we are seeing a little c.p. effect but the other major indices are higher. you can believe this last hour of trading will be blockbuster stuff. ashley webster is your man. he will take you through filling in for liz claman. ashley: charles, buy something and we can get this up. charles: let me help you out real quick. ashley: we are so close. charles, thank you so much. the reversal nearly complete. the dow making a 200 plus point turnaround after investors shake off worries of increasing tensions in the middle east. the dow down 214 points at its very low, briefly turning positive. as you can see, the dow off just four points, the s&p and nasdaq up slightly. the nasdaq has been up for much of the afternoon, up .33%. as protests rage in iran over the u.s. air strikes, the presidents of both countries engaged in a twitter war of sorts today. actual armed conflict takes a back seat, president trump claiming boldly that iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

iran's rouhani firing back never threaten the iranian nation. we have up to the minute details on that continuing story. iran not the only one threatening the u.s. france warning the president not to slap tariffs on french wine and cheese in response to his digital tax on american tech companies. a top tech panel will be here to put all of this in perspective including more for wine and cheese. it's up, up and away. spacex scheduled to blast off from cape canaveral in just a few hours. we will tell you what billionaire elon musk's plans to do when the falcon 9 hits orbit. less than an hour to the closing bell. i'm ashley webster in for liz claman. let's begin "the claman countdown." ashley: we kick it off with some business alert for you. pier one import shares have been

halted for volatility. not showing anything beyond that but we will keep an eye on it and probably go to the stock exchange to find out what's going on. trading has been halted because of volatility. meanwhile, breaking news elsewhere. crowdstrike is soaring on speculation about potential cyber-related retaliation from iran following that u.s. strike that killed a top iranian general. the head of the u.s. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency tweeted a warning last week about the threat of a cyberattack. checking other cybersecurity stocks, palo alto network, fire-eye, those stocks moving higher. fire-eye up almost 2.5%. something to smile about, perhaps, with the company that sells dental gear. smile direct club is launching oral care products exclusively now at walmart's u.s. stores and on its website. smile direct up 23%. walmart down .5%. meanwhile, yum brands' appetite for a deal whetted as it makes

its first foray by buying habit restaurants for $375 million in cash. habit restaurants, you can see is up three bucks, up 42%. yum brands down .33% on that news. boeing, meantime, may cut capital expenditures and raise debt as the 737 max grounding takes a toll. separately it reached a deal with aero mexico to mitigate damages from that grounding. by the way, there are reports federal aviation officials may require more pilot training and will scrutinize the wiring in the 737 max before it ungrounds that aircraft. the woes of the 737 max go on. well, tensions with iran remain heightened at this hour. a u.s.-led coalition saying it will indeed leave iraq and reposition its forces in the coming weeks out of quote, respect for iraqi sovereignty. that's a new development. this as tehran is vowing revenge

against the united states for the air strike that killed one of their top military leaders, qassem suleimani. also withdrawing completely from its 2015 nuclear deal with world leaders. so much going on. this of course as president trump threatens even further action, strongly urging iran not to attack again because quote, the u.s. would hit iran harder than ever before, unquote. blake burman standing by at the white house with more on the fallout and all these developments. blake? reporter: ashley, you went through just some of it. there are a lot of headlines today with this one. president trump continuing to keep iran at the forefront and really looking big picture earlier today, as he tweeted out the following at one point saying quote, iran will never have a nuclear weapon. the president i believe just wrapped up an interview minutes ago with rush limbaugh. during that interview, the president continued to defend his decision to take out that iranian general, qassem suleimani. the president saying it was something that was long overdue

and in the national security interests of the country. listen here to the president from just a little while ago. >> -- long time ago and we had a shot at it and we took him out, and we are a lot safer now because of it. we'll see what happens. we'll see what the response is, if any, but you have seen what i said our response will be. >> yeah. >> our country is a lot safer, rush. reporter: meantime, back here in washington, we are also learning that the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff will be headed out to capitol hill on wednesday, most likely wednesday afternoon, we believe, to brief congress on the decision to launch that air strike. democrats have been critical of that decision, both the timing of it and they say the legality of it as well. the house speaker in fact, nancy pelosi, has said at some point later this week, she will have the house vote on a war powers resolution which could potentially curtail how the administration decides to go forward with iran. nancy pelosi says that she feels the strike against suleimani was

quote unquote, disproportionate. ashley? ashley: so much to get at. great job, blake burman. thanks so much. appreciate it. the latest on the face-off with iran. as that face-off continues, there is better news on the trade war front, with the senate possibly approving the usmca trade deal as early as friday and don't forget, phase one of the china trade deal looking so that indeed could be signed on january 15th, next week. there is lots of cause for investors to ponder every day. let's get right to the floor show, ask our traders at the new york stock exchange, the cme group and the nymex their thoughts on what's going on. scott redler at the nyse, this is only the second day of trading since the developments with iran. i feel like the reaction has been rather muted. are you surprised? >> i agree. i think that the market passed two tests in the past two sessions. it didn't fall apart, but everyone is kind of on edge to see what the real response will be. the trade war was one thing, there was volatility, economic

repercussions, but now when we are talking about iran, people are worried there's going to be some kind of radical response. at this point i think some traders are still involved, they like the action in the market, the s&p cash held 3210, as long as we stay above that, but you want to be hedged, you want to have room to put some cash to work and you probably want to have some gold still even though it just kind of moved. ashley: well, let's bring in phil flynn. phil, you look at oil and a situation like this, a number of years ago, oil would be, what, above a hundred bucks a barrel but boy, how times have changed. it's almost been flat today. i hear through the grapevine you like gold, too, are interested in gold which that, too, has been a little muted. it's up 14 bucks but not a mad dive into gold, either. >> no. you haven't seen that traditional run to risk. i mean, silver -- i mean, gold and silver, gold hit a three-year high, but there's no doubt if this would have happened ten years ago we probably would have been looking

at an upward move in oil. thanks to u.s. energy producers that's not going to happen. prices are relatively muted. i would say the reversal back in the stock market and the fear trade has gone down quite a bit because i think a lot of traders are saying really, iran's options to strike back are pretty limited at this point. i think this might turn out to be the type of strike that was like when ronald reagan hit moammar gadhafi in the '80s. this may neutralize them a little bit. listen, iran has already attacked oil infrastructure, right, they attacked the biggest saudi oil field they could possibly attack, they have taken oil tankers, and they are starting to realize that, you know, when they lash out, it really comes back to haunt them. it doesn't do them any good because they don't get the sustained movement in prices that they are expecting to get. ashley: luke, it's interesting, isn't it, because we were asking coming into the new year, what is out there that we don't know about that could affect these markets. here's one of the black swan moments we weren't expecting but

the market pretty resilient. as an investor, not really too sure where geopolitical issues are going, how do i play this environment on the market? >> well, i think our view on the market since a couple weeks ago really hasn't changed. i still think that this year is going to be more volatile than last year. i think you've got to play the barbell strategy. you've got to have some dividend paying stocks, some stocks that have great balance sheets and look at what led the move up today, earlier, when we were down 200 and the stocks that started to come back are stocks that have great positions in their own market and they have great balance sheets and a lot of money. look at google. that really led the way for the entire market. i don't know if anyone noticed but google was the first one to turn around. you got to have some of those stocks that are really great, then also, stick with semiconductors, stick with the chips for some growth. nobody is going to send smoke signals. they are going to use phones. there's going to be more technology. leave the middle of the market,

companies that need money that are going on burning cash and using eyeballs or whatever metric they want, leave those alone at least for the next few months. ashley: great advice, phil, luke, scott, thank you for joining us this afternoon. really appreciate it. by the way, i've got an update to the pier one halting, those shares halted for volatility. trading has resumed but as you can see, see if we can bring that chart up, pier one down 18% right now. shares tumbling after reports this morning that more store closures could be coming to the beleaguered home goods retailer. that hurt the stock. trading was halted temporarily and now it's restarted. you can see, it's down 18% and is now open again, i am told. tough day. on the flipside, we would like to look at the other side, mcdonald's, one of the leaders on the dow 30 heat map. take a look at that. there it is. up to $71.27, up nearly a buck with just about 50 minutes left until the closing bell.

exxon also doing well today as oil hasn't gone gangbusters, holding steady. meanwhile, shares of -- let's take a look at the fast food, if we can, mcdonald's. i wanted to mention, of course, the new ceo looking to change the corporate culture of the golden arches, saying he hopes to put an end to the partying mentality that may have led to some too close for comfort contact between senior executives and female employees. interesting. it's not hurting the stock at all. in fact, investors like what he's saying. mcdonald's up to $202. coming up next, france warning the u.s. not to retaliate against its digital tax that's taking aim at well, let's face it, america's titans of tech. from google to amazon to mark zuckerberg's social network, will silicon valley's biggest names be knocked out cold in this trans-atlantic battle? that's a lot of words in here. tech investors kevin kelly and daniel flack will make the call.

they are here and they say they can take another, what, 12 rounds of trade jabs, the titans could find themselves tko'ed. so many boxing analogies. we'll be right back. any comments doug? yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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ashley: all right. don't want to take credit but i will. it's all about me. the dow is turning positive, up about 11 points. it's been up 20, 21 points at its high but this is a huge turnaround for a dow that was down more than 200 points at the beginning of the session. by the way t s&p and nasdaq also hitting session highs, the nasdaq up nearly .4%. there you go, as we head towards the closing bell, turning things around. all right. meanwhile, you could soon be paying more for your french champagne and chanel handbags. say it ain't so. the french putting the u.s. on notice not to retaliate over its plan to tax some of america's biggest tech companies. after the u.s. government investigation found that france's digital tax law would harm u.s. tech companies, president trump's administration threatening to impose duties of up to 100% in retaliation on imports of yes, champagne, handbags, cheese, other french products, including porcelain. president trump and french president macron had initially

reached a deal on france's digital tax law that places a 3% tax on yearly revenues of the big tech giants that make more than 750 million euros worldwide, impacting names like facebook, amazon and google, but shares of google hit an all-time high today. what does this tit for tat retaliation mean for america's biggest names in tech? newberger berman senior research analyst covers the tech and data sector exclusively with over $300 billion in assets under management. he's here along with benchmark investment's managing partner. great to see you. let me begin, daniel, with you. the french tax, 3% on 750 million euros a year in revenue does target american companies because we have the biggest tech companies in the world. is this unfair? >> to an extent, it is a little bit unfair, but of course, it's

in the context of the much broader global debate around taxation and where our revenues are generated and where profit's generated. if we step back and think about the investment opportunities for these companies, we think that ultimately, it will be the product innovation or the services innovation, as is the case with a company like google or alphabet, facebook is another one, of course, if these companies can innovate, drive growth, i think the market will look past potentially incrementally higher taxes. i think the negative would be if this tit for tat with the tariffs escalates, that of course leads to additional uncertainty. ashley: true. kevin, europe has a long history of liking to tax american companies. i'm convinced it's a line item on their budget each year. it's not just the french that want to tax the big tech companies. the uk is looking at it, austria, all sorts of other countries. this is an issue that's not going to go away. do we just have to accept that this is going to happen? >> yeah, well, you know, you

said champagne may get more costly but so will also prosecco because we know on january 1st, italy's tax which is very very similar to the french tax went into effect. so you have france and italy both having these new taxes and the situation that's happening right now is that the european union can't come to a consensus because countries like luc luxembourg is against these taxes. the united states is trying to do something with the oecd so we had treasury secretary mnuchin trying to do something and -- with the oecd but that's been falling apart and italy and france said they will repeal their current taxes if an oecd plan goes through but the biggest issue we have here is that the united states actually needs to figure out our own tax system and clean it up in order for our companies to thrive and give incentives, so the taxes are being where the value is created.

the value is created here in the united states but the europeans are saying hey, wait, wait, listen, we are going to tax you on top line revenue unless you figure out your own house in order. ashley: i want to get into the ipo market. we saw a lot of big tech companies come to market last year, and just recently, liz talked with the big-time venture capitalist who talked about ipos. let's roll that sound bite if we can, then i will get your response. go ahead. >> the way the ipo world works, it has windows. the window opens, the window closes. the window closed for awhile with wework. my sense is the window is open now. ashley: there you go. let's begin with kevin on this one. wework kind of blew it, i think. it left a very bad taste for a lot of people. but the point is the window back open now in 2020? >> yeah. news flash, the window was never closed. if you are a great company and you are performing very well, you can go public at any time. that's the situation here.

wework was an abomination on the public markets given the fact that it was trying to come public at like 100 times its closest competitor that was publicly traded. that was really an isolated incident due to softbank coming in earlier in the year at a $47 billion valuation. you saw institutional investors not wanting to touch it so listen, the public markets are fine. you are starting to see a lot of silicon valley companies looking at direct listings where they are not even going to ipo route. slack is a perfect example of that. you have always had silicon valley darlings come public and have egg on their face. look at snapchat. the window has never been closed. if you are a great company with great fundamentals and a great future ahead of you, go list and come public. ashley: very quickly, look, the bottom line, kevin is right, be prepared, do your homework, come to market with everything buttoned down and signed. anything in particular you are looking for this year as far as tech unicorns out there? >> actually, we are constantly

monitoring all the private companies and what we are looking for, i would say, is one, the business model has to be robust so as we have seen in some past cases, that wasn't necessarily clear. the governance. we spend a lot of time focused on really understanding how the company is structured, the board, the leadership and are they putting in place the right individuals to help run the company, and the last thing i would point to is the free cash flow generation. ultimately, businesses need to generate cash flow. i think the focus on those elements will be key to driving value. ashley: very good. just do the basic research. thank you both, gentlemen, for being here. much appreciate it. liz claman is making her way to ces2020 at this very moment. i think she's already at the craps table but that's just my theory. she will also be live all day on fox business tomorrow with the movers and shakers of the tech world, celebrities and of course, all of those cool

gadgets. i love that stuff. she's got a full plate this week with countless interviews with the ceo of impossible foods, patrick brown, delta airline's ceo and an exclusive with commerce secretary wilbur ross. great stuff. see it all right here on "the claman countdown" live from vegas beginning tomorrow. fantastic. let's take a quick look at the markets. we finally turned things around. are we hanging on? by the fingertips. the dow up barely, essentially flat. the s&p and nasdaq also higher. preparing for blastoff. spacex about to embark on its first major launch of 2020. going to show you how elon musk is trying to speed up your online connections. that sounds good. "the claman countdown" coming right back. d etfs are commissio. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk

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ashley: we are just about six hours away now from spacex's latest satellite launch. tonight's mission is the first of as many as 20 planned

launches in 2020. that's a lot of 20s. ceo elon musk has his sights set on providing an affordable high speed internet service. through satellite, apparently. let's bring in deirdre bolton to explain how does this work? deirdre: well, what we didn't know before today or i think many people didn't realize is that 25 million americans do not have access to high speed internet and elon musk said you know what, i can change that. so if the weather cooperates tonight, that's a big if, this is actually the third try in the space of about ten days, as spacex will put more than 60 satellites into low earth orbit. cape canaveral, that's where it's going to happen, air force station in florida, that's where it's going to be. and millions of people in the u.s. pay about $80 a month to get what is called quote, unquote, crappy service.

it's not clear what the starlink price tag will be or if it will even be consumer ready by mid-2020. right now, the biggest customer is the u.s. government. it does have some competition including jeff bezos' blue origin. there is also another company called one web, but not everybody is enthusiastic about this. some experts say the low orbit location means that earth's gravity will pull the satellites back towards earth after about five years, at which point they will completely burn up. so no one is really sure about the environmental effects of this kind of space junk. there also can be games of chicken, believe it or not, going on in space and star will did li willlink and the european space agency happened last year.

as str astronomers are annoyed because the satellites are shiny and they are trying out a different color paint so that it is less distracting to people who want to look at the planets. ashley: long as they get a good connection for english premier league games, that's really important. great stuff. thank you. let's check the big board, why don't we. we were mildly positive, now we are just very slightly negative. actually flat on the dow but we have come back from more than 200 points down early in the session. all right. now this. investors buying up nordstrom today after jpmorgan upgraded it to neutral from underweight, raising its price target to $41 from $26. nice price target raise. nordstrom up about 2.5% intraday, as you can see. right now hanging around that $41 mark, just short of 41 bucks. $40.81. coming up next, iraq and iran on edge as president trump levels new threats of targeted air strikes and additional

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ashley: breaking news. a story we have been following, pier 1 import shares halted again as bloomberg reports the retailer is preparing a bankruptcy filing and planning to cut 40% of its staff. of course, we will keep you posted on when it starts trading again, but the stock down nearly 17% at just $5.18 on pier 1 imports. all right. the text of the letter sent by the u.s.-led coalition against the islamic state in iraq now being made public. the coalition saying quote, in deference to the sovereignty of the republic of iraq and as requested by the iraqi parliament, we will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days in the region. iraq voting over the weekend, by the way, to expel u.s. troops from the country after a u.s. air strike there took out top

iranian general qassem suleimani. saudi arabia, meantime, saying its deputy foreign minister is being sent to the u.s. to urge restraint. this as tens of thousands of iranians pouring into the street for suleimani's funeral. oil, by the way, touched its highest point since april on the news friday, but today, barely closing up. oil, in fact, closing down for the week. very very muted response for oil today. let's bring in former national security adviser to vice president dick cheney and foundation for defense of democracy senior counselor, john hannah. thanks for joining us. how do you think this plays out? obviously we are told that the president had a number of options and he chose the most extreme to take the opportunity to take suleimani out. i guess my first question is, was that a good decision? >> it was certainly a just decision. i mean, this was the globe's greatest terrorist mastermind

with huge amounts of american blood on his hands who just most recently had engineered the killing of an american contractor in iraq as well as the storming of an american embassy in baghdad, and he was clearly, whether it was this week or next month or next year, planning further attacks against americans so i think it was absolutely justified as a matter of self-defense. whether it was wise or not, whether it actually is going to control iranian aggression and stop the escalation that's been happening over the last six months in particular, as iran has probed and attacked u.s. interests throughout the middle east, that remains to be seen. the actual wisdom of this attack and whether it's going to be effective in actually deterring the iranians from going up the escalation ladder and returning to negotiations to get a better deal for the united states. ashley: you could argue that that escalation, to many of the

points you made, was already going on. they were trying to get a real grip of the goings-on, the government in iraq, anyway. what message does this send? does it make them think twice about what they do? they are dealing with a president who won't put up with anything. if you take aggressive moves, we will, you know, respond in kind and harshly. does that slow down the iranians or not? >> listen, again, it remains to be seen but my guess based on my experience is if anything is going to do it, it's going to be this kind of disproportionate use of force that really drives the point home to the iranians that enough is enough, america is not going to tolerate these kinds of assaults on our interests. i've got to believe that today, that raini iranian leadership t thought qassem suleimani could go around to every battlefield

in the region wreaking havoc and that he was somehow untouchable, well, the unthinkable became the thinkable and qassem suleimani is being buried today. i think the iranian leadership has got to be very unsettled. they don't know what this president will do next. they don't know how far they can push anymore. they've got to be very very careful in any kind of retaliation that they now undertake. ashley: couple of things. saudi arabia's aramco hit a new low today, after just debuting last month. does saudi arabia have the most to lose from an escalation point of view, especially with oil, oil prices today, west texas very muted response. >> yeah, i think the saudis really do have to worry here, even less than american citizens themselves. i say that because the president has shown now you kill an american, you attack an american

embassy, and your leadership is in our crosshairs. with respect to saudi arabia, it was less than four months ago, the most critical saudi oil infrastructure was hit in a massive drone and cruise missile attack by iran and the united states basically had no response. in fact, the president said we don't have to depend on saudi arabia for our oil anymore, we get it, we produce it ourselves, somebody else needs to be responsible for protecting the saudi oil fields. saudi's are very vulnerable and i think they really need some reassurance from the united states that we will be there if they need it. ashley: very quickly, we've got 20 seconds, but do you fear the type of cyberattack that's already being warned about from iran? could they wreak havoc in this country by shutting things down? >> they have a very advanced capability in cyber, ashley. they could come after us. the question is, do they think

the united states has the ability now to attribute a massive cyberattack from iran, will we be able to pinpoint the iranians, in which case the iranians are going to get hurt ten times worse than they inflict on us. ashley: have to leave it there, but thank you so much for your expertise and input this afternoon. really appreciate it. >> thanks, ashley. pleasure. ashley: john hannah on face-off with iran. check the big board, as we hover slightly above, slightly below the water line. my goodness, we are slightly above the water line at 28 -- now below. you get the feeling, can we come out with a win at the end of the day, 19 minutes or thereabouts to the close of play? we will find out. coming up next, the auto icon on the run. what a story this is. about to spill the beans on what he says was a coup to try and oust him from nissan. the very latest developments on carlos ghosn's escape from japan straight ahead on "the claman countdown." it is a movie to be sure.

we'll be right back.

ashley: now to this incredible story. nissan chief carlos ghosn saying he has the actual evidence to prove that his great escape from japan was a necessary measure. the former nissan chief telling fox business's maria bartiromo he will be naming names at a wednesday press conference regarding his flight to -- from japan to lebanon. he says he has the documents to prove that the japanese probe which led to his arrest on alleged financial crimes was actually a coup to take him down by government officials. ghosn accusing those officials of trying to thwart his plans to merge french automaker renault with nissan. now, this as japan is now vowing

to tighten airport security in the wake of ghosn's getaway, including potentially using global positioning system tracking. too late now. japan also saying that the former auto industry executive took a bullet train to osaka where he then boarded a plane inside a box en route to lebanon. i'm not making this up. just incredible. authorities now confirming they may still push for lebanon to extradite ghosn back to japan despite the fact that lebanon has a non-extradition policy. this is the stuff tv movies are made up even though ghosn, get this, reportedly met with a hollywood producer just last month. did he meet with him before he escaped? crazy stuff. >> reminds me of when you left london to come here. ashley: i was in the hold with dogs and cats. connell: crazy story, naming names. we will talk with the judge about it next year.

also coming up "after the bell" we have karl rove on. there has been interesting kind of developments, people maybe not paying as close of attention over the holidays to the democratic race for president. bernie sanders seems to be surging in the polls and not only in new hampshire but in iowa. it's basically a three-way tie with the former vice president joe biden and mayor pete buttigieg in iowa. we will talk to carl about that, how the dynamics are changing in the race, who, if anyone, besides sanders, obviously, would benefit from that and how things look ahead of those iowa caucuses which are coming up pretty soon. be here in no time, really. ashley: frightening amount of time. connell mcshane, great stuff. see you at 4:00 p.m., about 12 minutes from now or thereabouts. closing arguments are looming in the state ag trial blocking the $26 billion t-mobile/sprint merger but companies not just sprinting to the finish line, i didn't write this, they are looking to stay one step ahead. what does that mean? charlie gasparino himself is now here with the details. charlie? charlie: sprint just turned

down, am i missing something? is that daily or weekly? let's get a daily chart on sprint and t-mobile because this is kind of interesting news. well, that's interesting. kind of interesting news. that's since the merger. ashley: you want today? charlie: we want today. ashley: it's coming. charlie: i want to see if what i'm tweeting out affected them. here's what we do know. wall street is betting against this deal actually happening. they are betting that the state ags led by tish james of new york, xavier bahara of california are putting a major roadblock into this plan. the real question is do they appeal. you would think automatically you would appeal, the justice department's lawsuit trying to break up its merger with time warner. what we are hearing, as of now, take this for what you want, maybe it's too early to know, we are hearing inside the company,

that there is no formal plan to appeal as of right now, if they -- ashley: why? charlie: i don't know. we do know this. i can just give you the information. i let you as a trader, because both of these stocks are being heavily traded. i can tell you this. the companies themselves believe, this is supported by a lot of outside observers, the states haven't proved their case, really. that the notion that both of these together are going to lead to massive price increases, particularly because sprint was not a very big competitor. do you have a fourth competitor coming in terms of dish, right. charlie ergen's firm. he will merge as a fourth competitor. they don't think the state's actually made the case. ashley: why not appeal? charlie: that said, wall street is saying we have a democratic jud judge, clinton appointee in the southern district of new york, that that is a negative for the case and so wall street is betting against it. now, the question is, does sprint and t-mobile appeal.

if they think they have a good case. right now, they don't have a decision. i don't know what that means. it could be that they don't think they could appeal to the supreme court. they don't think they can get through, this thing through. it just could mean they think they are going to win. ashley: how important is this, sprint a minor player but how big for t-mobile? charlie: if this deal doesn't get done it will have major ramifications for wall street and washington. trump administration believes in order to put these two companies together, make a strong company, that will be a big, big plus for the creation of 5g which has national security and economic implications up the you-know-what. it's a big deal. ashley: i'm with you. charlie: if this thing doesn't happen, if a minority of state ags can block a merger, wall street deal making will be taking another look at all this stuff. just think about it. you have to factor in not just whether the justice department will weigh in or whether the ftc

will weigh in or these other federal agencies. you have to worry about whether the ags who are looking to make a name for themselves are going to sue and essentially overturn what the federal government has approved. remember, this deal was approved by the federal government with massive conditions including the creation of a fourth carrier, dish. so i'm just saying, this doesn't get through, guys, all hell is going to break lose. it's going to be a huge story. if it does get -- ashley: it's like a chilling effect. charlie: it will be a chilling effect but not only chilling effect, it throws a monkey wrench into plans to develop 5g. these companies need to come together and be strong to develop 5g technology which again, big economic implications because of super-fast internet and national security, the chinese are getting involved in this for spying purposes. i'm telling you, it is big stuff. keep an eye on this merger. we will know on the 15th. ashley: coming up soon. all right. charlie, good stuff. thank you for that.

stocks at session high, by the way. my, oh, my, look at this. the dow up 46 points. can we hang on for the next six minutes? no. my math is terrible. seven minutes. "the claman countdown" right back. at fidelity, online u.s. stocks and etfs are commission-free. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk while our competition continues to talk. (shaq) (chime) magenta? i hate cartridges! not magenta! not magenta. i'm not going back to the store. magenta! cartridges are so... (buzzer) (vo) the epson ecotank. no more cartridges. it comes with an incredible amount of ink that can save you a lot of frustration. ♪ the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. available at...

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♪. ashley: closing bell ringses in just four minutes. stocks hitting session highs. close to it. in final minutes of trade opening way down in the red. the dow off 216 points at its low. my, oh, my, we turned it around. guess what it is official brazilian cosmetics otura is merged with avon. they rang the opening bell on the floor of the new york stock exchange. jackie deangelis is here with the story. reporter: the abr trading today, the company was down here to celebrate that.

the world's forth largest pure play beauty group that owns avon. the company focusing on lead to direct to consumer market on cosmetics and beauty. natura had a strong platform. it owns the popular body shop, listing in the u.s. and brazil. revenues over $10 billion to 100 million consumers 3200 stores in over 100 different markets. 40,000 employees. we spoke to the chairman of natura. he said this. >> this really takes us to the next level in terms of becoming a multibrand, multichannel company, with a brand that beloved brand. it has a presence in over 100 countries, that gives us the possibility to continue to grow our business, our company, at the same time, really embracing what something, very important for us, we charge values, causes that actually you say between natura and avon.

reporter: they expect the deal to yield some synergies. 150 million to 250 million annually the first few years. ashley: great stuff. jackie deangelis, thank you very much. bring in brandywine portfolio manager jack mcintyre. 300 billion in management. that is a lot of money. i was looking at your notes if we can, jack. you say u.s. bonds is boring in 2020. fed should remain sidelined. no concerns about inflation. treat treasurys as insurance policy explain yourself. >> yeah, that latter part, because actually i think treasury yields will probably move higher, just on better global growth. but, you know, you look at iran situation, you need to have something in your asset allocation that is defensive. treasurys served that role. you almost hope you lose money on that because your other pass of the asset allocation risk parts will do well. geopolitical risks will probably stay elevated in 2020.

you need something that is just a little bit more defensive. ashley: looking at golden pick. you say emerging markets. what is so great and where? >> the reason i like em, is that actually i think that part of our, global economy will experience better growth than what we see in the u.s. we're seeing a lot of em central banks cut rates. inflation is coming down. that is great for their bonds. it is also good for their currencies. because it is pro-growth. capital will gravitate towards economies experiencing better growth. long shot, ones more risky, better return profile are more in the latin america. once that commodity producers, commodity prices have been beaten down significantly. if we get a little bit better growth, i expect that we'll see a uptick in demand for commodity prices. those currencies should do well as a result. ashley: we have to end it there. i love your picks. session highs as we head towards the finish line, up 62 points on

the dow. [closing bell rings] we were down more than 200. not bad. as they ring bells, clap and smile, they have reason to, that will do it for the "claman countdown." connell mcshane, melissa francis pick it up now "after the bell." melissa: wall street major averages reversing earlier losses as investors shrug off escalating tensions with iran. the dow gaining steam in the final moments of trading up 68 points. we had been down 216 points at today's lows. i'm melissa francis. welcome back. connell: food to be back. happy new year, i'm connell mcshane. welcome to "after the bell." that is quite a finish where we were. s&p and nasdaq off the session lows big time, kicking off the week in the green at session highs to wrap up the session. so we'll talk a lot about that. have all big market movers. here is what is new at this hour. less than a month now until the first major test of the 2020 race for president. the candidates that