and for more on this i'm joined in studio by business reporter jim bell of thanks for joining me these retail figures it seems like it's good in some sense they're going to break numbers but why are people not happy why retailers not happy well the smaller retailers and well to be specific to the ones who are not very happy about the current trends or just not getting enough traffic or one getting as many people going into the stores as they used to and you know you see lines of people waiting to you know pick up their packages outside those d.h.l. locations where you can pick up you know your package and also online over on line that is all that's all coming from amazon as a land-o. and other you know other online stores but definitely not for the you know those those lines enough with the stories the definition of christmas retail itself has become sort of a blur right and what marks the holiday season yes exactly it is when most stores get their highest revenue and that's what's expected the ones in germany at least this year are expecting actually to have less of a revenue of cours

. >> we're going to get jim's mad dash and count down to the opening bell jim's theme about upgrades continues today whether it is delta or lilly we'll get to those look at the premarket here as we're on track for six straight days of gains. the longest since march and april with eight and, we'll stay on top of the historic impeachment vote on capitol hill when "squawk on the street" continues. this piece is talking to me. yeah? so what do you see? i see an unbelievable opportunity. i see best-in-class platforms and education. i see award-winning service, and a trade desk full of experts, available to answer your toughest questions. and i see it with zero commissions on online trades. i like what you're seeing. it's beautiful, isn't it? yeah. td ameritrade now offers zero commissions on online trades. ♪ >>> mad dash as we count you down to opening bell hump day we refer to as wednesday also. mad dash time, at&t. >> yes, citi has a piece out, it is amazing, because that it is saying is elliott partners is going to be right. they're talking about several key takeaways that are amazing

stock was higher in february. >> yeah. >> came down a lot they scooped up. >> there is the opening bell as jim earlier, caterpillar here today, celebrating the 90th listing anniversary. jim wearing the cap. >> chicago now people think, what is playing in peoria well, they're located in chicago. >> yes they were in peoria, though. at the nasdaq, procure a.m., exchange traded product issuer how will cat be affected by phase one signing? >> i think caterpillar, jim, such a different ceo, told me at lunch that you should be focus on oil and gas more than china oil and gas is actually more important than china talking about 5%, 6% they tried to diversify, they saw a lot of negativity come and in the meantime, the stock traded down to 116, 117. it has been pretty much traded up since then. it is much more like emerson, kind of a story of, you know what, if china starts growing again, then they'll do well. >> fitch, i think did up their forecast for growth in china back to above 6. >> got the baltic freight starting to do better. we have free port doing better there is a big theory that china as we s

jim will stick around as we get closer to the opening bell more broadly, jim, is this a signal that we should be on the lookout for some tape bombs in this holiday shortened week? >> this was certainly -- let's put it this way, can't be -- we had the bear market, centered around -- won't feel like that can't be as bad as last year this is probably welcome by a lot of people who have been buying boeing stock. i think knowing there was going to be a -- i think we just didn't know the time frame you wanted someone that was like phil lebeau said, someone who said, look, whatever we were doing here, we have to have an actual investigation, internally about what went on a lot of us were shocked that boeing never said, all right, let's find out what happened. shut down everyone it is going to cost us, i don't know, $5 billion and if we have to, we'll spend the dividends. but we're not going to sacrifice anything, no sacrifice safety, tired of hearing we're taking short cuts that's what people felt they were doing never did the -- never hide the prices never gave us any sense of about what was

opening bell set to ring about four minutes from now. little time for jim to talk a bit about what we can expect we mentioned briefly -- i mentioned briefly a trump tweet from earlier this morning indicating immediate tariffs going back into place on steel, imports from both brazil and argentina, citing their declining currencies is the reason argentina san economic free fall, new president taking over the markets, didn't like it, they have 60 something percent interest rates what are you supposed to do? >> we have to understand that some countries devalue to take advantage of our country some countries devalue because they're falling apart. brazil, but argentina -- >> they're falling apart people should be aware of this don't say that, things are so horrible s ha argentina, we're talking about a country that still -- buenos aires, that's one most beautiful places. >> early 1900s, top ten economies. look, i think that anything that makes it so you can trans ship chinese steel is in cross hairs of the government, as it should be the chinese continue their wa

"squawk" on the street, live from the capital of the world, the opening bell in under four minutes. a lot after airline news, jim the forecast or what we think is the agreement between boeing >> isn't that something? gary kelly sat right there talked about something i think would have been much more rancorous than this. a settlement that would be advantageous for both workers and shareholders i continue to believe, to marvel that yesterday boeing stock was down 6 after phil lebeau's excellent interview. it closed unchanged. >> it really, they just i mean again i said this so many times the year this company had, why et the stock is up double digits >> because that's what happens when you are a part of a did u duopoily that dave cody talked about one of the areas he liked was aerospace, most people don't get on plane, people say boeing will get through this. it will take a little longer if that's all they own is southwest and these cash flow hearings and i know american wants money, too, it may not be as dire. that was a pretty easy settlement for boeing to make. >> delta's sebastian has been impressioned on the

wonder who their venture investors were i don't know he'll be here ringing the opening bell up next, we have jim's dash. also give you another look at futures here, of course, as we get ready to start trading 17 minutes from now a lot more "squawk on the street" straight ahead ♪ >>> all right, this is the time when we stand on "squawk on the street" because we have a mad dash nice to stretch. >> sure. >> our enormous height >> enormous titans died this weekend. >> say again. >> paul volker, don marron died this weekend. >> both extremely tall let's get to a mad dash. >> it is a two horse race again in the home improvement sector there is lowe's, marvin ellison doing a great job and home depot. this morning, right in that analyst meeting's face, goldman sachs goes and makes a top idea of lowe's, talking about how the execution is turning around. marvin ellison is doing a remarkable job home depot people say, we're still beating lowe's, and that's true >> happy with you you keep saying that. >> they're not happy a lot of people aren't happy with me. it's okay. as long as the dogs are happy with me.

mnuchin as congress gets ready to vote on the usmca up next, though, we will have jim's mad dash and count down to the opening bell through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from using feedback to innovate... to introducing products faster... to managing website inventory... and network bandwidth. giving you a nice big edge over your competition. that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence. ♪ yes i'm stuck in the middle with you, ♪ no one likes to feel stuck, boxed in, or held back. especially by something like your cloud. it's a problem. but the ibm cloud is different. it's open and flexible enough to manage all your apps and data securely, anywhere, across all your clouds. so it can help take on anything from rebooking flights on the fly, to restocking shelves on demand, without getting in your way. ♪ ♪ >>> all right. let's get to a mad dash. we have about 13 minutes before we get started with the stock exchange i hike to start with google but it's name is alphabet. they call it google the other ecommerce power. like the other white me

jim. not just one might want to think about that i don't want you going anywhere. that was the opening bellyou there is the real time exchange at our headquarters at the big board, celebrating the ipo today, solutions in china. over at the nasdaq, sprout social let's get to eunice yun in china. eunice >> reporter: thanks so much. that 10:30 presser was actually just delayed by half an hour they're going to be several important members of the trade negotiating team there, in particular the vice finance minister, who has been heading up the working level discussions, taking over for wen, the vice commerce minister who was taking the lead. also very important these two gentlemen and they're going to be discussing the progress that has been made in these negotiations now, beforehand the commerce ministry contacted several journalists including us asking whether or not we had any questions for any potential briefing at that time they wouldn't confirm anything we asked whether or not president xi jinping would accept the trade agreement that was put forth by the trump administration, but as of ye

jim. >> we'll get cramer's mad dash, we'll count down to the opening bell, a lot to get to other than the press conference we just saw. fed meeting does begin today decision tomorrow. usmca, downgrade of netflix and jpm. back in a moment ♪ ♪ i've been a caregiver for 20 years. no two patients are the same. predicting the next step for them can be challenging. today we're using the ibm cloud to run new analytics tools that help us better predict and plan a patient's recovery. ♪ ♪ ultimately, it's helping thousands of patients return home. and who doesn't love going home. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> let's get to a mad dash as we sit down, stay seated at the desk what do you got? >> a whole bunch of companies came public around now in terms of research, chewy, stitch fix one thing people are taking a hard look at is mongo db what this shows is, i know we'll talk to -- we'll talk to dave cody, he's got a company that -- >> one of the kevin line companies. >> subscription growth, what people want to see is subscription growth. nutanix on last night, talking about subscription growth. growth is stk sticky adob

animals were very happy to be treated with the early christmas prepped sense 7 jim bans these were treated with red and green belles wrapped in gift boxes. >>the tigers got boxes filled with bones that you won an award to play with looks like they all had a great time. and if you need more star wars after the release of the rise of skywalker you might want to think about a trip to kansas city that's where one fan has created a very unique star wars store and as alan shope explains this was a venture that's 20 years in the making. >>they were keen for store owner, sean mcconnell, the force has to be a clean one that's all i it started in his basement 40 years ago, he turned it into a store last march is a 20 year during han solo in carbonite motivated by lines from the movie and i never tell me the and some really cool building still this is my art are actually knew pretty impressive turnout lincoln for one are from them a bit maybe even more entertaining the thousands and thousands of star wars items all over the store most as for boba fett mcconnell plans to be one of the first in line to see the new star wars m

don't know incg i've been using mark bell -- >> this stock is up huge we have got to do a segment on insg that stock is roaring and i don't know it. >> chad? >> boo-yah, jim. >> it's not come through yet a lot of people are cooling on the stock. i think it is it fine. i've done some work on it. it's okay. let's go to joe in new york. joe? >> hi, jim it's jim in glencove first time caller. i'm asking about global blood therapeutics, gbt. they closed at $79 today analysts think it's going to $100 >> i got to do work. don't know it. a lot of the bioteches, you know, the ones that are public or been around for a while, i have to do more work let's go to max in new york. max? >> boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah >> so insight is up 17% over the last six months. i wanted to know what your opinion is on where it goes from here >> you know, look, i happened to have always liked insight. people still think somebody is going to go buy them okay and that is not what i'm thinking about i think it is just a fine good company. insider selling there lately i don't expect a takeover. but it's a good company. let gee let's go to gregory in california >> hi, jim how you doing? >> i

jim himes joins the conversation. >>> plus, kirsten gillibrand also joins the table. "morning joe" is just moments away. oins the table. "morning joe" is just moments away. [farmers bellseen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "three-ring fender bender." (clown 1) sorry about that... (clown 2) apologies. (clown 1) ...didn't mean it. (clown 3) whoops. (stilts) sorry! (clowns) we're sorry! (scary) hey, we're sorry! [man screams] [scary screams] (burke) quite the circus. but we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (vo) thewith every attempt, strto free itself,pider's web. it only becomes more entangled. unaware that an exhilarating escape is just within reach. defy the laws of human nature. at the season of audi sales event. until i found out what itst it actually was.ed me. dust mite droppings! eeeeeww! dead skin cells! gross! so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavy-duty dusters. duster extends to three feet to get all that gross stuff gotcha! and for that nasty dust on my floors, my sweeper's on it. the textured cloths grab and hold dirt and h

jim. he doesn't look like you >> make sure to check out our podcast, listen to the opening bell hour, "squawk wherever you listen to podcasts, best podcast in the world. we're back in a moment dow is down 29 this is a historic moment. demand has never been higher for what we do. creating compelling, engaging, and informative content and experiences. with this merger, viacomcbs will be one of the largest and most influential content creators in the world. i know we can deliver on the full potential of this amazing new company. there's room for more than just the business you came for. ♪ whether that's taking in every moment... or capturing a moment worth bringing back. that's room for possibility. ♪ how far we can go, oh oh ♪ (vo) thewith every attempt, strto free itself,pider's web. it only becomes more entangled. unaware that an exhilarating escape is just within reach. defy the laws of human nature. at the season of audi sales event. >>> as we approach the end of 2019, cnbc is taking a closer look at what investors can expect in the new year phil lebeau has the 2020 playbook for the automob

bell today i know where wrou stand, pete, so let oes not go there, okay. pete likes lulu instead of nike. >> so do i >> joe owns lulu instead of nike jim, you previously openede. why doesn't anybody own nike >> it's kind of pricey >> it is pricey. not kind of pricey >> so look, i've traded this on and off for 20 years >> no lulu i know. >> i'm just saying like you know >> look, nike's a great company. the report is almost certainly going to be a fantastic report at 29 times earnings, traditionally, that's been a reeling for the stock. 29 times forward earnings. doesn't mean it can't go past. straight up. >> i thought it was 29 maybe it's having a great day today. look were you supposed to buy this >> 31 times forward. >> you know what the difference is >> two >> yeah, it's two. what else you u got? want to try and stump me >> chris, how about those bills? >> do you know when their fiscal year ends? >> no. >> may that's the difference. that was hilarious you got to go to somebody else got me going >> i will tell you this. options world is saying people expect this to be a very good quarter so they're expecting to see the stock move to the upside because of th

we'll talk about sales force's earnings as well jim has a lot to say there and other stories we're watching for you as we get ready for that opening bell minutes from now a lot more "squawk on the street" right after this (vo) the flock blindly falls into formation. flying south for the winter. they never stray from their predetermined path. but this season, a more thrilling journey is calling. defy the laws of human nature. at the season of audi sales event. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> coming off three straight days of losses for all the major indices and trying to avoid a decline today, which would make it the longest losing streak in about four months. futures look good, though. opening bell at eight minutes. dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. pd-l1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. pd-l1 saved my life. saved my life. saved my life. what we do here at dana-faber, changes lives everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. nice rock. it's time to drop gold. go digital. go gra

bell in two and a half minutes. busy wednesday morning as we wait for the fed decision at 2:00 dow will have to operate without the benefit of boeing, jim the faa administrator told phil lebeau that certification for the max not going to come this year as boeing had hoped. >> boeing have to be careful they had to make this determination because of the way that they do accounting. about whether it would be certified. but when i was watching phil's interview, once again, i was struck by this discord nature of hope at boeing, versus reality with the faa and think about all the airlines that are owed money and phil's been doing this reporting that basically says, you may think boeing will come out unscathed, but not yet. not yet. >> journal has this piece about an faa analysis which might be released today in which they found given the initial problems after the first crash could have averaged a crash every one to two years without agency intervention >> well -- >> you hear more about that. >> breathtaking. boeing's going to come through this, come through this. you're going to want to-- you're going to fly one of the planes but they're in

up next, jim's going to have his mad dash and he's not going to talk about jensen huang or nvidia something entirely different. >> tesla. >> look at futures as we get you ready for an opening belle it is friday last day of trading this week. one of the last of the actual year here as we wrap things up more "squawk on the street" straight ahead from the nyse each day our planet awakens with signs of opportunity. but with opportunity comes risk. and to manage this risk, the world turns to cme group. we help farmers lock in future prices, banks manage interest rate changes and airlines hedge fuel costs. all so they can manage their risks and move forward. it's simply a matter of following the signs. they all lead here. cme group - how the world advances. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk ♪ ♪ safe and sound >>> let's get to a mad dash, get ready for an opening bell here about 13 minutes or so from now. apple, it had quite a year. >> i only want one present i told my kids i told my wife. >> the ear things. >> yes david, i

jim. >> we will all see you tomorrow. don't miss an exclusive interview this afternoon with morgan stanley chairman and ceo james gorman now coming your way on closing bellned you're watching "squawk. when i lost my sight, my biggest fear was losing my independence. mmm... good. so i've spent my life developing technology to help the visually impaired. we are so good. we built a guide that uses ibm watson... to help the blind. it is already working in cities like tokyo. my dream is to help millions more people like me. it is already working in cities like tokyo. investment opportunities beyfirsthand, like biotech.ne because your investments deserve the full story. t. rowe price invest with confidence. >>> welcome back chinese officials have been silent since reports emerged yesterday that trump administration had agreed to a phase one trade deal they'll break that silence at 9:30 a.m. eastern, which is 9:30 p.m. -- 10:30. it is night. so it must be important. it is a news conference to talk about economics and trade it says futures were up. join us next week. "squawk on the street" is next ♪ >> good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street. i'm david fa