let's head up to the midtown exchange and check in with morgan brennan. >> the nasdaq quickly coming off those earlier intraday record high. we've seen right now coming into the close it's poised to close in the red slightly lower, about 0.1%. that being said, the nasdaq is on track to end the week about 1.7%, outperforming both the dow and the s&p and the big bright spot here has been chitmakers this week. you have the stock sem se conductor etf on track to close the week up more than 4% thap that's thanks in part to upbeat earnings including nvidia and applied materials. you can't talk about that and not talk about mega cap tech. a big sell-off in these names last week and the first part of this week. analysts saying maybe that sell-off was overblown.

morgan brennan inside a penny's at the roosevelt field mall in garden city, new york. >> they had the earliest start time on thanksgiving. opening its stores at 3:00 p.m. and shoppers lined up to get in. at least here at this long island location. >> we got over here by like 5:00 and we started shopping and now that we've been out for almost three and a half hours. >> since then, staffers have struggled to keep pace with boxes strewn about. they have been rolling out appliance showrooms in many locations, including on this one, betting on the housing recovery. under marvin eliassen, who was hired from home depoet in 2015. the retailers also expanding its partnership with sephora. at this long island location, there's been a lot of foot traffic in both areas and as you can see here, long lines and many of the stores catchiers, so, what is boring shoppers? >> the $10 off, 7.99 for the sheet set. towels. practically things are free in here. >> the question will be how much has j.c. penny, not to mention other brick and mortar retailer, had to discount to get these consumers through the d

morgan brennan has more. >> reporter: the holidays are fast approaching. and that means crunch time for employers. with e-commerce sales expected to surge and unemployment at 5%, it's getting tougher for logistics firms and retailers to find seasonal help. amazon is looking to add 125,000 people. fedex, 50,000. plus hundreds of thousands more at the biggest retailers. in a recent survey, hourly jobs marketplace snag-a-job found more than 80% of employers experience challenges filling temporary holiday positions. >> no question at all that companies we work with are finding it harder. part of that is because they have more positions to fill. so they're having to just scramble. >> reporter: retailers and shipping firms are all competing for the same workers and doing so from a segment of the labor pool that's seen some of the strongest job growth this career. according to the labor department, that's already pushed weekly wages higher, up 4% last quarter for full-time workers making about $14 an hour, a trend likely to continue in coming months. logistics st

morgan brennan has more on the tie-up. >> reporter: it's all about energy.he new baker hughes will combine the world's largest oil field equipment manufacturer, ge, with the number three oiled field services firm, creating approximate $2 billion in revenue, second only to rival, schlumberger. ge will merge with the entirety of baker hughes, a move that will have the industrial giant owning the majority of the new company. without spending tens of billions of dollars to actually make an acquisition. baker hughes shareholders will own the rest, with ge raising more than $7 billion to pay them a one-time special dividend. ge's oil and gas chief lorenzo sim nellie will run the endty, expected by the next year. the structure of the deal will have tax advantages, and will allow for flexibility around capital allocation. >> let's say the industry remains tough. this is still value accretive to both investors and a tough oil price environment. if pricing gets better, it allows us to benefit that from that, as well. it's a very diversified portfolio in terms of short

morgan brennan has more. >> reporter: u.p.s.nd fedex can't hire enough workers for the holiday season. it's another story for the companies hauling freight. the labor department reporting the manufacturing sector shed 9,000 jobs in october. including several thousand in transportation equipment. it's the latest sign the freight slump isn't letting up and comes as demand continues to plunge for new trucks. market forecasts says october orders for tractor-trailer trucks tumbled nearly 50% from a year earlier, extending a month-ng route of the weakest activity since the recession. >> the orders we saw in october, the just below 14,000 unit orders was particularly weak when we seasonally adjusted as october is typically the first month of the peak order season. >> after strong 2014 trucking needs ordered new vehicles that never quite materialized as commodity prices and manufacturing nose dived. that led to too many vehicles on the road and just as broader economic growth slowed. but this is typically the busy time. when trucking ex

so morgan brennan is here with us this evening. she can do it for us. to see you, morgan, as always. >> the bar is high. >> the bar is high and you've put a lot of faith in me. to put this in perspective, aig reports three different earnings per share numbers. so it's quite a situation. >> low interest rates have been really a factor depressing the stock prices. have they moved past that yet or not? >> a great question. and certainly this low interest rate environment is one we have seen plaguing the insurance sector for years, not so differently than the banks. that being said, the good news in this quarter, with these big names, prudential, metlife, aig. what we saw in the earnings is that profit actually -- it grew for the first time in more than a year for each of the names, did he say bite that low interest rate environment and despite the fact we're seeing issues with some of the products related to interest rates at all of those companies. i would also note that metlife said it actually saw a 6% increase in investment income for the quarter. and

morgan brennan has our story. >>> called the new industrial revolution.assive shift in the way big business operates. it's the industrial internet of things, a catch jaul-all to make machines, factories and power grids smarter, using sensors and softwares to boost efficiency. the biggest comglomerates, including general electric. >> it's all about productivity. if you look at the world of productivity, particularly if you're an industrial company, this notion of being able to get analytics off industrial products or manufacturing in new ways, it's real. this is happening. >> reporter: ceo jeff immelt believes the internet is going to be a $200 billion market. it's the reason the industrial giant is hosting the machines conference in san francisco this week, bringing customers and software developers together under one roof. it's also the reason immelt says every new hire will learn to code and why the company announced three tech acquisitions since monday alone. analysts say ge is on the forefront of the trend but is no means alone. >> i would call out ho

morgan brennan has our story. >> reporter: rail yard 22 trains loaded with 1,300 containers moved dailyn the 26 miles of track. it is a huge facility and privately funded by csx. it highlights the fact that the freight railroads already maintain their own networks. on track to spend $26 billion this year alone. but if president-elect donald trump comes through on plans to drum up infrastructure spending, rails will still likely benefit as connecting highways and passenger rail tracks and courts get an update. but the biggest boon would actually be moving the building splice themselves. increasing volumes at a time when rails have struggled amid a weak freight environment. >> we served industrial economy, to large degree. and when they win, we win. and there's opportunities here, based on what ultimately the policies are going to be for potentially more spending and obviously be helpful for us, as well. >> reporter: there are many questions that are far from being answered. particularly around trade. if the incoming trump administration takes a more protectionist approach to trade, up en

morgan brennan at a jcpenney in garden city. >> the music in the background.magine morgan might be bored of that. >> all day long. >> playing in the background. >>> the markets looking at hitting new highs again today. futures are positive. we're calling -- expecting a 57 point move to the upside for the dow. on wednesday we saw a record close for the dow, we did see a record close for s&p 500 but not an intraday high. looking positive in the futures markets. let's discuss markets more broadly. alan is with us. good morning. >> good morning. >> i just asked this question to our previous guest, yes, we've seen record highs, it's exciting, but is it sector focused the rally we've seen over the last couple weeks? >> the story is donald trump. what he's done is introduced something which we haven't had in a long time which is real hope. you see that plague itself out across many, many sectors across the broad market. his introduction of hope for investors is so powerful. >> why do we have hope? because of infrastructure spend? >> i think that's right. the fact tha

morgan brennan explains. >> reporter: the biggest employers the holidays mean hiring. ups has been recruiting prospective sporting events. including a recent football game where attendees filled out applications. the shipping giant is hoping to hire more than 95,000 seasonal staffers to help handle the 700 million packages it expects to deliver between now and new year's eve. but with e commerce sales expected to again surge, and unemployment below 5% it's getting tougher to hire works. of the increases competition. we need to remain competitive in the market to attract talent. >> reporter: ups is not the only company going on a hiring binge. amazon is looking to add 120,000 people and fedex 50,000. it's pushed weekly wages up higher. 4% last quarter for full time workers making $14 an hour. logistic staffing firms expects hourly play t transportation and ware house. >> we're seeing wages increase by $1.50 to 3 an hour. >> reporter: companies are stressing the possibility that some positions could become permanent. >> 37% of our seasonal employees stayed on board in a

for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan. >>> and defense stocks also got a lift on trump'slection victory and the republican sweep of congress. trump has pledged to increase military spending which sent shares of lockheed martin, northrop grumman and general dynamics high another. >>> jackie deangelis breaks down what investors should expect. >> reporter: candidate trump supported relaxing energy industry regulations. if president trump can achieve those goals, that would benefit the drillers, the frackers and the infrastructure companies. but it can also increase supply. at a time when there is already a worldwide supply glut. >> trump will open up the oil markets and make it more advantageous for exploration and production. the markets will regulate themselves. in other words, if there is too much oil on the market, and it's not profitable for them to produce, then those wells will stay shut. and if it is, they'll come online. >> reporter: infrastructure projects are also in focus. not only will the projects create jobs, but they'll continue to build out the domestic tran

morgan brennan explains. >> reporter: for the biggest employers the holidays mean hiring. u.p.s. has been recruiting prospective employees at college sporting events including the recent rutgers/penn state football game. where attendees filled out applications. >> i have young children so it's easier for me to have seasonal work. >> reporter: the shipping giant is hoping to hire more than 95,000 seasonal staffers to help handle the 700 million packages it expects to deliver between now and new year's eve. but with e-commerce sales expected to again surge, and unemployment below 5%, it's getting tougher to find workers. >> we decided to offer a signing bonus and higher wages because of the increased competition in the area. we need to remain competitive in the market, to attract talent, quality candidates. >> reporter: u.p.s. is not the only company going on a holiday hiring birnlg. amazon's looking to add 120,000 people and fed ex, 50,000 workers. that strong demand has pushed weekly wages higher, up 4% last quarter. logistic staffing firm pro logistics expects hourly pay to jump

morgan brennan with readings from the truck sector. 11 minutes to go. s&p is down again.is the ninth session in a row. we have time to see if we close there. >> listen to this, art cashin just signaled the market on close orders $900 million to sell. >> no wonder we moved lower. that would account for some decline there. >> david doris will be here with his market acronym on the week. coming up. the greatest pulation shift in human history is happening before our eyes. sixty to seventy million people at pgim we help inveorsy year. see the implications like t prime teof urban exp, pinpointing portunits capre alpe and emerging mkets. partner wigim the glob iesent management businesses of prudential. i've spent my life planting a size-six, non-slip shoe into that door. on this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. but these days it's phones before forks. they want wifi out here. but behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. wifi pro from comcast business. public wifi for your customers. private wifi for your business. strong and secure

we start with morgan brennan. >> hey, brian.e at csx's bedford park facility, 22 trains loaded with 1300 containers moving through here daily, 26 miles of track. this is a huge facility, privately funded by csx and highlights the fact that the freight railroads maintain their own infrastructure. their own network. they're on track to spend $26 billion this year alone. that being said, even so, if the incoming trump administration does roll out an infrastructure plan, freight railroads could benefit in three key ways. first, we have better connections. for example, here in the chicago area you got all the major freight railroads meet, they do so alongside passenger and commuter rails. and can cause a lot of congestion. if you see private public partnerships that create more flyover bridges, that could minimize the hours that some trains wait at intersections and boost service. second, you got more freight demand, as building materials and other commodities have to get transported for all the projects around the country. third, th

morgan brennan is at a jc penney store in garden city, new york, among others, but we'll start with youuys. are you. >> reporter: mall managers are saying that on-line sales so far are strong. shopping center manager jll is actually saying its locations are reporting that the big box retailers did, in fact, dominate early shopping. 73% of jll shopping centers are reporting sales on par or up from last year. now, adobe says thanksgiving day on-line sales up 11%, just shy of $2 billion. while couch consumers are certainly growing in numbers, there is one thing for certain. if you are a shopper that comes out to hit the stores on black friday, you shop until you drop. >> we have not gone to sleep yet. >> really? >> yes. >> we had our turkey, and we moved out at 6:30, and we've been going strong. >> we stopped at kohl's and came straight to the mall after that. >> we started at wal-mart. we've been to target. we have been to the outlet malls in cincinnati. we're going to do a bunch of other places i can't even think of. >> reporter: now, you may not realize it, but appliances, home applianc

our morgan brennan is live in garden city, new york, taking the pulse of penny shoppers. morgan. >> hey, melissa. since we are on a tech show right now i figured i'd wear my high-tech holiday gear for you at this jcpenney in long island. that being said, e-commerce, this has been a big part of the turnaround strategy at jcpenney as they make mighty efforts to build out those online capabilities and play catch-up on that front. in terms of its online sales, the company saying in the third quarter that 60% of those sales were derived from its brick-and-mortar locations as it rolls out a channel strategy, not different than other retailers in recent years. 40% of those sales were picked up by customers in store. all that being said, though, here on black friday today it is still all about the until-store shopping experience. so this long island location opened up as the other jcpenney ones, 1,100 other jcpenney locations has been open since 3:00 p.m. on thanksgiving. now, this long island location has had lines since that opening and has been remaining busy with merchandise

i'm morgan brennan in bedford park, illinois. >>> tweeting his way to victory, trump's use of social channels to get elected. we'll hear more about that after this short break. . >> hi everybodifyeverybody. welcome back. cisco shares took a hit after disappointing guidance for the second quarter. josh lipton has more on the numbers from san francisco. >> reporter: cisco is undergoing big changes, and investors got more data into how that transition is really going. the tech giant announced that it will eliminate 5500 jobs or about 7% of its work force. executives say that was a tough decision but one needed to drive strong financial performance in the future. that news came as cisco reported q4 results which were better than expected. eps of 63 cents on revenue of 12.64 billion versus expectations of 60 cents on 12.6 billion. gross margins clocked in at 64.6%. rbc's mitch steves says that number shows that cisco's ceo, chuck robbins, is doing a good job of transitioning the company from hardware to software, services and security. though he also noted that guidance for q1 gross margi

>> morgan brennan, thank you, on the shipping story. >>> with that we're seeing the losses pick up steam, the dow is down 80 points and we'll send it to you, carl, for "squawk alley." >> good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. at amazon headquarters in seattle, 11:00 a.m. on wall street, and "squawk alley" is live. >>> good cyber monday, welcome to "squawk alley." seema mody, kayla tausche, and john ford has the morning off. first story this morning, new records for black friday boding well for cyber monday. according to adobe insights and the nrf, online black friday sales topped $3 billion for the first time ever, a jump of more than 21% compared to last year. mobile shopping saw its biggest day ever, $1.2 billion in sales, up 33% from last year. let's get to our courtney reagan live at an amazon fulfillment center in new jersey with more. good morning again, court. >> reporter: hi, good morning to you, carl. amazon hopes today will be another record day. to do it, though, it's got to take in more than 23 million items. that's the number that was ordered last cyber monday, and that was up 40% fro

morgan brennan is live at one of the businessest rails in the country. "squawk box" will be right back. >>> welcome back to "squawk box." the futures right now are suggesting slightly negative open last we looked. and the dow would open lower by 36 points. the s&p lower by 5 and nasdaq by 14. >>> major infrastructure spending giving the sector a major boost. morgan brennan joins us from one of the busiest rail yards in the country with that story. >> reporter: hey, good morning. that's right. so we're at csx's bedford park facility where trucks loaded with the equivalent of 26 miles of track. this is a big facility. it is privately funded by csx and highlights the fact that the freight railroads already maintain their own infrastructure on track to collectively spend $26 billion this year. that said, if president-elect trump does actually come through on his plans, his proposal to drum up a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending, this could still benefit. take this area. this is the chicago area. it is the rail capital of the country. in general you

our moore kban brennan joins us with a look at what to expect. morgane dealing with it. >> that's right. so the short answer here, expect it to be another record breaking peak shipping season. it's already off to a strong start. we have over $3 billion spent online on black friday according to adobe, with a similar sum expected today, cyber monday, so ups, fedex, and the u.s. postal service all expect, as you can see behind me, double digit increases between now and the end of the year. ups, 700 million packages, that represents a 14% increase over last year. fedex, a 10% increase, which translates into upwards of 355 million shipments. the usps, 750 million packages, or 12% more. all three have hired a combined 185,000 seasonal workers, they've invested billions of dollars. ups and fedex have opened new facilities. mobile villages at ups, at fedex we have centers focused on oversized items like tvs and trampolines, which consumers are increasingly buying online. fedex is also adding 30 new planes to express, and the postal service is expanding sunday a

and postal service expect to make combined between now and new year. 1.7 billion will go to morgan brennan's. she joins us now with what to expect during this shopping season. >> i wish i was getting that many packages. it sounds like a lot of garbage. expect another record peak season as online sales continue to surge. you have seen early numbers indicating that. overall parcel carriers forecasting double digit growth between now and years end. u.p.s., 700 million packages. 14% more than last year. fedex 10% increase which would mean upwards of 355 million shipments and the u.s. postal service 12% jump to 750 million packages. now, between the three, 185,000 seasonal workers and billions of dollars in investment. we've got new facilities, new tech, mobile sorting stations, new planes. expanded delivery hours including sunday and christmas day deliveries at the postal service especially for that carriers biggest customer which is amazon. and now 220 million amazon packages will be shipped this season. that's an almost 30% increase over last year. with usps moving two-thirds of it followed by

morgan brennan is keeping an eye on things at the nasdaq. >> apple having the biggest impact. the first rumors report that delayed wireless air pods might not launch until 2017. we have gotten more favorable reviews of the microsoft surface products that were just launched versus the new mac book pros. ubs citing softening demand for iphone 7 models in china. apple stock slipping below the 5046 day moving day average. now trading down in correction territory down about 10.5% from november highs last year. and in general we are seeing apple set to post its fifth straight day of declines. that's after those earnings last week that failed to impress investors. so taking a look at shares of apple down about 2% right now. as you can probably see behind me in general we are seeing a sea of red here at the nasdaq with the composite down about 1%. >> so apple down five straight days. s&p down six days. coincidence? >> apple was up 20% prior to that. for a stock this big to be jolted around like that. >>> let's get to our "closing bell" exchange for a tuesday. we welcome earnesto ram o

morgan brennan has more on that from the nasdaq market site for us. >> that's right, so the good news is we are pairing some of the earlier loss we saw for the nasdaq composite, however still underperforming the dow and the s&p the big cap nasdaq 100 fairing even worse, down about three quarters of a percent right now. you mentioned tech stocks are the big culprit here and that really has been the case, we've been seeing the major tech names sell off ever since trump won the white house in about part thanks to investor worries about change on trade and immigration policy. so apple one of the biggest losers. it is having the bigs negative point impact on the nasdaq 100. one reason is that we have a report out of china that iphone sales may suffer if president-elect trump were to impose tariffs on that country. other major names falling today, we have microsoft and facebook, amazon, netflix and google parent alphabet, all are lower today and actual will you over t ly over the past week anywhere from 4% to 9%. >> let's get over to the dow now litting t hitting the new highs. dominic chu

morgan brennan is with us from one of the busiest rail yards in the nation with that story. an. >> reporter: hey, kayla, that's right. so as you mentioned this is really the biggest question for the transportation sector. and that's will president-elect donald trump actually upend nafta and other major trade agreements and take a tougher stance on china? now, for the railroads about one-third of total u.s. traffic is trade-related. that's according to the association of american railroads. you've got autos, chemicals and grain which is actually benefitted in part from record soybean exports. some of the biggest groups there. but the other business that is closely tied to trade is intermodal. all those shipping containers like the ones behind me that switch between ship, train, truck and then are packed to a lot of consumer goods including e-commerce packages. freight railroads have been betting big on that business in recent years and among the massive decline we've seen in coal it's what this rail yard, the bedford park facility, csx's bedford park facility is focused on and

morgan brennan is in garden city, new york, at jc penney. at roosevelt field mall, is that right? >> reporter: i am. i'll tell you jc penney and the broader mall situation have been very busy since we've been here. we've been here since the wee hours of the morning. this is one of nearly 1,100 jc penney locations that's been open since 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. the earliest start time of the major retailers on thanksgiving. now, one thing you want to focus on jc penney has been rolling out appliance showrooms in 500 of its locations including this one, betting on the housing recovery as a key part of its turnaround strategy under ceo marvin ellison who came over here from home depot in 2015. now the retailer's also expanding partnership with sephora bringing makeup boutique into more of its department stores. here in this long island location there's been -- we've seen a lot of foot traffic in both of those areas, steadfast foot traffic. and as you can see behind me some really long lines at the cashiers around this store. so what is lu

joining us is the president and ceo of amtrak wick moorman along with our own morgan brennan. >> good. wick, thank you for joining us today. i want to kick off with earnings, you released full year earnings last week. >> right. >> we saw record revenue, record ridership, smallest operating loss since the early 1970s. could we actually see amtrak turn a profit? >> i think that that is something that we should aspire to and may happen some day, but it's extraordinarily difficult. if you really look at any passenger carrying railroad anywhere in the world, they generally don't make money, particularly if you fully load it with infrastructure costs and things like that. but, listen, that's what we're in business to do is to deliver a great product and not lose money. >> and you just mentioned infrastructure. got to talk about infrastructure. >> right. >> i know you've gotten a $2.5 billion loan, it's the largest from the d.o.t. ever. >> right. >> so you're already rolling out or buying new train sets, looking to upgrade some stations. >> right. >> if we see a trump administration actually

our morgan brennan joins us with the holiday hiring crunch. how does it look this year? looking tougher and tougher for a lot of companies. this is crunch time for being fully staffed for the holidays. unemployment at 5%. it has gotten tough to find seasonal workers. take a look at this. these are just some of the firms making hires. we've got amazon looking to add 120,000. u.p.s. looking for 95,000 workers. you've got big demand from all of those retailers. so everyone's competing for the same talent. they're doing so from a segment that's actually seen some of the strongest job growth. thus wage growth. and you can actually see that in the labor department data for weekly wages for workers that make $15 an hour in full-time jobs. that has jumped 4% in the third quarter the same prior. it's an upward trend expected to show up again in that october jobs report. so that's causing companies to start searches sooner. saying employers began the recruitment efforts a full month earlier this year than just a few years ago. many are offering new perks. we've got them designing