eamon javers is covering the story tonight from washington.to see you, eamon. >> hi, sue. >> so if medical any is a fiscal conservative, how is that going to gel, or will it gel, with mr. trump's calls for massive infrastructure spending? >> yeah, that's going to be the fascinating point of tension. he's one of the members of the freedom caucus up on capitol hill. he's a republican from south carolina. very conservative. he's even billed himself as a member of the shutdown caucus. doesn't want to see any spending not paid for by any other spending cuts, traditionally. the question is, how is he going to view donald trump's infrastructure spending plans. will they be able to come up with a way to cut as much as they spend, and where will they find those other cuts. that's going to be on his plate in january. it's going to be a very, very tough task. >> then, on the other hand, eamon, you have the president-elect's criticism of some of the aerospace contracts we have. most importantly, the air force one deal that he claimed was $4 billion. how d

all right, eamon. thanks so much, as always. eamon javers in washington.o read more about the reported russian cyber ring, head to our website, nbr.com. >>> rite aid sells hundreds of stores to fred's pharmacy. as u.s. regulators begin to scrutinize the proposed merger between rite aid and walgreens, those two pharmacy chains have agreed to divest 865 stores in an effort to apiece antitrust concerns. fred's pharmacy will purchase those stores, long other assets for nearly $1 billion. shares of freds soared by 81%. rite aid and walgreens. >>> a worse than expected decline in sales for the oplay yogurt and progresso hurt results. >>> and shares fell billion 2.5% to $61.45. >>> restaurant chain operator darden restaurants posted earnings and revenue that were in line with expectations. the owner of longhorn steakhouse reported better than expected same-store sales as the company said it benefited from the strong performance of its olive guarden brand. shares rose to $75.74. >>> auto retailer, carmax, posted higher property and sales. the company also saw impr

eamon, what else was in the study today? >> hi, tyler.his was the lead of the "washington post" this morning. and bob woodward of woodward and bernstein fame is why this story is getting attention and because of the details you rattled off. this was the defense business board, experts brought in by the department of defense to analyze what was going on in terms of the back office employment, all the functions and accounting and business development functions of the pentagon that don't necessarily relate to fighting wars. one of the things they found in addition to those numbers that you just cited was that more than 1 million people are involved in that back office effort, as employees or contractors or nonuniform personnel. that is a big, big number. and it's bigger than anyone suspected. the ultimate conclusion here was that the u.s. government is spending a lot more for this back office stuff than anyone really new before this. >> well, what about the timing of all of this? why was this leaked now? >> yeah, you know, i talked to mia mc

eamon javers is in washington. eamon, is it possible wall street isn't understanding the incoming administration, if so how? >> hi, tyler. i talked to someone earlier this week who is very familiar with the trump administration who says they don't necessarily think wall street understands what trump is doing. they're operating under the assumption this will be a lot like republican administrations that we've seen in the past. that's not necessarily the case. this person is saying, bowing at the altar of free markets is out. companies have done things like offshoring jobs, tax inversions and the like. that will not necessarily fly in a trump administration, this person said. this is not going to be a traditional republican government. and citing trump's ability to go after and tweet after specific individual ceo's of specific individual companies. tyler, i should tell you, we got another example of that just this evening from donald trump who tweeted out, based on the tremendous cost and overruns of the lockheed mar

trade position around the world. >> eamon, thanks very much. javers reporting from washington. >>> finish line cuts its outlook for the year. and that's where we begin tonight's market focus. the athletic shoe retailer lowered its full-year earnings guidance after saying weak demand for apparel and accessories caused the company to post a bigger than expected loss. the company also saw revenue come in below estimates. shares fell more than 8% to $21 even. >>> winnebago saw its profit rise above expectations, thanks to strong demand for products in the company's toables division. but despite the upbeat results, winnebago fell 4% to $35.55. >>> japan device maker tdk says it plans to establish a strong presence in the sensor business to take over the u.s. smartphone chip maker. tdk will buy the apple parts supplier for about $1 billion. shares surged 17% on the news. to $12.75. >>> and stanley black & decker said it has entered into an agreement with door mccabba group to sell the majority of its lock and door businesses to the security firm for

thank you, eamon javers.ow let's send it over to our bob pisani on the floor with a special holiday trader tradition. bob? >> thanks very much, jon. for 140 years, it's ban tradition of singing and partying on the floor of the new york stock exchange on christmas eve. that tradition got a lot more sedate after the great depression, but one thing never changed. barbershop quartet singing and community singing. here's art cashin leading the annual rendition of "wait to the sun shines nellie." ♪ wait till the sun shines nellie and the clouds go drifting by ♪ ♪ we will be happy, nellie by and by down will the train wander sweethearts you and i ♪ ♪ wait till the sun shines nellie by and by ♪ >> whooo! >> merry christmas, everyone. merry christmas, david. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> merry chas. >> art cashin, old friend, merry christmas. it talks about sun coming out, clouds parting. you think a hot of the traders feel the u.s. economy, the clouds are going to part perhaps in 2017? w

eamon javers is in washington for us tonight.nd eamon, russia spent about $50 billion on defense last year, so what else did he say on this very expensive topic? >> reporter: well, vladimir putin wasn't shy about talking about that, and particularly about talking about all of the modernization that they have done in russia of their nuclear forces. and he also said that if there is a new arms race, which everyone's been talking about here over the past 24 hours or so -- he said if that is so, it's certainly not russia's fault. he pointed to the fact that the united states has been modernizing its nuclear forces and repositioning some of them as well, said russia is fully aware of that. and interestingly, given the history of the fall of the soerv soviet union and the huge spending in russia in the 1980s on weapons systems, he said to his domestic audience, we are going to be careful. if we are in a new arms race, we are not going to overspend here. we're not going to spend more than we can afford, so he's reassuring the domestic a

eamon javers has that. eamon. >> yeah, hi, sara.oming democratic governor-elect of north carolina has said that north carolina legislators will meet on tuesday to repeal that law known as hb2, that's the so-called bathroom bill that blocked the ability of transgender individuals to use government-owned bathrooms of the gender at which they identify. that coming from the incoming governor-elect of north carolina. of course that was a big measure in terms of provoking business opposition to doing business in north carolina. that's something that the incoming governor-elect says he wants to get resolved and get resolved soon, sara. looks like there might be some movement on that front starting tomorrow. >> all right. we'll continue to follow it. eamon, thank you. >>> let's send it over now to jon fortt with a look at what's coming up in the next hour on "squawk alley." good morning, jon. >> good morning, sara. well, the tax tiff between apple and the eu with ireland in the middle has heated up again. we will take a look at what's new t

eamon javers in midtown.his is the first day of a new trade moog and the postelection rally for the dow rolls on. broader markets mixed this morning but the dow is up 82 points now, officially with a 10% gain for the year. dow up 5% since election day and both the s&p and the nasdaq have seen gains of 3%. should investors expect more in a trump administration? here is the president-elect's pick for treasury secretary on squawk yesterday. >> our most important priority is sustained economic growth and i think we can get to 3%, 4% sustained gdp, critical for the country. our number one priority is tax reform. this will be the largest tax change since reagan. we've talked about this during the campaign, wilbur and i have worked very closely together on the campaign. we're going to cut corporate taxes, which will bring huge amounts of jobs back to the united states. >> joining us this morning the always outspoken grover norquist, the president of americans for tax reform. good to see you. good morning. >> good mo

&t and time warner were on capitol hill today, making the case for their proposed acquisition, and eamonavers was there. >> reporter: for randall stephenson and jeffrey buick us, the stakes couldn't have been higher today. an $85 billion deal up in the air and it's fate to be decided in a washington roiled by donald trump's populist campaign victory. >> do you think the mood of populism in this country is going to affect the possibility of this deal happening? >> no, i don't. i think the facts should become clear to everybody, and i think it will be good for consumers and good for competition. >> what do you make of donald trump tweeting out his criticism of individual companies that he doesn't like or thinks have done something wrong? are you worried about that as a leader in business, that this is something you have to focus on going forward? >> well, it's a complicated issue. >> reporter: for the most part, the senate subcommittee rolled out the welcome mat. >> one to the subcommittee on antitrust competition policy and consumer rights. >> reporter: stevenson and buickous laid out why

hey, eamon. >> reporter: that's right, carl.t getting news within the past couple minutes that the trump transition is creating an outside business advisory group calling it the president's strategic and policy forum to advise the president-elect and the president once he takes the white house on business issues. it's all about creating jobs. they say this organization will have its first meeting at the white house in the first week of february. a lot of the names on this outside council will be very familiar to cnbc viewers. these are some of the biggest names in business who will be advising donald trump including steven schwartzman of blackstone, paul adkins of potomac global partners, somebody people kept their eye on as an s.e.c. appointee, jamie diamond, barra, bob iger of walt disney company, doug mcmillan, the president and ceo of walmart, also on here, ginny romedy, the chairman, president, and ceo of ibm, of course jack wel welch, the former chairman and ceo of general electric. all those folks who will be advising don

eamon javers is standing by with washington. eamon, what did you hear? >> yeah, kelly.big military contingent there at mara lago today. a meeting with the president-elect. transition has given us a list of some of the officials there. admirals and air force generals briefing the president today. they said it was a bit of a two-part briefing. not exactly sure what was covered there. but when you look down the list, one name stands out to me immediately. lieutenant general jack weinstein, strategic deterrents and nuclear integration. 'tis previous job at the 20th air force, commanded all of the ballistic missile wings in the fair force. when we talked during the campaign, so much conversation about getting access to the nuclear codes. these are some of the generals and admirals who would provide donald trump with access to that. so obviously, they had a lot to talk about, strategic considerations around the world, in every region of the world, all of that will be under donald trump's purview, as of january 20th. so clearly a very important meeting. high-level group of mil

eamon javers in d.c. with the very latest from the hearing. eamon. >> hi, melissa.ave to say these two companies got the kid glove treatment today on capitol hill. there were some skeptical questions, mostly from the democrats going into this hearing. you saw some questions, particularly about how they would handle news coverage at cnn, which, of course, is owned by time warner once they're dealing with the trump administration and trying to get approval for this deal next year. i talked to randall stephenson in the hallway, the ceo of at&t, just before the hearing, and just after the hearing. here's one of the things he told me. >> the purpose in a news agency is to provide objective coverage of the news, period. why would that change, regardless of who is president or who owns cnn. objective news coverage is the objective. >> they will continue to be objective, moving forward. no matter what the trump administration says, no matter what donald trump himself may tweet. the other interesting one here was mark cuban. he ended up being sort of a surprise witness at th

there's randall stephenson talking to our own eamon javers.isten in. >> i have not had any contact with the trump administration. >> reporter: what do you think this political moment means for your merger? this is a huge deal, going to attract a lot of attention. obviously we've seen donald trump out there tweeting his criticisms of individual companies. >> actually, we're looking forward to telling the story about the consumer benefits of this thing putting these two companies together, the innovation that will come from that. we think it's a really good story. actually anxious to get in front of the department of justice and begin to talk about the facts of the deal. >> reporter: do you think you can avoid fcc scrutiny of this deal at this point and stick with the doj, how do you think that will shake out? >> we don't know yet. we're going license by license trying to discern which license will be transferred if any. that will dictate whether the fcc reviews it or not. >> reporter: thank you very much. appreciate it. >> as you heard there, e

eamon javers has the details and joins us now. eamon? >> hi, kelly.he fimrm that found this is called white ops. it's being called very credible. what white ops says they found is a massive botnet that's inserts itself right in the middle of the digital video advertising ecosystem. the way that video works, all the videos are matched online instantly between buyers and sellers. they say that this entity called methbot is making between $3 million and $5 million a day and they're using bots to send in reports to this online ecosystem, claiming that they have watched these video ads, and therefore, they say that ultimately, it's about 300 million non-human views a day are being generated by this massive botnet. they say also involved in this are 571,904 real i.p. addresses, all involved in gaming the system. ultimately, the advertisers and ad buyers who are on the hook here. they are paying for views of digital video they think are real, but ultimately, white ops says, are nothing but bot views. i've talked to some folks in the industry today who say th

eamon javers in washington with more on that story. eamon. >> yeah, hi, david.arkets may be watching this and feeling like this nuclear discussion comes out of nowhere. so let me walk you through the chronology between yesterday and today to how we got to this point where we are this morning. starting with vladimir putin, he was speaking in russia to a group of military officials. it's an annual address he gives on military issues. here's what vladimir putin said in that speech. he said we need to enhance the combat capability of strategic nuclear forces primarily by strengthening missile complexes that will be guaranteed to penetrate existing and future missile defense systems. donald trump responding perhaps to that a few hours later in any case he tweeted this, the united states must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. note there that both putin and trump are using that word capability in terms of what each respective government is able to do. now, this morning on "morning joe"

>> eamon, there's no question about this. president-elect trump launched his campaign on a very sort of profound anti-immigrant sentiment. over the course of the campaign, he talks about a full muslim ban throughout the campaign he sort of pandered to the so-called alt-right and as soon as he's in a position to make powerful decisions, he appoints steve bannon. his selection for attorney general is jeff sessions. you do not have to look far to understand the ways in which the trump campaign and now the trump transition team has not just been pandering to what folks are referring to as the white-alt or nationalists, they have them involved in the messaging involved in the campaign. we should understand the strategy for what it is because that's the only way for to us do two things. number one, realize white nationalism and white supremacy is a feature of the american voting demographic but then, two, how do we address those things and excavate that hate and bring it out to the fore and be able to address it in a way that resol

. >> eamon, we have news that he's putting together some more top lieutenants for his overall cabineteme. it involves carl icahn, a billionaire investor, a man supporting him for the better part of the last two years. also peter navarro on the trade side of things. what is he hoping to achieve with these types of appointments? >> with carl icahn, you get the sense that what donald trump is doing here is putting some official window dressing around the role that icahn already played with trump. the two men are very close. trump relies on him for advice and council. he was an early supporter of donald trump. also a millionaire. donald trump respects that, his business accomplishments. this gives him a role as special adviser, where icahn won't take a salary but will be able to continued to play the role that he's been playing so far, which is putting a bug in donald trump's ear on issues that he thinks are important, particularly on regulation. the danger for the trump team and this pick is the conflict of interest question which continues to swirl around the incoming trump administrati

i'm eamon javers in washington.report now from reuters about the international messaging service known as swift. reuters citing an interview with the head of global security in which that official says that since the famous bank of bangladesh hacking incident earlier this year, there have been a meaningful number of other attacks on clients' banks. banks that use the swift financial messaging system. he's also saying about a fifth of those hacking attempts have resulted in stolen funds. that's according to steven guilderdale, head of customer security program. no information on exactly how many hacks we're talking about, which banks or how much money has been stolen. but this is obviously a significant development in this ongoing global investigation. >> but it's also -- i know we have to go. it's bank of new york lost the ability to use the system earlier. it's going to affect settlement times. a lot at stake. michael, thank you for joining us on "closing bell," as well. "fast money" starts now. >>> "fast money" st

eamon javers has more on the story. >> hi, melissa.are republicans in the united states senate. that could be something to watch for as a potential problem for rex tillerson's confirmation if he indeed is donald trump's pick for secretary of state. start with what donald trump said yesterday on fox news about rex tillerson. he didn't come out and explicitly endorse him for the position, but he did have some praise for tillerson. here's what he said. >> in his case, he's much more than a business executive. i mean, he's a world-class player. he's in charge of i guess the largest company in the world. it's been -- a company that's been unbelievably managed. and to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players. and he knows them well. he does massive deals in russia. he does massive deals for the company. not for himself. >> but it's his connections in russia and specifically his relationship with putin that has some senators on the republican side concerned. take a look at this tweet from marco rubio, who said being a friend of v

. >>> eamon javers. >> brian, this could be day tonight brewing between carlos slim.e're hearing and learning the two men had dinner in florida. that's donald trump's resort down there on saturday night. obviously, carlos slim in mexico, the billionaire. antagonist of donald trump's throughout the campaign. a supporter of hillary clinton. trump giving a statement to the "washington post," saying he described his visit with slim as a lovely dinner with a wonderful man. you wonder what the implications of that lovely dinner with that lovely man are for business for carlos slim and for the presidency of donald trump as he moves forward on issues like the wall between the united states and mexico. reorganizing the nafta free trade agreement, and general relationship between the united states and mexico overall. so an interesting meeting between carlos slim and donald trump, brian. >> eamon javers. thank you very much. >>> guys, carlos slim, you know, may not be a household name. a., the richest man in mexico, controls or owns chunks of almost every large mexican corporati

barclays will defend the complaint and seek dismissal at earliest opportunity. >> eamon javers with theatest. >>> joining us now to discuss their thoughts on the markets is chief investment officer who joins us along with jeremy hill who is here. welcome guys. so what do you think about the fact that we are not closing with 20,000 but trying to hang on to 19,900. the trump trade has been more a psychological trade. it is prospects obviously of less ownerous tax regimes and regulation, all of those things we talked about. it has ignored some inconvenient economic. we saw some of those today. even though we had a nice gdp print i think going forward we are looking at the consumer and asking questions whether we are at full employment or not. that is a big effect on monetary policy which we had forgotten about in the last two weeks. >> you have been -- financials we talked about this last has worked out. goldman leading this rally higher. for how much longer are we getting a little overheated? >> the market might be a little bit ahead of itself. we don't this can that financials are. there

>> reporter: well, eamon, it is a very cold morning. this christmas market was attacked, it is getting ready to reopen again, all the shutters remain closed. it will probably open up in the next couple of hours. as for the manhunt, this gentleman arrested yesterday, excuse me on the evening of the attack, he was released and this isis claim still kind of happenings in the air here. it hasn't hit home exactly what happened and what the political knock on effects are going to be. this is a country like the rest of europe beset by far right political movements. even before the dustthon attack settled two fights ago, the far right elements in this country were already blaming chancellor angela merkel for these attacks, saying her open door policy where she let in what turned o out to be a million refugees, asylum seekers, that has made a passive cause for her. she faces elections next year. so while this pakistani man turns out wasn't the culprit the political effect hasn't been felt yet. >> thank you for that. >>> the ber will be attack le

eamon javers is standing by. >> the u.n.council has passed a resolution in new york demanding israel stop building settlements on occupied palestinian territory. the united states abstained. you remember there has been a diplomatic back and forth with donald trump, israel and the obama administration. donald trump and israel had called on the united states to veto the measure. the u.s. representatives at the security council abstained. that's where this one ends up. we'll see this shift of u.s. foreign policy now as donald trump takes over as president on january 20th. but we have got this awkward period of time now where donald trump as president-elect is making his foreign policy views very, very public at the same time the obama administration is carrying out u.s. foreign policy, guys. back over to you. >> ayman, thank you. >>> the dow and the quest for 20,000, we might have lost sight of how far we have come in the last two years. today marks the second anniversary of dow 18,000. what lies ahead in the new year. let's br

." >> scary stuff, eamon. there are a lot of different hackers out there. >> reporter: that's right, criminals are looking to profit by stealing your data online, get into your bank account. but remember, what we've seen recent in the headlines are state sponsored attacks. that's what hit sony pictures entertainment, allegedly the north koreans and now allegedly the russians hacking into the dnc and john podesta's e-mails. they have a lot more money and resources to deploy. they're looking for different things, ultimately. >> would a government sponsored hacker ever want to come after me, a regular john doe who doesn't work for the dnc or for the government or for a big corporation like sony? >> reporter: well, it depends on who you knew, who is in your circle of friends. they may see you as somebody to get access to somebody else. ultimately what we're looking at is the weaponization of privacy. what happened to the dnc and john podesta is this idea of taking private information and putting it out there in an

. >> let's go to eamon javers who is at trump tower in new york. again, as we were just discussing with phil lebeau, you wonder what other companies are thinking about in that regard. are they going to want to have to please the white house in order to keep jobs here in the united states? >> reporter: that's a really good question. you also look at the interaction between donald trump there and the ceo of united technologies as they were sort of talking back and forth on the stage. donald trump maybe reviewing some things about that conversation that the ceo didn't want to have revealed. if you are president-elect of the united states you get to do that. presidents and president elects love to have moments to check off a campaign promise. it sets the tone for the new administration coming in in january. you have to wonder here a little bit about this speech. i don't think i ever heard a president or president-elect say that he didn't remember making a campaign promise but saw it on television and then realized that he did, in fact, make that promis

our eamon javers is outside trump tow we are the latest. hey, eamon.

and museum curator eamon has their permission to test it. >> and the relic is just inside this?is. >> is that a modern script or an ancient script? >> no, it's a 12th century script. it says a piece of the wood of the true cross, and it was given to the king by the pope in 1110. >> so we can date it at least back to 1110. >> the cross is believed to be cedar wood. and since its arrival in ireland, it has been carved up further to share with different churches. >> you can see it here in the back. >> oh, wow. >> again you can see a sample was taken from here. >> what kind of information do you have to say that this cross may have come from jerusalem? >> well, to my knowledge, cedar wood certainly wasn't available in ireland in the 12th century. it had to come from the middle east somewhere, from lebanon or israel. >> but could this be from first century jerusalem? the time has come to find out. (vo) it's that time of year again. when you realize you still didn't get quite what you wanted. that's why verizon has the best deals of the year on the best network. like a free smartphone

eamon javers has more. >> that's right. those are the reported settlements that we are hearing about here. let's walk through how the math breaks down. deutsche bank is paying $3.1 billion in a civil fine. the rest of that is going to be $4.1 billion in consumer relief. credit swuisse is paying 2.48 billion in the civil fine piece and $2.8 billion in consumer relief. that will be paid out at some point over time for mortgage backed security allegations dating back to before the financial crisis. this is a major settlement just before this obama department of justice leaves office and will start the new year under a donald trump department of justice once he is sworn in on january 20. >> sounds like they are working to get a lot of these taken care of in the final days of the obama administration. i wonder what happens with barclays. they are kind of the one who hasn't -- >> the one who said they are going to fight this. they ultimately were in negotiations for a settlement, maybe a similar deal to what we are seeing here. t

eamon javers will have details next. this is my retirement. retiring retired tires.nd i never get tired of it. are you entirely prepared to retire? plan your never tiring retiring retired tires retirement with e*trade. i'm in vests and as a vested investor in vests i invest with e*trade, where investors can investigate and invest in vests... or not in vests. sign up at etrade.com and get up to six hundred dollars. tadirectv now. stream all your entertainment! anywhere! anytime! can we lose the 'all'. there's no cbs and we don't have a ton of sports. anywhere, any... let's lose the 'anywhere, anytime' too. you can't download on-the-go, there's no dvr, yada yada yada. stream some stuff! somewhere! sometimes! you totally nailed that buddy. simple. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. >>> a key pick from the trump transition team, picking sean spicer as press secretary. there are still thousands of jobs left to fill. eamon javers has more on that. >> reporter: there are 4,000 jobs left to fill in the trump a

our eamon javers has the news. eamon? >> this is from the public national committee.theriy are officially naming roa mcdaniel and gordon paduchik to lead the republican national committee. also ohio state director bob paduchik of ohio, some rewards being doled out to those people who were crucial to the trump victory. >> did you say they were sharing the role? >> yeah, we have a deputy chair and deputy co-chair being named here. that's an interesting hybrid there in the leadership of the republican national committee. obviously, once you win the presidency, you take over the political party that you're from, and this is a sign donald trump is doing just that. >> meantime, that big tech summit at trump tower is just wrapping up. they discuss jobs and the economy with the president-elect. take a listen. >> you're doing well right now, and i'm very honored about the bounce. right now everybody has to like me at least a little bit, but we're going to try to have that bounce continue. perhaps even more importantly, we want you to keep going with the incredible innovation.

eamon javers is live with names and what this all means. >> we are getting new details now on this outsideiness advisory group. they're calling it the strategic and policy forum, the first meeting is going to be in february at the white house after donald trump is inaugurated as the president of the united states. look at the membership here of this new business group, and what you'll see is a lot of big names that will be familiar to cnbc viewers, including steven swartzman, the forum chairman. he's a black stone group, of course, and marry barra, jamie dimon, larry fink of blackrock, bob iger of the walt disney company. also on this outside advisory committee, doug mcmillan, the ceo of wall street. jim mcnerney, ginny rowmetty and jack welch. that's a lot of folks advising the president. what we have seen in the past is presidents have used outside business councils, barack obama had one. in fact we went back and checked. jim mcnerney of boeing sat on obama's advisory council and will sit on trump's. you get some overlap there. generally the work product, the meetings, the official deali