keep going, why do you stick to the same?

>> well clients get concerned when there's a lot of volatility. a little more growth assets the more volatile their portfolio is get a b. so it's really trying to make sure that you can get that growth that they need or want and that they can sustain their long-term focus through the volatility. because he put them into many growth assets for their risk tolerance they won't be comfortable on a day-to-day basis with the volatility. >> and the want to sell the wrong time. >> yes you want to make sure they're comfortable they have to sleep at night. >> thank you so much for being here. one thing to be sure of there will be a lot of headlines to ignore the coming year. coming up our ideas on what you could do right now to improve your portfolio. that first value in vest or gets a seat at the table. that's next.

talks for large left behind in the latest stock market surge. bear was starting to see a? this week's cover story. thanks for joining us. charlie, lauren i want to start with your toe tells about the story. baroness just declaring that it might actually be time to see small caps come back. >> that is correct. if you believe that the economy is going to improve in 2020 and that corporate earnings are going to get better. it's a great time to buy small caps. its most small caps are domestically oriented unlike big cap and multinational companies. and they've been lagging the market for almost a decade. and they just started to move up, we think it's the real thing. >> and were talking about stocks that have a market value, market

capitalization of 5 billion or below. does a strive at their view? >> it does fortunately, it's about time. it's been a rough ten years actually for small-cap value managers. what happened essentially after the great financial crisis was that people decided to pay up the growth. and growth is much more presence and large-cap youth inc. of google and facebook, and all the likes netflix so we suffered a double whammy and that that small was relegated disadvantage to large-cap and value was relegated neglected versus

large-cap. >> so there is a famous paper that says small and value are the advantage. and this is an anomaly that's gone on for decorate decades in the market, so is it that the market didn't read that memo or are valuations really low? or are valuations finally climbing the stocks. with going on here? >> valuation got and are still very compressed. and the famous studies you cited out of the university of chicago did highlight the benefits over the long term. there are periods of time where people don't realize, and i can see a seat in the fund i manage. the last ten years we underperformed. over the 21 year life of the funds we outperformed. the issue is the last ten years we haven't had significant drawdowns. the market really hasn't had the problems it had during the decade from 2,000 to 2,010.

so the question facing investors, and i agree with lauren in terms small-cap stew best when interest rates are rising. so when the economy has bottomed, and people believe, and there is some evidence that things are getting better. the dollar weakens, things that are occurring currently, gold is no longer in favor. are all telltale signs that we are, now i can tell you also for my portfolio, that things started to change as early as august. obviously magnified in september and have continued the last four months i have outperformed. >> but we've seen this before and i think it was 2,016 that they outperformed and then right back to underperforming again. why is it different this time? >> good question ben, and it has

all the earmarks because people you no longer have to pay up for growth. growth will come naturally. my argument is so many of the companies that i own, and i suspect others small-cap value managers own, have taken actions to reduce their costs. such that the incremental margins that you get more volume, you're going to have very substantial earnings gains. >> organ have to leave it there i want to check with you in a year end see if in fact the cycles continues. thank you so much charlie. up next the roundtable gives their investment ideas for the coming week. stay right there.

jack i am in all of your market knowledge, your writing ability, your papa troll affection, but i'm going to tie the truth here. mental level with the appeared when it comes to fashion expertise, you're not of the very top of my list. >> i'm not perfect, over thanksgiving i bought this fluffy brown fleece that my wife says i look like i'm in the country bears jamboree ambit at disney world. i do make mistakes. but one thing i'm sure of his sketchers, are cool. right? the stock is up 75% this year. people don't know this is the third-biggest foot brand in the world. it's nikes, adidas, sketchers. this company has grown incredibly in the past 20 years. i think when you look at the outlook, the growth outlook compares favorably with nike and lulu lemon, and these other leisurely brands. but the stock is much cheaper. >> but the stock is up 75% last

year so? can i keep rolling? >> i think it can, a lot of room tests expand overseas. a lot of room to do better things e-commerce. i'm bullish even if my new fleece is bearish. >> and barons traditionally want you to go into the coming week to make your next move. so worn ben, he got action with you. lauren you've what you have. >> if you believe in a small-cap rally i believe in core small-cap etf is a good way to play. it's super cheap, yields about 1.4% and the fund only buys companies that were profitable in the past year, which cuts out a lot of more dubious small caps. >> it's canada goose they make very expensive coats it's gotten beaten up but i think there's a lot more upside people still love their coats. we just had a come better to get bought out and i think there's

some good things there. >> great things there thanks guys don't get follows on twitter at barron's online. that's all for a next week on barron's roundtable.