brian sullivan, thank you so much.t holiday. >> you too. >> have a wonderful holiday and much more ahead. stay with us. ♪ you, you ain't alone ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. >> the true means of the day is often found in the eyes of a child. some are lucky jus

cnbc's brian sullivan is here with what's moving your money. buyer's remorse already?ory you just did was a great return, right? that's good to hear in the holiday season. let me give you some good news first. so far americans have spent about $25 billion shopping for the holiday season. that is up about 15% from last year. that's good news. what you referred to is that returns are also up. in fact, about 21% from just four years ago. so people are spending more but i guess they get home and think, what in the heck was i thinking when i bought that? and they return it. it's not just an odd stat. it hurts retailers because they have to eat the cost usually and then deeply down it to move it. we're spending more. but the retailers are taking a lot more stuff back. >> and speaking of returns, this is fascinating, "consumer reports" did a little survey of what we do with those unwanted gifts. >> about 83% of people either made the most of it or just kind of kept it in a closet, right? they either dealt with it -- >> five years from now, you throw it away. >> yeah. and then

with your cnbc market wrap, i am brian sullivan. >>> welcome back to "hardball." iowa really deserve to hold the first presidential nominating contest? a lot of people have been saying lately that it doesn't, including a university of iowa professor who's lived in the state for 20 years and writes, "in a perfect world, no way would iowa ever be considered representative of america or even a small part of it. there are few minorities, no sizable cities, and the state's about to lose one of its five seats in the u.s. house because its population is shifting. still, thanks to a host of nonsensical political precedents, whoever wins the iowa caucuses in january will very likely have a 50% chance of being elected president 11 months later. go figure." is it time for another state to be first in the nation? joy-ann reid is managing editor of the grio and an msnbc contributor. erin mcpike is the national political reporter for real clear politics covering the 2012 gop race. here's the article headline, "iowa the over." in the atlantic, ari melber writes, "this year the i

it's time now for business. >> let's get a check on business with cnbc's brian sullivan.y's is now joining the s&p and it sounds like they're sounding a warning on europe. what does it mean? >> what it means is it's a typical monday, guys. every monday, what's the new euro threat? this is moody's coming out and basically saying hey, we'll follow up on what s&p said, the other big rating agency last week. the nasty downgrade and the credit rating of the euro zone nations and get their stuff -- that's how they put it, they're trying to get their stuff together, but it's kind of hard when everyone has a different idea of what they need to do and that's really what the situation is. >> you know, brian, on "the new york times" story on the front page, they talked like they missed the bank meltdown and they missed the meltdown at m.f. global. the more things change the more they stay the same. >> it's like football, right. nobody likes the refs until they make a call that helpers on hurts their team. moody's been slammed over the housing and m.f. and everything else, they still

here's brian sullivan with a cnbc market wrap.noon and thank you very much. we have been losing steam all afternoon long. bank of america down below $5 a share dragging down the dow industrials and the s&p and the nasdaq that are down as well. making concerns about the possibility of a break up and at least he mentioned it which is something his predecessors don't call and would not even do. they are losing steam. santa claus apparently stuck in the chimney and no rally today. we will take a short break and martin bashir will be back after this. hen you pour chunky beef wh country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups. >>> we are just a few short hours away from the house voting on the bill put forward this weekend by the senate to ex

were >>> brian sullivan is here with a look at the market. >> the day after thanksgiving was a good day for retailer, hopped up optimism for the whole holiday san, unfortunately there is one big name thought that is not participating and that is sears holdings, the parent company of sears, of course, but also kmart. they said that holiday sales were just terrible, falling more than 5% year-over-year and they are going to have to close 100 to 120 sears and/or kmart stores which means layoffs. chris, as far as the overall holiday sales numbers go, we are not sure, expectation those with gain 2%. not a lot of cheer at sears. >> thanks for the report. >>> $10 million has been spent on advertising in iowa alone for the republican bus what's it buying them? >>> plus, we are looking at one of the great grassroots camp pains. how a race for california governor became one of the nastiest contests in history and forever linked hollywood and liberal politics. you are watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. acro am, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on

. >>> i'm brian sullivan with your cnbc market wrap, and apparently the big guy is stuck in a chimneyng up hope of a santa claus rally. the dow fell 100 points, the s&p down 14, the nasdaq off 32. it was banks that led the way lower, and it was on the word that the federal reserve had failed to convince regulators in switzerland to relax capital requirements for the next rounds of reform. anyway, retailers struggled on word that huge black friday discounts and demand are resulting in a surprisingly large slump in pre-holiday sales. but if you're an investor in wynn dixey supermarkets, congrats. that stock soared 70% after buy low agreed to buy it for $760 million in cash. airline stocks slipped despite a midday dip in oil profits. and some big breaking news after the bell. at&t giving up on its bid to buy t-mobile. it's accusing government regulators that moved to block the merger are refusing to accept the speed at which the industry is growing. that is it from cnbc, first in business worldwide, now back to "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." newt gingrich returned to an old

. >>> welcome back to morning joe, get a quick check on business before the bell, brian sullivan, livey, man? >> one of those weeks probably not expecting a whole lot in the way of the stock market, got some italian bond options, i'm sure that's your lead story as well. >> the reverend just explaining that to me. >> hey, good morning, italian bond auction. >> boom. >> we are watching i think is federal worker pay. story in the "usa today," the gapes in the fed worker pay were the slow nest a decade but headline aside, the actual data is that fed worker pay continues to grow at a faster pace than private sector. the annual fed wage is $76,000, another 28,000 kicked in in benefits and pension benefits, medical, dental, whatever. so if you want to be a worker, let's say an auto mechanic, you might want to work for the federal government because the auto mechanic's pay in fed government has gown $10,000 in the last five years. so, be a at that time tent attorney, auto mechanic or cook in a prison for the federal government and you're probably doing pretty well. >> those respect terribly ap

let's get a check before the bell, cnbc's brian sullivan. he is live at the nasdaq. ge gain yesterday, up nearly 500 points because the central banks are going to get together in a room, kind of a disco inferno, a fiscal infusion of cash. >> right, baby. >> yeah, and they're going to turn that mother out. when i mean mother, i mean the markets. and we certainly did rise yesterday. we had some better news lately, guys. i know people hate to talk about good news, but i'm not afraid to say it, things are slowly getting better. even though unemployment benefits this week were back above 400, the overall trend, the four-week trend, look at the average, has been down. everything coming in, all of the dirt -- any wonky data you want, guys, has come in better than expected. and i have to tecum bridge with your previous guest. he missed the two most important bands in my humble view, "television," number one blam-rock band and the band i would nominate to be the theme band of d.c., "the stooges." >> there you go. >> that's a guy who should be reporting financial news. >> this

time for a check on businessç before the bell with cnbc's brian sullivan. ning. >> good morning. you know, don't expect a lot of shares being traded today. there is a little news to watch. been a lot of concern out there about china. well, the news agency is saying that china's growth should be above 9% again for next year. i don't necessarily buy it that much. they're going to have to do some things like cut rates like our fed did. a lot of bank concerns out there. still, that china news may help elevate us here in the last trading day of 2011. maybe push the dow even further into positive territory for the year. that's probably going to be the main piece of news today. >> 9% is a big number though china came out and admit ted is fais -- admitted it is facing quote down side pressure next year. >> a company called career bliss surveys hundreds of thousands of employees around the world and they've got the five happiest companies to work for where the employees sing and dance their way through the hallways. >> sure. >> number five is a german company with bi