pray to do god they believe in is critical and such a great part of the fabric of america, jenna, always great to have these conversations, we will see you again real soon. >> you too, charles, thank you. charles: dow is up 190 points has i hand it over to my man ashley. ashley: world close for all 3 mayor markets, charles, thank you, massive trade deal and the markets soaring again to new record highs, the dow well above 29,000 as s&p 500 is up 300 for the first time ever, nasdaq looking at record close, we are near the high it was session as charles said the dow up 180 points, now optimism driving the markets as the senate approves the united states-méxico-canada trade deal in bipartisan fashion just day after the trump administration locked down phase 1 of trade deal with china,

commerce secretary wilbur ross claiming the two deals combine equal or total of $2 trillion of trade, american farmers may be cheering the most thanks to billions in ags, they need the release, tom, former agricultural secretary, he now represents the u.s. dairy export council, he will give us the view from the heartland exclusively. and tech leaping the great wall of china, no longer will the u.s. companies be forced to turn over top secret to the chinese, ceo of the information technology industry council was in the room for the announcement yesterday and he's here today to tell us how it helps top tech clients bike amd, google, amazon, intel and so many more, oh, yeah,less than an hour to closing bell, i'm ashley webster in for liz claman, let's start the clama countdown.

♪ ♪ ashley: oh, yeah, all of this while we look at the first day of the impeachment trial of president donald j. trump, just adjourned, resume tuesday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, they are done and out, now last year, last hour that is, last year, we saw the arrival of the chief justice john roberts at the u.s. senate, he was sworn in as presiding judge, robert began swearing in a bipartisan group of senators as jurors for only the third such proceeding in u.s. history, let's get to the latest in the banking earnings, the line-up morgan stanley coming out with a stiller quarter beating wall street estimates by a wide margin, raising targets for expense controls, returns on equity and wealth management profit for the next few years, that stock up nicely 7% higher for morgan stanley. by the way, morgan stanley's

downgrade of tesla putting pressure on the ev maker, the stock also lower as roberto shows that tesla vehicle registrations nearly half in california near fourth quarter, tesla down 1 and a half percent right now, goldman sachs downgrading arts and crafts michaels to sell, lowering price target on valuation fears, michael's is down more than 5 and a half percent. and chinese coffee chain locking coffee is higher after key bank raised price target as $56, the highest on wall street, the brokerage says business momentum and revenue streams will bring in profitability, up 6 and a quarter percent, now to the white house, president trump holding conference making comments about how he's responsible for usmca agreement and extraordinary deal with china, the senate passing the new nafta earlier today, this as

the senate wrapped up impeachment trial against president trump, another very busy day, blake berman live at the white house following every little strand, blake. blake: hi, there, ashley, we should hear from president trump shortly, he's in the middle of an event ongoing in the white house relating to religious freedom, interesting that the first comments, some of the first comments from the president in that meeting were about the usmca trade deal that passed earlier today. according to reporters who were still inside the room, the president described it as, quote, unquote, very exciting noting that the trade deal passed by a comfortable margin as he put it, 89 votes for the usmca trade deal, in the senate a signature bipartisan piece of legislation for the president, the signature for bipartisan legislation to date, however, the headline being pushed below the fold due to impeachment trial against the president that has just become formalized, the supreme court chief justice john roberts swearing in the 100 u.s.

senators for impeachment trial which will begin on tuesday, the first time we have seen something like this in 21 years, just the third time in the history of the country, as that was happening, the vice president mike pence was out on the campaign trail reacted to it by saying that this is a moment 3 years in the making. listen here. >> now the truth is today's democratic party has been taken over by radical leftists who want higher taxes, open borders, late-term abortion and policies that would literally crush this economy. you know, they rush their partisan impeachment and shameful attempt to overturn the results of the last election. that's what it's all about. >> so that from the vice president today in the meantime the accountability office gave democrats a potential assist earlier this morning as the gao,

an independent, somebody who watches the finances of the federal government released a 9 page report saying the administration did not adhere to the law last year when it withheld military aid to ukraine at the heart of the impeachment issue here, nancy pelosi says that it showed that president trump broke the law, though, ashley, the white house is arguing that security assistance to ukraine was eventually given and more was given than in the past by the obama administration. that's senate impeachment trial on tuesday, it's officially underway, china yesterday, usmca today, all got done before the impeachment trial, ashley. ashley: never a dull moment, blake berman enjoying every second of it. thank you very much, appreciate it. to wall street and the markets at session highs of the moment on the dow, by the way, two bright spots in the retail picture, shining as it raised sales and earnings guidance up for strong holiday season, up

43%, up more than $9 at 7.36, retail sales increased for a third straight month in december, all that's good news, right, let's get to the floor show, we have the new york stock exchange, the cme group, let's get to sarge, these numbers prove to me as this economic data comes in that the consumer is still in pretty good mood and continuing to spend which ultimately is very good for the economy and i would argue for the markets as well, right? >> well, it's, yes, the consumer has been aggressive and the consumer has been great, you know, the strength in the retail sales report actually came from building materials and -- and garden supplies, so i guess if you gave your kids bag of cement for christmas. [laughter]

>> we are pricing in the china deal, if the chinese live up to expectations or what they've committed to, the second year that adds half a percent of gdp, that's 1.5% right there, we are tracking 1.8% in the fourth quarter, this gets us all to the numbers that president trump was talking about when he gets elected, now if you throw a middle-class tax cut as larry kudlow was speaking in fox business, well, then we have a bull game, folks, doesn't seem so crazy, now you want to buy the industrials, ge maybe, honeywell, those kinds of stocks, boeing even. ashley: bag of cement still better than a lump of coal, anyway, phil flynn, let's bring you in, phil, tons of cash still out there, the economy humanning -- humming along and liquidity and if we do get a bear market someone mentioned today lasted 30 minutes. >> i think 30 minutes might be long, i'm telling you.

you know, you mentioned the garden supplies because they legalized pot in illinois. [laughter] >> big business over here. no, i mean, really, let's face it, i'm going to say what i've said before, the thing that's going to kill us that's out there right now is something that we don't know about. i think the economy is in great shape, the u.s. consumer, listen, they vote with their pocketbook, that's where the confidence you're going to see and also makes me feel better about the upcoming election, you know, we are talking about impeachment today but whenever you have an economy like this and consumers spending money like this, they feel good about the economy and that means that for the election year that means we bode very well, if we talk about more stimulus, you know, this is going to be kind of strong boat for president trump going into the reelection. ashley: let's bring in ira epstein, ira, we haven't talked about earnings, we are just get to go q4 earning season now, we

heard from the banks, so far okay, what are you expecting and how can it impact the markets? >> first of all, there's allow barrier out there, that helps, of course, we were set up, it wouldn't be a strong one, we are watching retail sales, we know that some of the stores are going to close, i think today is more about the impeachment beginning and we are looking over the horizon. this is the end of the last big headwind, after that as phil said it's just day-to-day economics so once you get over the next 2 weeks or so, get into the caucuses and talk about politics, that's the president's backyard. he'll be at home assuming he's not impeached, the markets looking beyond that and saying to itself, what's to stop the rally other than day-to-day reactions, nothing there to really stop the longer-term trend which is up and away. ashley: that's very true, ira, sarge, to you quickly, this time last year this was all about recession, recession, it never panned out, to me it appear that is the economy and the markets

are humming along just nicely, thank you very much. >> well, sure, also the fed change course, they changed the whole liquidity ball game and came to the rescue in overnight markets. so, yeah, the fed did actually support the economy when they were supposed to, they caused the fire but they were the firemen, now it's time for earnings like ira said, time for earn to go catch up where they are priced. ashley: get back to fundamentals, thank you very much, really appreciate it. let's get a check of the big board why don't we as we are heading towards the closing bell, 29,224, wow. guess what, burger king making vegans happy today, the restaurant chain adding the impossible whopper to 2 for $6 menu, that's a big decrease in the price of the plant-based sandwich which is 1 to 2 bucks more than beef offering, shares

up 1% on the news. all right, cloud base options pressuring the beef industry and that's not all, dairy also seeing fair share of headwinds from tariffs and also a growing number of milk alternatives, almond milk, for instance, coming up next tom head of u.s. dairy export council and former u.s. ag secretary, he'll tell us why relief finally is on the way, we will be back hey, saved you a seat.

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now only $1,799. plus, free premium delivery on all smart beds when you add a base. ends monday. >> really twice as big as trade with china, hugely important economic event. ashley: that it is, indeed, trade euphoria as the u.s. senate approves the u.s.-méxico-canada trade agreement following the phase 1 trade deal signing with china the day before, that's great news for u.s. dairy farmers, of course, they've been hit from all sides, last year chinese cut purchase of dairy products by almost 50% and u.s. milk prices have been plunging due to oversupply, not a good situation, joining us to talk about it u.s. dairy council export ceo and ag himself, tom, thank you so much for joining

us. let me begin, let's start how important the trade deals are both with china and, of course, the new nafta, what does this mean in particular for the dairy farmers? >> well, i think it creates an opportunity on the china deal, there isn't any specific commitment to purchase dairy but it does provide for an easier pathway for infant formula and potentially important products in the u.s. to enter a market that's been shut down for some time and also make easier for plants in the u.s. to certify themselves as being able to do business in china, so a number of positive steps assuming this thing gets implemented the way everyone intended to be implemented. ashley: yeah, just if you can, explain to our viewers how are the dairy farmers doing in the country, i know it's been a real struggle, i know you can explain how bad it's been? >> we lost hundred of dairy farms because it's been very difficult but there are four aspects of 2020 that are a

little bit different than the last couple of years, first, we don't have the impact of the eu intervention stocks basically clogging up the market, that's the first time that's been true since 2015, second, we've got the japanese phase 1 agreement that has ended tariff differential that we had and advantage we had when we pulled out of tpp relative to eu and new lea and, 3, we have the usmca ratification and open up canadian market and elimination of class 7 and we have the china situation. so positive hopeful things that we believe will help in 2020 to increase exports, we are seeing an increase in value, we want to see those volume numbers go up as well. ashley: has the consumers taste change as well, i don't know if you can speak to that, tom, but all of these alternative milks, the almond milk and so on, has that had impact on traditional dairy farm? >> well, 94% of american

households have fluid mill income their refrigerators, i think we still see tremendous demand for fluid milk, there's no question there's a lot of competition, the dairy industry has adjusted and renovated, we are seeing more cheese being consumed and whey powder in health and fitness regiments, there's multitude of ways we are trying to adjust and we are beginning to see that filter into the price paid to dairy farmers and we are seeing little light at the end of the tunnel and i'm hoping that 2020 will be a better year and more optimistic year for dairy farmers, they certainly need it. ashley: i saw headline that the third trench of money will be made available to farming, i'm assuming dairy farmers will be a part of that, how valuable is the money to get them through? >> well, i think most farmers would prefer to have markets than the relief that the u.s. has provided, it obviously helps

to pay the bills, i believe that we are going to see better prices in 2020 for the reasons i cited earlier. ashley: yeah. >> particularly opportunity in southeast asia, interest in southeast asia as well. ashley: you gave a comment earlier and skeptical on what the chinese are going to do, i know that you would like to see eliminate the tariffs, open up market a little more, is it your case i will believe it when i see it? >> anybody who has dealt with the chinese needs to be skeptical and needs to keep a weary on performance. agreements are one thing and being able to perform and being able to do what they promised and i'm hopeful at the end of the day that they fulfilled the promises, the same thing can be said on usmca, we want to keep an eye on canadian friends, they have a tendency to reinterpret agreements at times, obviously the implementation of the agreements is just as important as the negotiation and i think the administration is going to set up a special office to

oversee the china implementation so that's good news and hopefully their enforcement mechanisms in place that if there isn't performance then we can compel performance. >> you mentioned canada, they have incredible by strict rules and tariff that is they place that makes it almost impossible to compete, are you --i guess i'm asking you the same question, will they bring those tariffs down, will you will able to get a fair shot? >> well, they're increasing a bit more than what we would have received under tpp, we don't have to share with any other countries, our expectation fully implemented 200 to 300 million-dollar additional opportunity for u.s. dairy, that's good news, the most important about about the agreement is elimination of class 7 which was distorting the powder market and hurting dairy farmers throughout the united states, our hope that that gets replaced with a system that discourages more canadian exports. ashley: tom, i know you talked about how many dairy farms have been struggling are there any

entrepreneurs out there getting to dairy farming because you will bring it down and down and down. >> you're seeing a lot of lactose free, a lot of products with less sugar and less fat and more protein, you're seeing a lot of entrepreneurship and innovation in the cheese, the united states won 131 medals in cheese contest, international cheese contest, first time ever we had the best cheese in the world out of oregon, so you're seeing innovation, you're seeing quality, you're seeing sustainability, here in the u.s. i think we've got a great product to sell not just here but 97% of the world's consumers live outside the united states. ashley: tom, thank you for joining us, hopefully a little as you said piece and light for the dairy farmers who have had to put up with a lot, we appreciate you joining us today, thank you so much, tom. let's take a look at the big

board up 213 points on the dow, we are waiting for comments from president trump, we will bring them to you as soon as we get them, we will be right back.

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ashley: we are waiting to hear from the president, taking a look at the white house there, the president celebrating national religious freedom day and part of that, reporters have been allowed to talk to him and as expected he has been taking questions, we will have those for you in just a few seconds, meanwhile the dow 207 points, let's listen into the president. >> you will not be hearing too much about that, thank you. good question. >> what is your response that were all about 2020, you just wanted joe biden out? >> i don't know him. they had pictures taken which i do with thousands of people including people that i didn't meet. i don't know him at all, don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from, know nothing about him. i can only tell you this thing is a big hoax, it's a big hoax, we call it this is the current hoax, we've gone through the russian witch hunt, we've gone through a lot of them from probably before i came down the

escalator but certainly since i came down the escalator, you take a look at what's happened and in the meantime -- [inaudible] >> i don't even know who this man is other than i guess he attended fund raiders -- fundraisers and i take thousands and thousands of pictures with people all of the time, thousands during the course of the year and often times i will be taking a picture with somebody else, i wonder which newspaper that will appear on, i don't know, perhaps he's a fine man, perhaps he's not, i know nothing about him. >> he said that -- >> i don't know him. i don't believe i've ever spoken to him. i meet thousands of people. i meet thousands and thousands of people as president. i take thousands of pictures and i do -- and i do it openly and i

do it gladly and then if i have a picture where i'm standing with somebody at a fundraiser like a picture with this man, i don't know him, i've never had a conversation that i remember with him. let me just tell you, you to take a look at the polls, quiet, you just have to take a look at the pictures, you just have to take a look at the polls, i don't need anybody's help, we are doing phenomenally well, the economy is as best, we have never had an economy like this in history, we just made the best two trade deals in the history of our country, we are doing well, i don't know the help of a man that i never met before other than perhaps taking a picture at a fundraiser or something. [inaudible] >> i will probably be going to davos, i've been invited, we have tremendous world leaders and business leaders and we want all business leaders to come to the united states, some of the businesses left the united

states because they were disgusted with what happened and now they are all coming back, we are booming, there's nothing even close, every world leaders sees and say what have you done, most incredible thing that we've ever seen. i understand the stock market broke 29,000, when i came in it was a fraction of that, it was a number that frankly would have been cut in half had the other person or the other party won, the number would have been cut in half, we are doing so well and i want to get more, we have tremendous room for growth in our country in terms of the economy, we have tremendous powerful room for growth and so i'm going to be going to davos, i will be meeting with business leaders in the world getting them to come here and also with foreign leaders, okay. >> what's your message to the millions of catholics in the united states, why should they vote for you in the upcoming election? >> well, i have a great relationship with catholics, i've done so much for catholics, you take a look at the abortion

issue, you take a look at many of the issues, méxico city, you take a look at the different issues, my relationship with catholics and the catholic church has been very good as you know very well. >> mr. president, rudy giuliani wrote a letter to zelensky reflecting private meeting and said it was in his capacity as private counsel to president donald j. trump, before the inauguration, did you authorize him to write that letter and what was your understanding of what the meeting was supposed to be about? >> well, i don't know anything about the letter but certainly rudy is one of the great crime fighter in the history of our country, he's certainly probably the best over the last 50 years, he's also the greatest mayor in the history of the city of new york, i think rudy was truly an outstanding mayor, an example; his endorsement of bloomberg, got bloomberg elected, he wouldn't have been there, rudy was the greatest crime fighter and rudy is somebody that

frankly having him on my side was great honor for me and has been great honor for me, rudy giuliani did a phenomenal job over a long period of time in fighting crime and frankly he's a very legitimate guy, a very straight shooter, i didn't know about a specific letter but if you wrote a letter it wouldn't have been a great deal, it was very important to rudy that i be a great president and that's okay with me, it was very important to a lot of people because our country was going to have and our country is on a path that we haven't seen in decades and decades, we've never done better, go ahead. no, no not you. >> trial starting next week, what's your view on how long it should take? >> well, i think it should go very quickly, it's a hoax, everybody knows that. it's a complete hoax. the whole thing with ukraine, so you have a perfect phone call, actually two phone calls, you people don't report that, there were two calls, they were both perfect calls.

in fact, probably among the nicest calls i've ever made to foreign leaders. now, you had the perfect calls and everybody sees it now, they were transcribed, other people saying terrible things about the calls, you had a fake whistleblower that wrote a report, everything was false, you have now the ukrainian president and the foreign minister of ukraine saying, there was nothing done wrong, in fact, they said there was absolutely no pressure whatsoever, everything was perfect and they impeached, it's totally partisan, we have 195 to nothing republican votes, i guess we got a democrat who came to the republican side, we had 195, it's just a shame, i did the biggest deal ever done in the history of our country yesterday in terms of trade and probably other things too if you think about it, the deal with china, that was the second story

to a total hoax, today we just passed the usmca, it's going to take the place of nafta which was a terrible deal and the usmca will probably be second to this witch hunt hoax hopefully everyone knows is not going anywhere, nothing done wrong, this was a perfect phone call, think of it, the president of the united states who has led the greatest growth, the greatest economic revival of any country anywhere in the world is the united states as big as it is, we are doing better than any other country by far, our unemployment numbers are the best they've been in over 50 years, african american, asian american, hispanic american, unemployment, the best in the history of our country and i've got to go through a hoax, phoney hoax, put out by the democrats so they can try and win an election that hopefully they're not going to win, it was put out

for purposes of winning an election, our country is doing great, our country has never done better, so they figured the only thing they can do, they failed on the mueller report, that was a bomb, after 2 and a half years they failed and now they say what can we do, they pick up a phone call that was perfect, they didn't know it was perfect, they found out later, they made up a phone call, what they did, what they did, you have a corrupt person, a corrupt politician in adam schiff and he made up a phone call, he went out, you will hear about as you grow older, he went out and he said things that he said quid pro quo, he said don't call me, i will call you, that's a mob statement, i never said that. fortunately i released the transcript of the call, the transcript was perfectly accurate and now everybody agrees because it went through a lot, well, you add one word

here, lieutenant colonel said, well, i think they added the word, everyone agrees with transcript are done by total professionals and i released that after they had done the fraudulent acts and you get impeached on this, we have the greatest economy in the history of our country, we have the highest job numbers today and just announced we have more people working in the united states than ever before in the history of our country, almost 160 million people. we are doing an incredible job. absolutely no reason, absolutely no reason -- it's a disgrace and a hoax, thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] ashley: all right, so there you heard it, the president just moments ago talking to reporters at the white house frustrated saying that, look, we have one of the best, if not the best economy we have seen in many

generations, jobless to 50-year low, we signed two trade deals and yet the impeachment story continues to be the number one story carried by a number of the media, he says the impeachment effort is a big hoax and he made that point many times, but he also said he will be going to davos, the big get together in the swiss av, our economy is like no one else in the world, we have tremendous room for growth in our economy and i will be taking that message to davos. there you go, as the president has been speaking, the dow at session high, he was touting the markets, dow up 235 points, 29,265, remarkable, there it is, looks like a record closing, folks, while president trump called the initial trade pack he signed with china a path toward a future of fair and reciprocal trade, what does a phase 1 deal mean actually for the world of tech, our next guest has been leading voice for tech industry

throughout the u.s., china trade conflict, google, microsoft, ebay, you name them, he's been out there for them, information technology industry counsel ceo and president jason ashman, whew, quite a title, are you happy with all of the provisions that got approved in phase 1, how significant is this for the world of tech? >> this is a big deal for the world of tech and the u.s. economy generally and the trump administration deserves credit to move past the finish line yesterday, the president said it's a phase 1 deal, good things for the economy in this deal but there's more to be done, we are pleased with what happened yesterday, we look forward to the next steps to phase 2, if you will, doing more to make this china-u.s. trade relationship a good one. ashley: why is it good for consumers? >> so a couple of things that happened in the phase 1 deal

that we think are important, one is the commitment of chinese government to increase intellectual property protections, that's very important because it allows innovative companies to do business in china without worry about theft of their intellectual property, second thing is tech transfer provision, a provision that allows tech companies to do business with china without worrying to transfer technology to chinese government, those measures are good, we have seen a pause and reduction in some of the tariffs, we think the tariffs placed on chinese goods need to go away entirely, we have made good progress towards reducing the tariffs, those, of course, are tax on u.s. consumers and businesses and we need to see those go away entirely and we continue to make progress as we move forward with china. ashley: china represents almost the wholly grail, such an enormous market, how confident are you even with the provisions provided here for enforcement, how confident are you that your

clients can free i will go into china and operate without the chinese authorities leaning over the shoulder in some form or fashion? >> well, we are encouraged by the commitment of the chinese government made and the areas that we talked about, tech transfers and property protection, enforcement mechanism, some which are new in the agreement are very important but going forward we have to rely on the good faith of the chinese government and trust government to continue to negotiate on both enforcement mechanisms making those and appropriate but making sure they were open to competition, we need to see further progress and data localization and ensuring cross-border data flows, future enforcement mechanisms, we are encouraged by initial steps to opening up financial service's market, for example, in china the competition but we need to see further action there, so good first phase 1 agreement here, great work by the trump administration getting that done, but, indeed, more to do. ashley: what about the usmca, does that have an impact on your clients and what improvements do they see there?

>> it absolutely does, the passage of usmca by the senate and we hope the president sign that into law very soon, important for tech industry, biggest area for the tech sector, digital service's chapter, last agreement between méxico, the u.s. and canada referenced the telegraph that didn't have anything about digital services, this ensures the flow of data cross borders without tariffs, it ensures that countries can't adopt requirements on data localization, so u.s. companies can move data across borders without fear and it ensures that consumers and manufacturers can move goods and services across those borders freely, so the digital service's chapter is huge part of usmca, again great work by the trump administration and leaders in getting that done. ashley: great stuff, we ran out of time, i wanted to get into the european tax issue, we will save that for next time because we know that isn't going away any time soon, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: much appreciated.

the dow surging into the close, up more than 230,000, now 29,261. new streaming service peacock soon to be digital home of the office, just to name one, rival netflix set to lose number one tv draw by year's end but netflix not taking the new competition line down, no way, what the original king of content is doing to corner the entire binge-watching market, we will get into that, the claman countdown is coming right back.

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streaming wars as rival peacock debuts forthcoming digital service to invest as original king of content making press and all things binge-watching, partnering ben and jerry's on new ice cream flavor called what else, netflix and chill, it's packed with peanut butter, ice cream, salted pretzels and fudge browny, all major food groups, all things netflix, with that said, connell mcshane, i have a feeling you're a netflix binge-watcher. >> that was good, that was very, very funny, ashley. it's just you. they use every marketing tool you can use there, work them all in together. one of the many things they talked about is the idea that

they'll be more tax cuts at some point in the future, the president campaigns in 2020 race on the idea of tax cuts 2.0, anyway, gerber norquist is on and more, we will have that, maybe some more records, impeachment trial, there's enough going onto get us through the -- ashley: i would say you're right, you have about 13 minutes to finish netflix movie and you'll be on tv. let's check the big board, look at this, we are surging into the finish up 238 points now on the dow, thank you very much, it's been a good day and picked up steam, the s&p and the nasdaq all looking like we will finish with records across the board, we shall see, coming up next, today's councildown --

countdown's closer says reliable income, reliable income, the claman count-down coming right back

ashley: closing bell rings in ten minutes from now, we are near session highs, the dow to top 29,000 for second straight day in a record, two record closes in a row on hand for dow and s&p 500, s&p about to close 3300 for the first time ever and you're getting the kind of point we are making, the fifth time this year the s&p 500 and nasdaq have closed record high of the year, we are already all the way up to what is it, january the 16th, all right, bringing the drama, charlie gasparino in the studio apparently foreshadowing major layoffs. you join us on the countdown, you are laughing, they don't

know what we are talking about before the break. [laughter] >> i don't want to laugh into this segment, losing a job is a serious thing, people inside viaco, in that the merger layoffs, they put the companies together, cost cuts which translate into layoffs that the post merger layoffs began yesterday, the first cuts started wednesday and to my understanding it was people in advertising, distribution and sales and here is where you know more is coming, bob, the ceo of cbs viacom will be meeting with top executives and vp's and they'll be planning out strategy for further cuts going forward, what we understand in the near term, don't ask me to define near term -- ashley: whatever the heck that is. >> 6 months or so, we are talking hundreds of cuts, long-term much more than that, you combine them both, 15, like

25,000 people, we will talk about a lot going forward, we should point out that they have cbs viacom has no comment but this is happening. expected, we were first to report it was to happen before merger was completed, it was completed before the end of the year, again not a story i like doing. ashley: you get two companies merging. >> it's a lousy word, wall street, we have to report this because this is interesting, leads to higher stock prices, i want to switch gears to i don't know what was funnier yesterday larry kudlow's -- ashley: denial. >> or donald trump and tax cut, he said he was better than lincoln. ashley: well, okay, his opinion. >> better than george washington. george washington beat the british, he beat hillary. ashley: yeah. >> kind of equal. ashley: it's a wash. >> larry kudlow was more insane,

i did a story that moved markets the trump administration is planning fiscal stimulus to roll out during the year, maybe part of the budget, i threw out things and i'm getting from congressional sources. ashley: payroll taxes. >> that's what they were talking. i wasn't specific, so larry gets out there and just so you know, i helped secure the interview for liz, do the interview, larry is an old friend of mine, he gets and respond to the question by denying that they are doing it but confirming that they're doing it. ashley: he said, charlie, good friend of mine, he's well over his skis on this one. >> what did he say? ashley: tell me. >> he was going to cut taxes ordered by the president to cut taxes. i was like, you know, listen, here is the thing i would say, you know, maybe he's off of game a little bit. ashley: excited.

>> big day, not really -- not very focused. the one thing i will tell you this and people should know about when they roll out this stuff, this is all about pr, it's about managing the news, when we break a story like that the administration hates it because we've screwed up -- ashley: ahead of them. >> yesterday was supposed to be about the trade deal which, you know, like i said, again, he was masterful and hysterical with stuff about lincoln and everything, i couldn't stop listening to that. it wasn't supposed to be stepped on by the -- the fiscal stimulus. ashley: i understand. >> that's coming next year. >> is it going to happen, you need a full congress, you need the entire congress for it to happen. ashley: yeah. >> a lot of it is pr that they'll want to roll out maybe as the, you know, impeachment stuff goes on, maybe if the markets start to cool and people start seeing economic slowdown, you say throw this out there, it helps markets, just remember,

that's -- ashley: denied it and confirmed it in the same breath. >> he didn't denied it. ashley: you're getting ahead of yourself. >> ahead of him. ashley: charlie gasparino, great stuff as always, never over your skis, let's take a look at nike, nike shares moving slow motion this hour, considers ban on nike's vapor fly shoe, i don't know if you have those. unique design provides unfair advantage to runners, nike put this out, gerri willis live on the floor of the new york stock exchange, gerri. >> so they have a foam and carbon fiber plate layer in the mid sole when you're running, you lose less of the energy of every step and rebounds more into your foot, your springier and move faster and as a matter of fact two record-breaking marathon champions wore the very shoes you're looking at right

now which retail $250 as i saw on the web today, people are all upset, they are asking for the shoe to be banned and on the other hand you can buy them and win the marathon, that's the solution, that's what traders are looking at today, i have to tell you much to do about nothing, i think it's an exciting new product and led to the first sub 2-hour marathon ever, yes, yes. love that. back to you. ashley: yeah, i have done a couple of marathon, i'm not bragging because i barely made it around, gerri, great ad for nike, they are so good that are even banned, that's the big advertising, anyway, gerri willis, appreciate it. >> okay. ashley: markets continue to rise, today's countdown closer says the need for reliable income is rapidly increasing and he has the stock picks to keep your portfolio rock solid, sound goods, we are joining by investment management executive,

managing director john crosswell, john, thank you so much for joining us, the need for reliable income is increasing, explain. >> yeah, look, investors have typically gotten with rates lower for longer, we just feel strongly that investor will in the future need more of that income allocation from their equities. so, in addition to growth, you really need to look at equity allocation as a generator of total return and income. within that, there is some great sectors to consider. ashley: let's get to it. how do i do it? what is the play? >> traditional equity income sectors, traditionally things like utilities. we really like reits, real estate eninvestment trusts. we like midstream energy companies. some people call them traditionally mlps. these are pipeline companies, very reliable, most reliable

plays within the energy patch. ashley: anything else you like, john as a good hedge you like some of the things you're looking at? >> i think if you look at two companies we're talking about today, prologis, energy transfer, prologis is robust warehousing, and distribution center. jugs a great story. evergreen story around changing consumer habits. it has incredible development pipeline. not only has growth but defensive characteristics. energy transfers, that mlp pipeline has a phenomenal portfolio. a huge yield, distribution yield of about 9%. well-covered. cap-ex, capital expenditures in the midstream. energy pace has been enormous. those are starting to change. what you see with energy transfers, free cash flow will be dramatically higher over 2020, 2021. we think that provides wonderful

backdrop for great equity income to compliment income you may get in your fixed income portfolios. ashley: what you're amazing is you're speaking, dow up 267 points. it is another record close. hard to get against this market right now as we see confetti come down on another record day. do you, is the market worrying you? should you just go with it? >> a lot of people like to be contrarian, right? they say this rally won't last. buy what i'm talking about. we couldn't talk down the market. we love the fundamentals. we don't see recession on, on the horizon. we wouldn't advocate to sell all the growth stocks. we're saying that to add equity income along with existing portfolio, is a nice way to provide a total return. maybe you're doing that with new money or maybe you are taking some gains off the table. just very compliment what is going on. ashley: john, thank you very much. you may have seen the banner. alphabet, parent company of

google, now hitting one trillion dollar valuation. get the confetti ready. [closing bell rings] the dow closing above 29,000 for second straight day. s&p above 3500. nasdaq great session that will do it for "the claman countdown. melissa: two days of victories. all major averages closing at record highs as the senate approves the usmca trade deal. of a day after president trump signed a new trade deal with the china. president trump answers questions in the oval office. we'll bring all the headlines at this hour. the dow, up 268 points, second record in a close. i'm melissa francis. they're not worried about impeachment. connell: not at all today. not worried about anything way market is performing. welcome to "after the bell." record close for s&p. nasdaq, fifth for both indexes so far this yea