this is a big call from bill ackman. >> strong words there. >> yeah. two hours ago, holding an impromptu news conference, handling two big issues. guns and the fiscal cliff, now just 12 days away. john harwood is live at the white house. john, first off, what did the president have it say about gun control? >> he headed joe biden to look into places where laws can be strengthened on guns. on mental health. on record sharing, all of the things that are related and called into question by the tragedy in newtown. he said he did not renounce his statement in the 2008 campaign that second amendment is an individual right, not just a right for militias or armed forces. but he stlaid there is a lot of room left. >> i said i'm willing to make some cuts. what separates is us probably a few hundred billion dollars. the idea we would put our economy at risk because you can't bridge that gap doesn't make a lot of sense. >> brian, sorry, that's a soundbite related to the fiscal cliff. of course the president also had comment about that. he said that republicans sim

stay tuned for bill ackman's interview. he'll talk about his position on herbal life, having just made this presentation. and then we think speaker baining is going to talk in the 1:00 hour. for now we'll turn it over to "fast money halftime" over at hq. >> thanks very much. welcome to the halftime show. it's a mixed day thus kwar on wall street. the s&p is hanging on to the flat line, just ticking positive. ackman unplugged. the hedge fund manager speaks to us live after sending herb al life shares plunging. we're also going to reveal one of the worst trades of 2012 coming up. first our top story, the markets and the cliff. all eyes on the nation's capital as the house is set to vote on speaker boehner's so-called plan b. it comes as the two sides seem to be moving apart and it your money caught in the middle. john harwood has the very latest on what could happen today. >> we've got the house of representatives preparing to vote on what speaker boehner calls plan b, to ins lut it it has also spending cuts to win over repub

ackman because after that interview, bill ackman talked to kate kelly and said he is not in any sort of options strategy. yes, there was unusual activity in the terms of the puts that expire this friday but as for mr. ackman, he says he is not involved with any of those. >> is it possible that other people could be aware that he was going to do something like this? >> the question is that illegal? it is not. if bill ackman said -- if i'm bill ackman, jim cramer, imcome out with a neg tifr position on herbalife, you can go out and do whatever you want with that? >> yes. now, obviously, one of the things that you know about, there's a fomentation rule in 13 b. driving the stock down, someone to could say it is manipulation. johnson may not have his facts right. johnson has been on "mad money" a number of times. this is a total battleground. merrill lynch reity traits does make a lot of money. herb greenberg done fabulous work here. in the end, ackman is saying all they are doing is selling product from distributor to distributor and that is a ponzi scheme because it doesn't end with cus

you had bill ackman come out last week. u had whitney tilson say today, yes, i'm shorting the stock also and ackman's analysis was some of the best research he said he'd seen in years. herbalife is not taking this situation lightly, and they are really doing all they can here to try to instill some sort of investor confidence within -- within the investor community, but, you know, whether that happens obviously remains to be seen. >> 342 slides will do that to you, steven. i can get the investment banking and i can understand the buyback and the analyst day. trying to get my head around the hiring of david boies' law firm. >> it's unclear what is going to come from that relationship, but i think one thing and the grand takeaway is herbalife is pulling out all the stops here to try to instill confidence, that the stock slide here has gone too far too fast and that they are a sustainable business model. analysts have come out in defense of herbalife and say, you know something, the company has reported better than expected ear

talking about bill ackman's latest short target which is herb herbalife. came on our air earlier to refute charges that the company is nothing more than a pyramid scheme. >> this is about bill ackman's business model and appears to be another attempt to illegally manipulate the market by a group of short sellers. here's what we know and let me give think quickly. an extraordinary number of puts on our stock were due to expire this fry. we previously learned this activity was pegged at some kind of, quote, significant event. mr. ackman suddenly announces he will make a presentation on herbalife on thursday. the day before the puts expire. now we know what this has been going on for in the shadows, as we say, for the last eight months. this has been ridiculous what's happening here. >> bill ackman called me shortly after that johnson interview, and he wanted to make a couple of points. first of all, he says he has no put options in herbalife, only a short sale position, only an equity position. he says he's never spoken to another short seller about the stoc

. >> bill ackman, thank you for joining us. back to you guys. >> andrew, thank you very much. to kate kelly now because herbalife is responding and kate has late-breaking details on that. kate? >> thank you, sue. just to reiterate, response to ackman from herb al life. saying mr. ackman has previously said to beware of companies. we asked to be part of the call today, he refused. his miss statements are mistakes are too numerous to address immediately. once again, michael johnson, their ceo yesterday, called claims being called bogus, add matly denied they are a pyramid scheme. sounds like we will hear more in the days to come. >> i wonder if they will address the issue ever buying back their own stock with which mr. ackman says they are doing today. >> a perfect storm is brewing in washington and at this hour. the house gets set to vote on plan b which the white house has said is a nonstarter. house speaker boehner will hold a news conference in about 15 minutes or so. we will take it live here. first, to john hart wood at the white house. john? >> sue, we've had a pretty rel

bill ackman came out with a short and said it is a pyramid scheme. >> the last 24 hours have been a doozy for rimm. the stock surnled as it lost less money that forecast. josh brown on twitter was like, don't print the shirt yet, sulli. it changed in revenue model and stock fell. down again today. rim ceo was saying basically everything's fine because the blackberry 10 will be a game-changer. so let us bring in the aformentioned josh brown. he made big bet on rim. and i want it mention josh to our viewers. some on twitter didn't understand it. it wasn't, pick any stock you want. we gave you guys either boring slow growth stocks or high risk names to choose from. i want it make sure everybody knows that. it wasn't like this is some great pick you picked out of 5,000 stocks. >> no. if i today do it again, without knowing what happened in the year since, i would probably still pick something like this in a contest. you have to pick something that is going to be really high bet why and also buynary. hero or zero. to pick something like apple, which everyone already loved at the time. >> well,

kate that broke the news that bill ackman is short herbalife be sure to tune in when bill ackman will talk about the short. another first on cnbc interview. you want to tune in for more on this developing story. dr. j, you are often in momentum trades. this is one you are partaking in? >> no. for the exact same reasons that dan probably is not short this one. it was too confusing. i mean, yes, there were a lot of puts that traded, but again, they can trade on the bid, which means they were sold, that's what dan saw, that's what i saw. so, to us, it didn't -- that wasn't the drtrigger. i want to see people wbuying pus on the offer. and obviously tomorrow, just ahead of expiration, that's when the unarer really meets the road. >> dr. j, thank you for coming by. john najarian of option monster. let's separate out whether or not you want to be short. the fundamental case and karen, i turn to you, but i know you've been gnc, some sort of a competitor to herbalife. this company has been in business for 32 years. most recently, they've put up 15 straight quarters of positive earnings surpris

bill ackman of hedge fund pershing square called the nutrition company a pyramid scheme and presented reasons why he's shorting the stock. michael johnson, the ceo of rbalife, issued a statement denying herbalife's business model is built on a pyramid scheme. johnson is also asking the sec to investigate extraordinary put options buying the stock that expire tomorrow. puts are bets the stock is more likely to go down than up. it was a slippery second quarter for darden and scholastic. earnings disappointed at both companies. at darden, income fell by 37%. last month darden, which runs olive garden and red lobster, faced pushback after its ceo said it would hire more part- time employees due to the expense of health care reform. superstorm sandy and failed promotions also hurt profits. meanwhile, at publisher scholastic, profits are down 25% after disappointing sales of the book turned movie "the hunger games." the company said it will freeze hiring as part of an overall effort to save 20 to 30 million dollars. a picture perfect problem for popular instagram. the photo sharing tool rec

you and bill ackman of pershing and i love this group of people. t, okay, aside from you two. >> we've got mark la serrie at avenue. tony james the president of blackstone. obviously you mentioned bill at pershing. that is one, that luncheon is one of the auction items. liz: where is the lunch will be. we made it look like in my grandmother's saskatchewan. >> we'll do where the person wants in new york. we can't wait. we're very excited. took one phone call to bill, mark and tony to say this is for the rfk foundation. when you see things they're doing especially with medicine going to haiti and things like that, virtually actually. web-based ideas, it is just an easy sell. for me i was named after her dad. i'm robert. my brother is john, born 62 and '60. easy to be part of this. we called up paul volcker, obviously everyone in the country wants to hear paul's view on different things. liz: here's why. he solved stagflation in the '80s and saved our country in so many ways. interest rates were high but he figured it out. this is an incredible experie

reporting that the company has hired a legal firm to help the company defend itself against attacks by bill ackman>> yeah, i think a lot of folks jumped on this because of the success that ackman had. they hope that whitney tillson getting on it would mean the same. it hasn't. the law firm, these are the guys that represented bush -- rather, gore against bush and microsoft versus the united states. they're the who's who of companies. >> david b 0oyce, he's the fame attorney. >> that's right. this is not playing around. this is going after ackman. there could be some tortious interference here. we'll have to see how big they can make. >> barry manilow, really? >> that was a song. >> come on. >> i'm with weiss on that. i don't know. >> everybody is thinking it. he said it. >> he's the man that wrote the song. >> christmas dinner with barry. >> here it is. >> we know what he got for christmas. >> it's an emotional time of year now. >> who gave it to him. >> we know what he got. >> are you going to let any lyrics come through? all right. we'll move on as "the wall street journal" highlights, the turf

about 12 bucks still below where it was when bill ackman famously came out with the presentation andefended the company. herbal life has gone back on the aggressive day january 10th. herbal life up one of the best performing in the market today. i have to correct something pete najarian said. you said we have no certainty. >> do that at your own risk. >> we have a lot of certainty. we are certain there is uncertainty . there you go. a great call actually. >> count on sully to shine some light. >> i'm tired. give me a break. >> i want to write that down. let's talk herbal life. it is not the only stock that's been hammered that's come back this week as the end of the year has approached. what in the world would do you with this one if anything? >> i think you've got a real shot here. i think jimmy cramer said it when he talked about tortious interference and so forth. basically they're going to be going after ackman and the folks that have come after them so aggressively. i think they've hired up david boyes law firm, did microsoft and the u.s. and bush vs. gore. this is the law firm

the big news, bill ackman taking a short position in this stock, making his case today, not only at the conference in the heart of new york city, but then on cnbc. the company coming out trying to defend itself, but you'll see shares of hlf, that being herbalife, still down 10% at this hour. let's bring in allen valdez from dme securities. let me just ask you first about this deal. i.c.e. and the nyse, you're a trader. you make your living down on the floor of this new york stock

also, herbalife is getting legal muscle to combat bill ackman's short posture against the company.he question is whether or not it's going to come to reinvestors. i'm down here at the stock exchange. back to you. >> lovely to see you, as ever. thank you very much. >>> gold trading close. we showed you a few moments ago t goldman sachs commodity index barely hanging on to gains this year despite a lot of losing bets, investors are still pumping billions into the sector. jackie deangelis is looking at the winners and losers. >> good afternoon. what we have seen a bit of a correction in commodities. if the index ends the year a little lower, it will be the first decline we've seen since 2008. but you're right, the commodities saw a lot of interest this year. money invested in commodity funds is up 86% year over year according to epfr global. what were some of the movers influencing the landscape? let's start with the laggards. coffee, sugar, cotton got hurt this year due to supply increases but the good news is that prices are close to the cost of production so analysts think that thi

. >> i'm going to be sitting down with bill ackman later today after his presentation for an interview you'll be able to see during the "fast money halftime report." >>> shares up for plaquerock unusually today. peter joins us from the jeffries trading floor today in new york. peter, you have a lot of different scenarios, but the most likely scenario that you think is that the blackberry fails, there is no acquisition on this and the cash firm continues? >> yeah. we think it costs about $1 billion to launch these devices. if successful, we think an access possibility goes up. if not, we see the company become much, much smaller a year from now. >> how do you measure success? and when we we know on this? >> we'll probably know around around/may next year. success would be call it 3 to 5 million units in the first quarter out of the gate and 5 million units plus after that. to us, that would be a very good launch. >> for anybody who is actually a blackberry user still, what do you say about these things? if there's a takeover, does that mean blackberry continues? what's the long-term out

bill ackman of pershing talking about the fact he thought it was a pyramid scheme. say in a negative way of herbalife. now reportedly working with a law firm on this so obviously you can see here right now is up about 7%. herbalife obviously says his whole attack is malicious and without basis. >>> we'll look at apple. apple on the move, one of the big tech movers. in this case a tech mover to the downside. tech-heavy nasdaq has been down half a percent. apple is down $4.54 at 515 and change. certainly, lori and tracy, nowhere near that $700 it was in the middle of september when we were talking about 800, a thousand. now everybody is hoping it holds the 500 mark. lori: you can't dip your toe into apple because even at 500 bucks a share it is still pretty rich. >> everybody still wants the product. it's a holiday gift. >> you hit the nail on the head nicole as always. back again in 15 with you. we were talking about this a little earlier. starbucks is urging washington to come together on the fiscal cliff literally. we have video from d.c. starbucks ceo howard schul

asked all night since joining here is bill ackman wrong with herbalalife, i believe he is. >> we shouldreface this by saying there's no -- >> he's communicating with michelle caruso cabrera at one point over twitter. >> yeah. i don't know. >> he's very active. it must have been a slow night in the robertson house. >> total ruse, question mark, question mark. just like your take on hlf cmcr to mention a few. >> green mountain? >> obviously. who is he referring to? >> someone may have said something. >> like a reply. if he's using hashmarks, what do you use that for? >> that's how you delineate a chain of -- a discussion. so everybody can use the same hash tag and see what other people are saying. >> no kidding. that's why i always see those weird things at the end that make no sense. >> yeah. >> really? >> like hash tag, what i'm talking about. >> should i use that on all my tweets? yeah. >> i don't -- hash tag, i don't understand twitter. if somebody wanted to respond, they would also say hash tag, i don't understand twitter. >> anyone in the twitter universe -- >> you could click it an

one, is dick sporting goods followed up by kohl's, grocery coupons, and don't tell ron johnson or bill ackmaney rounded out the top four. >>> tomorrow on "squawk box," negotiating a deal on the fiscal cliff. we'll talk about possible paths to a compromise with our guest host former treasury secretary larry summers. >>> plus, the ceo of caterpillar will give us the business perspective on the deficit disaster. you can't afford to miss "squawk box" tomorrow starting at 6:00 a.m. eastern. if you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 this morning, i'm going to trade in hong kong. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i

people who sell herbalife it is a system of belief and interesting to see how they counterattack bill ackmaneks ahead it is coming. >> yes. no. we are all hoping that activism has a long shelf life in 2013 because it has made fodder for a lot of news, especially the last couple of weeks. dennis, thanks for coming n >> appreciate t >> dennis berman of the "wall street journal.." >>> japanese yen a stellar runt last few mount, find out how the fiscal cliff in the u.s. could derail all of zwloochlt first, we will head live to washington where congress is returning to work after their christmas holiday. any hope of getting a fiscal cliff deal done in time? we are back after a quick break. and i'm here to tell homeowners that are 62 and older about a great way to live a better retirement. it's called a reverse mortgage. [ male announcer ] call right now to receive your free dvd and booklet with no obligation. it answers questions like how a reverse mortgage works, how much you qualify for, the ways to receive your money, and more. plus, when you call now, you'll get this magnifier with l.e.d. lig

they are not taking bill ackman's claims lying down.all and out stock brawl now over herbalife. although the stock has been whacked the last couple of weeks. it is coming back just under a 6% gain. >> when we come back, bernie madoff writing to our own scott cohn from prison. find out what he had to say. first, rick santelli's working on something for a little bit later on. rick. >>> >> yes. about exactly 600 seconds from now to be precise we're going to have harry clark. let's see, he's the president, the ceo, the founder of clark capitol management. we're going to talk tow him about the fcc. n no, not what's about in the airways. the fiscal cliff conditions. have we talked too much about them? no. come back in 600 seconds. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it

i interviewed bill ackman yesterday and he made a real case that this was a deceptive, fraudulent, companytalk about whether any of the stuff actually worked. >> we didn't even talk about that. it was almost like a public service message he was trying to deliver. almost less to do with an investment thesis but some of the other things. >> we've got to go. >> rick for the personal income numbers. >> income up 0.6%. spending up 0.4%. you know these numbers at least pass muster with regard to expectations. we're looking for up from both. the revisions were actually absolutely positive from unchanged on the income originally released up 0.1, and down 0.2 to down only 0.1. durable goods orders up 0.7. up 0.7 is also better than expected. and last month, was revised from unchanged up 1.1%. so these are pretty solid. if you take extransportation that was up 1.6. from my vantage point, don't see anything on the numbers that's horrible. i don't see the durable goods orders nondefense exaircraft for business capital spending but maybe steve will pull that one out. all in all, you know, we're down 18