good morning, bertha. >> reporter: good morning, seema.s is a blockbuster move with the price up valuing aetna $205 a share with $145 of that in cash, $67 of that in cvs stocks. the companies together say that they will better be able to manage patient's care, better be able to coordinate benefits putting both the medical and the drug benefits under one roof together they will be a formidable force in health care. this will be a vertically integrated company that if you go by 2017 estimated revenues we'll have about $240 billion in revenue. that would make them the largest health care firm to buy revenues eclipsing a little bit united health it would also give them to start here about 22 million people in terms of those insured under the pharmacy benefits for cvs. they would have upwards of around 90 million people but on top of that you layer the elements that cvs already has with regards to its clinic there's 1100 minute clinics. the expectation is they want to expand using those in store clinics as real clinics, not just for a small urg

seema? >> reporter: that's exactly right. breaking through $60 a barrel was a pivotal moment for the oil complex, but we failed to stay above that level those supply concerns have quickly eased with news that the pipeline that exploded in libya should berepaired and back online as early as next week despite today's move lower, oi is still on track for its monthly duane and traders remaining focused on the positive impact of cut in production that's expected to help boost prices in 208 and the worsening power struggle between the saudis and iran could upend oil markets next year. brian? >> all right seema, thank you very much more now about what seema talked about and the energy stock and bring in doug terreson from isi. you put out a deep dive note into oil recently. it's 83 pages, and here's what stuck out to me. i'll read it directly so forgive mee for looking down the problem is that higher oil prices and output growth, while positive for enp ceo pay will likely remain negative for shareh

mody joins us now with more seema?morgan, the roller coaster ride continues, bitcoin dropping 11% overnight on news south korea is clamping down on bitcoin trading following a surge in interest from retail traders, unlike in the u.s. where there are limited merchants that accept the cryptocurrency, in south korea bitcoin use is much more prevalent. nearly 20% of all volume is reportedly done in korean juan as more south koreans buy in, the government is hoping to add transparency by prohibiting anonymous trading and potentially shutting down smaller exchanges. in a statement, a government official said cryptocurrency speculation has been irrationally overheated in korea. keep in mind similar messages from other governments like china and israel has served as a mini speed bump. check out the volatility this week in the crypto lower on monday, followed by a 16% gain on tuesday, and a drop on wednesday and today news of the south korean clampdown also hurting some of the bitcoin and blockchain related small caps, or so th

numbers seema? kelly, we're looking at shares falling now earnings came in line with estimates at $1.04 revenue was a miss net revenues increased 8% on top of a 3% increase last year despite an approximate 1% negative impact from hurricane irma and harvey. comps up 6%, which is slightly above expectations, but perhaps not as strong as a beat as some analysts were anticipating q4 revenue guidance is a bit light. that, perhaps, also impacting the stock here but keep in mind, this is a stock that is up over 238% this year it's really had a strong run here, kelly. >> yeah, it's kind of crazy story, seema, thank you. yeah, down 3% for rh, just like a nonstory. >> it's been a wild situation. it's been a massive squeeze in part engineered by the company, itself, by buying back a tremendous amount of the stock it was a heavily shorted stock so, yeah, you would say 3% down off a slight guidedown for the next quarter >> the kind of year they had, if they dropped 50%, it wouldn't even be that extraordinary dav

i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm seema mody.ood morning to you, too. >> let's check global markets. another record setting day for the dow, s&p and the nasdaq. the dow transports index hitting a new all-time high. we could be in for another set of gains with premarket trade indicating a higher open the dow up by 65 points. nasdaq by 7, s&p by 4. the house votes today and tomorrow the senate on tax reform it is the overhaul of the tax code sending stocks higher the question is how much higher can the market go. looking at the ten-year, where the yield has been 2.4%. let's see where it is at now 2.39% on the ten-year yield. >> mostly positive session in asia, but not resoundingly we have a bit of a decline for the nikkei hong kong and shanghai are higher in terms of european trade, significant gains yesterday. both germany and france up more than 1%. today, sort of mixed session, not too resounding in either direction. >> as for the broader markets, let's start with oil there hovering around 58, $57 a barrel wti crude, 57.42 ice b

i'm seema mody in for sara eisen. >> i'm dominic chu in for wilfred frost. lot of christmas music throughout the course of today's show if you like it, you'll love it if not, bear with us >> even though i'm not a fan, this is a classic. >> it is a great song. we have quite a few things that could be driving the trading action looking at the u.s. futures picture, we're seeing stable markets. we've seen this theme developing, we have not seen major moves in the premarket futures at least ahead of the opening bell right now the s&p 500 looking like it will open up by 4 points the dow up by 19 the nasdaq up by 5 as for the treasury yield side of thing, the ten-year note yield is falling a bit we saw that 2 1/2 mark yesterday. about 2.48% there. the run up in yields is pulling back just a bit in this early friday trade >> let's look at asia and how stocks closed there for the week the japanese nikkei did end the week higher. hang seng higher by 0.7% shanghai composite slightly lower. the kospi ening the week with a gain of almost a half percent. in europe we're s

seema, back to you melissa, excuse me. >> thanks, bob it wasn't just u.s.arkets that had an abnormally good 2017. take a look at the eem that's up 33% this year. what's in store for those markets next year? we bring in seema mody >> melissa, this is one trade that did not let up in 2017. the best year for emerging markets since 2009 india up 27% followed by brazil, despite the political headwinds, up 25%. and while china's broader shanghai index saw marginal gains compared to its emerging market peers, it played a driving role in sectors this year now, most strategists say this rally can continue but there is one big risk that could derail the em rally and that's the dollar if we see a rebound in 2018, hsbc says you can kiss your emerging market gains good-bye also seen as a risk is trump's relationship with china. so far, many people say it's improved following the president's visit to beijing but the burning question is that washington continues to exert more economic pressure on china in hopes of it playing a more active role in countering north korea. t

i'm wilfred frost. >> and i'm seema

you know, these are all alt coins as we learned from seema earlier. there's ether up 4%. more "squawk alley" right after this four unlimited lines for only forty bucks each. plus, netflix for the whole family. on us. so, they get their shows... let's go, girl! you're gonna love this bit! and you get yours. watch however you want. on your phone, tablet, or tv. for just forty bucks per line. with no extra charges. let's rock this joint! all on america's best unlimited network, t-mobile. >>> we're still learning how the new tax code will impact the economy and it turns out workers earning minimum wage will benefit. kate rogers has more kate >> reporter: hi, kelly those workers across the country will be ringing in the new year with higher pay thanks to laws or ballot initiatives. the states are raising their minimum wages or january 31th or december 31th. the highest amount in washington state at 11.50 and in maine the workers will get the highest percentage increase to $10 an hour, and there's 20 localities hiking pay in money van view and sunnyvale, california, workers wil

president, especially if it were somehow true that michael flynn had nothing to hide. >> so then, seemaon to the president's tweet there. by john's excellent explanation there in terms of the timing, the missing link would be don mcgahn telling the president that he had lied to the fbi. we do not know that happened. >> right. the thing -- what's really notable about the tweet is that up until now, we knew about flynn lying to the vice president. that was the reason that was given for him being fired back early in the administration. we didn't know about lying to the fbi in terms of the president knowing about it. so i think this certainly raises questions about what did the president know and when did he know it. >> guys, quickly i want to the to the tax bill. what are the chances, john, that lawmakers actually knew in its entirety what they were voting on? we've got the handwritten notes on the side, some have been deemed illegible. do they know what they voted on? >> well, in the main i think they did. they knew the general character of this tax bill, who was getting the benefits and

guys. >> seema, you added a couple new wrinkles to this discussion. by wait separately bitcoin got endorsement from square. jack dorsey said in the tweet it will expand. the effect on the share prices a couple weeks ago you think there's a couple of large pieces here, glen, affecting one another, moving in tandem >> we just talked about internet giants and how they are starting to compete more ferociously with each other and also talked about the euphoria over block chain, i think they are related people, developers andconsumer alike, are kind of concerned, as you mentioned, deidra, with how the big guys are behaving. a lot of these projects put the power back into the hands of the people and so you're going to see more and more, i think, projects rise that have the opportunity to build new applications that might serve consumers in a different way and challenge, ultimately, the power of large internet and large companies throughout industries like banking and certainly social, that sort of thing we're going to see new companies come out and challenge

seema? may be a holiday shortened week but we've seen a lot of activity starting with oil getting above the $60 level. the big question is whether crude can close above this crucial mark for the year. eai inventories last night showed a decline of 4.6 million barrels and saw a slight dip in all of u.s. production this is what opec wants to see, switching to gold which has been building on gains, now above $1300. highest level since october 13th, still underperforming the s&p when you look at the year to date performance in the outlook for 2018, goldman sachs sees prices trending lower and fewer geopolitical risks commodity traders will be play s a close eye on china, a consumer of half of the world's raw materials, main driver behind copper, which is up 30% this year the top performing commodity in 2018, palladdium, prices could dip. gas prices up 3% on the cold weather concerns >> palladium, thank you very much coming up, a banner year for boeing too the best performer with the 90% wel 'lse

joining me now, we have seema metah and john nichols. good afternoon to both of you. >> thank you. >> i thought we would take it a step at a time. let's go through some of these claims and i'll get your reaction. let's start with this one, talking about winning the election. quote, i won because i campaigned properly and she didn't. she campaigned for the votes. i campaigned for the electoral college. john, do you think the electoral college concept was bigger for him after the fact? after all, he did win the electoral college in your state, wisconsin. >> yes, he did. i think that donald trump did indeed have an electoral college strategy in 2016. it was a smart one. but remember that before the election, he was expressing a lot of concern about whether he might win the popular vote or lose the electoral college. he's been obsessed with this now. we're more than 400 days after the election and he is still obsessing with the credibility of his win. i think that's rooted in the fact that he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million to hill

happy new year >>> weekly counts are out and seema moody is here with the latest numbers. >> the latest rig counts for the second week in a row are unchanged. however, for 2017 as a whole, the number of oil rigs in service rose by 42% to a total of 747 oil pretty much holding steady after the reports, still above the crucial $60 level. and a fun fact for you, oil has not ended a year above $60 since 2013 we'll see if we can do that this year back to you. >> thank you, seema moody. >>> the president's tax reform law, will it give the economy a boost? will the infrastructure bill get through congress what is in store for the economy in 2018? >>> and the brutal snap hitting most of the country is not letting up we'll have more as "power lunch" continues. ♪ let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. lease the 2017 rx 350 for $399 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. resolution #1: binge more. join the un-carrier, and get four unlimited lines for forty bucks each. with netflix included. watch however you want. on your phone, tablet, or

i'm seema mody alongside dominic c chu. time for our must-reads.y pick is titled populism is failing, but it is too soon to cheer. many expected 2017 to be the year when the populous swept away before them in the event they were mostly held at the gates. the nativist wilders failed in the netherlands, and marine la pen w le pen was beaten by emanuel macron in the presidential poll, when the glass is half full, is it worth saying so do you think populism, the risk is largely dissipated? >> it doesn't look like it i think it's here for a while. the globe is rife with people kind of unhappy. it's here. >> still something to watch in 2018 >> my pick is in the "new york times. away in a manger or under a palm tree this is a turkish scholar. jesus of nazareth must rather have been an amazing man who captured the hearts and minds of not just his contemporaries but many more to come. his legacy is so great two of the world's greatest religions, christianity and islam sing his praises, even if they disagree on his theological nature or his exact birthplace

>> seema, thank you, seema mody. mick mulvaney now also the head of the interim head of the cfpb which intersects with this whole space here is regulation the biggest wild card >> bk has talked about this a bunch. he welcomes it a lot of people you talk about want to see some of these bad actors taken out in enforcement actions, they want to see regulation regulation means you have the authorities buying into the whole process. they're not going to be overseeing the process i think a very measured approach toward regulation and taking out bad actors would be a bullish thing for crypto currency. >> if i wanted to do an ico, i would do it now, i would do it fast >> speed, to get it out there. the most important thing is knowledge. that was one of the things you brought up as well, get up to speed, do the crash course you have to figure this whole thing out as fast as humanly possible sure, it looks great right now, and we all love what we're seeing in terms of returns, today was unbelievable but the regulatory side of

seema kenedy, can you sum up yourfindings and recommendations?ell as civic leaders, local government and all of us. what we want government to do is what government does well. things like measuring loneliness. until now, there has been measures of loneliness and isolation in older people, but as meg's story tells us and the other people we will be hearing from i am sure, it can strike any any community. looking at the interventions and the schemes which do take place like the befriending in oxford, which ones are really effective? the government needs to plot a bit of money into that to research what works and how we can replicate that in other parts of the country. and who do you think should be held accountable if those measures are not put in place, rachel reeves? in our manifesto we are publishing today in batley, we are publishing today in batley, we are calling for the government's, the governor to appoint a minister to ta ke the governor to appoint a minister to take forward a strategy of loneliness. a ministerfor loneliness? yes, we do no

seema?y, first and foremost, you have to secure your bitcoin write down the alphanumeric sequence that serves as your password if your phone is stolen and you didn't write down the key, chances are you're not getting your bitcoin back. because of this risk some people like to have a third party store their private keys, for example coinbase another option is a hardware wallet like ledger these devices store your keys offline where hackers can't access them. if you plan to convert your bitcoin to cash, watch out for extra charges. if you transfer your bitcoin to a debit card, there will likely be a transaction fee as well that changes depending on where bitcoin is trading third, if your bitcoin has risen in value, you are subject to cal gains tax because bitcoin is not defined as currency like the dollars in your purse. instead, bitcoin is seen as property lastly, if privacy is important to you, keep in mind when you create an account on coinbase, it will ask for your name, credit card, and b

cnbc's global market reporter seema modi is joining me.t has been a heck of a year for markets. >> it has, david. i spoke to one trader who said today's performance doesn't matter as much. what everyone is talking about is this massive run that we've seen in stocks this year. 5,000 points or more gained on the dow jones industrial. the strongest year for the dow since 2013. so certainly a lot of happy traders. also a lot of shock and intrigue just given the size and the speed of this rally. that's up 25% gain that we've seen in the dow. >> let's look ahead in 2018. what do the analysts you've been talking to say about the prospects of higher markets still in 2018? >> politics will really matter. tax reform is one of the reasons markets have done so well in 2017. looking into 2018, the question is what else will we expect from washington on the infrastructure side, defense spending as well. wall street very much focused on the political headlines. and what, if we see any uncertainty out of washington, prospect of further ties being shown be

you very much. >> we're slowry starting to see it, perhaps more in 2018. >> korea's leading the way seema time for a cnbc news update, let's get over to kate rogers. hi, kate. >> hey there, kelly, here's blamast happening at this hour preparations under way at the cross roads of the world an estimate the 2 million people will show up to watch the ball drop in times square new york city officials are increasing security by banning backpacks, large bags and umbrellas. additional check points and street closures are expected. >>> a government report says the fda is taking too long to remove tainted food from grocery store shelves. investigators, 0 30 recalls between 2012 and 2015, the agency took an average of 57 days to recall potentially dangerous items. >>> users of fitness tracker fitbit had a very busy year. the company released stats on user activity for 2017 which showed they walked over 45 trillion steps, and got over 41 billion hours of sleep and the most active day was last new year's eve >>> and if you're taking a trip to paris any time soon, make sure to check out newly installed

directionally, it is a multitrillion dollar asset i don't know how long it takes to get there," he told our seema mody the launch of a bitcoin's futures market represents an important milestone for the cryptocurrency known for its price swings most institutional investors had been prohibited from trading bitcoin because it was not listed on a regulated exchange futures also give investors a chance to more easily bet against bitcoin. and as you mentioned earlier, morgan, cme and nasdaq are expected to offer similar futures markets for bitcoin in the weeks and months ahead >> do we know anything yet from the cbo in terms of the volumes that got enacted overnight heavy volume, small volume >> there were about 1,000 contracts that traded hands yesterday, slightly less than analysts were expecting. but it's clear that now that this market has started, now that more people are coming to work on a monday, tuesday, wednesday, we could see more participation in those markets. >> and you can understand why someone like the cboe or cme to come want to get in "in because the margin they can charge on it is h

. >> all right, thank you, sue >>> meanwhile, let's get to seema mody, who's got the european close > john european stocks rebounding after their lows of the session after posting their best one-day performance in more than a month. take a look at currencies. the uk pound remains under pressure after yesterday's brexit talks in brussels failed to result in any breakthrough. progress has been stalled on differences regarding the irish border with the northern ireland being part of the uk pound at 1,34 right now. speaking of, the ftse on a bullish note from goldman sachs. the firm believes easing, upgrading test kuo to buy from the green, as you can see right here on the flip side, more problems for provident financial, the british sub prime lender says investigators are looking at how they assess car buyers for loans. card union is already a subject for a regulatory probe the stock is down more than 70% so far this year let's finish with m & a. cine world acquiring regal sin malls and gives cineworld access to the u.s back to you. >> thank you very much, seema mody >>> when we return,

as you know, seema mody has an update on the largest trading platform coin base what's happening there> ongoing issues on coinbase. it says due to hightraffic buy and sell orders may be temporarily offline. they said that they are working to restore full availability of being able to transact with bitcoin. separately there is a report from bloomberg that the former hedge fun manager of fortress, he's shelving his plans to launch a crypto hedge fund, this according to bloomberg, as you know, he's been a long time bull in bitcoin saying it will reach 40,000 in 2018. >> seema mody with that update what do you guys bake of in? doc, it will go to 8,000, the coin base issue, and the fact that bitcoinwent down 25% in 2 hours, right is this the rollover >> they got hit with so much bad news this week, they being cryptos in generally coinbase got accused of insider trading and so forth on when they added bitcoin cash. that's still under investigation. caused a lot of nokes to try to get out of that at much higher prices as bitcoin cash iran and hit 9,000 on some exchanges. >> the founder of lig

if today is an indication, the bitcoin boom is still very much intact seema mody is breaking it down>> reporter: melissa, after losing one fourth its value last week, it rebounded over the weekend although still trading below it's recent peak of $20,000. there are concerns that coinbase is experiencing a backlog of outgoing transactions for bitcoin and ether. despite the recent volatility in those concerns around coinbase, bitcoin still up over 1500% this year and its market cap has risen over $250 billion. as trading operators launch new bitcoin products, a broader range of investors are showing interest in bitcoin. and per google trends, interest has been rising throughout the year in nations like south africa and australia melissa, back to you >> seema, thanks so much >>> dan, you've dabbled in this. >> coinbase probably 50 times this weekend we had that massive 30% selloff in just a couple of days the fact that it's found a level and stabilized is really important. we were talking about what mike novogratz was saying -- >> is it really stabilized or stabilized for bitcoin >> it f

in an interview with reuters, seema verna said they're considering extending payment for expensive drugsover a longer time frame and whether to reimburse for a drug based on the condition it's approved for. >>> the health care industry is under a lot of pressure to keep those drug prices down. industry leaders are meeting in new york this week. that's where we fi >> reporter: drug pricing was top of mind today at the forbes health care summit, a gathering in new york of industry executives, doctors, and researchers. >> it's hard to justify drug price increases. if you get a medicine and the medicine makes an impact in patients and you pricing the drug appropriately and where it ought to be priced, what's the rational for increasing the prev the pledge is to keep want price increases no higher than inflation. one drug, for a rare genetic disease that affects only 50,000 people in the world, these kind of drugs are often priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. another factor is the potential entrance of amazon into the market. >> they're looking at every market they're in and tr

seema modi is with the ceo of hilton seema, take it away. >> michelle, thank you so much we are at thely launched innovation gallery that serves as an incubator for hilton to test how now products and joining us is chris aceda, thank you for joining us today what is the multimillion dollar project? >> here's the thing, in the dna of this company is innovation. if you think of hilton as almost a 100-year-old company or 99 years old, we invented a lot of what you think of in the hotel business today that you take for granted. somebody had to invent the first airport hotel and the first full service hotel and the first reservation system for that matter, someone had to invent the brownie or pina colada i am proud to say that our company did all of those things and so innovations built into the dna of the company what innovation is about for us is about technology, but it's really holistic innovation and it's the blend of innovating with products and innovating with service and innovating with technology and connecting the product and the service with technology >> so hilton is becoming mo

here's seema verma, the president's administrator at the centers for medicare and medicaid services. listen. >> cms has long bloefd thelieve meaningful work is essential to the economic self sufficiency. self-esteem, well-being and improving their health. why would we not believe the same is true for working age able-bodied medicaid enrollees? >> the problem is critics say that that's just a way to reduce spending by kicking americans off government programs like medicaid. this is being brought up now in the same breath as an expensive tax cut is no accounted a. for facts sake, will mandating work on welfare recipients actually save money? the gop tax plan will blow a trillion dollar hole in the u.s. budget. almost every independent analysis of the tax legislation says so, but republicans say that much-needed welfare reform will help pay for it. how? in part by mandating work requirements on all able-bodied americans who rely on the government safety net to survive. for starters, only 7% of federal spending goes to programs like food stamps, temporary assistance and medicaid. even so

seema mody is at the wharton sc. >> reporter: a growing number of students are saying no to traditional finance roles and are increasingly looking to blockchain and crypto currencies for opportunity. >> quite a large number of students in the class who i've seen come from private equity, hedge fund, consulting, those traditional backgrounds, and have foregone the chance to go back to that traditional path and instead are looking at how best to immerse themselves in the blockchain and crypto currency world. >> reporter: earlier this year, stanford mba student robbie michnick along with other classmates wrote a letter to stanford faculty requesting a class to be taught on blockchain. stanford was quick to respond. the first class will be taught in the spring of 2018. a similar story is playing out across the country at harvard business school. finance, entrepreneurship, strategy, technology operations, all thinking about, you know, how do we think about the blockchain and the set of questions it raises in our disciplines and the demand from the students i think surpasses that. >> reporter

. >> seema, thank you very much for that when we return on "squawk on the street," is it a good idea your property taxes before the new tax bill takes effect in the new year we're live in greenberg, new york, with the answer. first look at the biggest winners and losers for the dow this year. in fact, the individual withiners and losers going up more than 90% for the year today as you can see both down .0.2 of a percent. >> broadermarkets, the s&p is flat as is theasq. nda more "squawk on the street" when we come back (nadia white) the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. (dane chauvel) sometimes the product arrives, and the cold chain has been interrupted, and we need to be able to identify where in the cold chain that occurred. (tom villa) we took our world class network, and we developed devices to track environmental conditions. this device allows people to understand what's happening with the location, but also if it's too hot, if it's too cold, if it's

more on the show take care. >> thank you, guys merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you as well seemang for a raise for all the carnival vokes. >> i want to see show the companies are going to use the extra money they have due to this tax bill. >> that's it. >> probably share buybacks >> just don't buy the stock back thank you, seema see you later. >>> jack in the box trading higher after firming up plans to sell qdoba mexican grill to a private equity firm. we'll have details on that bill and what it means for the food space coming up. >>> and fedex will report earnings after the bell today. pretty timely. we'll have instant reaction to those numbers and what it means for investors coming up. see if they shed any light on the christmas delivery season. stay with us >>> check on some of the movers in the markets today, they're food related jack in the box announcing it agreed to sell qdoba mexican restaurants to apollo global managementment f for about $305 million in cash. the transaction is expected to close april of next year jack in the box is up almost 3%. and darden restaurants

seema malhotra, the labour mp for feltham and heston, says she's received a large number of complaintsrliamentary investigation, and stronger legislation. he needs to be more clear about what landlords can put on leases, about what is fair, and that should be in writing so that residents know what should be expected. police investigating the murder of 18—year—old, jason isaacs, in northolt three weeks ago have made two more arrests. jason was stabbed multiple times during a night out with friends on saturday the 18th of november. one of the two teenagers detained yesterday is still being held, while the other has been released under investigation. detectives say the suspects for the murder were four people riding mopeds and that some people will know who they are. a £20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the prosecution of jason's killers. a small piece of a 130—ton fatberg discovered in sewers will go on display at the museum of london. the curator believes the toxic sludge of sanitary products, grease and sewerage will make a "fascinating and disgusting" exhibit s

ralph crane was a "life "photographer there and i was also working for life tag seema but they assigned me to who they thought would be the winner, so i was assigned to photograph richard nixon. and made this wonderful photograph. and the strategy of getting that nomination was no easy task. made this iconic image of robert and jfk in a hotel room, kind of deciding who would be, or who they would offer the vice president to t and of course lyndon johnson eventually becomes the running mate to jfk, a surprise to a lot of people. you know, i've seen this picture published in parts of the world where it says they are discussing the cuban missile crisis, which we'll get into, or discussing armament. this is a hotel room in vienna where they are meeting with politicians. but in fact it's 1960 at the democratic national convention it wasn't long before he secured that nomination, and then really had to go out on the road to prove himself. of course, in california he's up there with governor pat brown. and here he's preparing some notes for a democratic rally. and of course, you know, the wond

as you hear these politicians talking about how they will not accept a nuclear north korea, you do seema renos in the snow there, training, skiing, you can see hand to hand combat honing those skills. not sure why they had to have their tops off, but this is what they're doing while the politicians are talking. >> all right. thank you. >>> disgraced former boston cardinal bernard law has died in rome after a long illness. law resigned in 2002 during the church sex abuse scandal. he never faced criminal sanctions for his role if allowing abusive priests to remain in the parish jobs. the scandal in boston echoed throughout the church exposing similar accusations worldwide. the result in coverage and settlements compromising the church's moral authority. since his forced resignation cardinal law had searched as arch priest of a papal basilica in rome. he was 86 years old. >>> a devastating tour bus crash killing 12 people including one child and injuring 18 others on mexico's yucatan peninsula. according to officials 31 passengers were on board including american tourists. the nationalties

here's seema mody with your bitcoin playbook >> reporter: with cryptocurrencies capturing the attentionf investors from wall street to main street, here's what to watch for as they go more mainstream in 2018. first, for investors, that means more options to invest in the cryptocurrency ecosystem expect a boom in everything from exchanges to new trading platforms that will make it easier for the every-day investor to get exposure to cryptocurrencies without owning the underlying coin. second, expect bitcoin's rise doing challenged by alternative coins. bitcoin's rapid rise has given birth to over 1300 digital currencies, and traders are look to competitors for opportunity watch ethereum, ripple and li litecoin and get ready for more regulation the s.e.c. has a newly minted cyber unit tasked for finding bad actors who are using digital currencies for money laundering and funding terrorist activities regulation could ultimately add more credibility to the space, and perhaps even pave the way for bitcoin exchange rated funds to be approved >>> let's talk more about cryptocurrencies in the n

. >> same to you >>> and let's get right over to seema mody with the european close. >> just as we seeeakness in tech stocks here, it is the same sector under pressure in europe. check out the apemsuppliers overseas moving lower in reaction to reports of slowing demand for the iphone x. shares of ams down 7% followed by dialogue semi conduct tore and st micro a different story for iwg, the workplace as a service firm soaring after confirming that it has received a takeover approach from brookfield asset management and private equity firm both from canada, that stock up more than 27% if we shift the conversation to autos, china based automaker has bought an 8.2% stake in volvo. and already the owner of volvo car group which is a completely separate company from the truck maker. shares of volvo moving lower erasing earlier gains. and arcam is up sharply on news that general electric announced that it will raise its stake in the 3d printer maker to about 95% from 77%, ge buying arcam shares from elliott and polygon. and interesting move and a number of of european companies reacting to u.

horse manure on seema noons document they should be investigating that. >> no doubt about it. i'm sure you've heard of the term lib-tard, he is a psychologist in los angeles county, and interestingly enough, those who are not familiar, between 15,000 up to 100 plus thousand and he has a package of about $150,000 in benefits, which i think it's interesting, because los angeles counseling should use that money for a better use than individual who refuses to object by voting for someone else. this has become really crazy and erratic, psychologists that needs his own psychologist, because he is insane. >> trish: against to the division, where people think it is open season peak, easy pickings to go after the administration and all members of the administration. that has become acceptable to roll your eyes at the presidency or send a box of horse manure to the treasury secretary's home. he imagined, he is cheered on by his friends. you can see in that interview, he was laughing about the whole thing. it is a fun thing to do. what about the respect for the office of the presidency?

>> seema, thank you.'m looking at the reuters release, michael, which looks like it hit the wires at 3:59:05 and wonder if that's why we were all of a sudden lower into the close. >> i had the same thought. it would be somewhat ironic if the market in the last minute of trading for the year started to react to geopolitical headlines when it basically hasn't all year it would be of the type of headline, just kind of coming out of the blue in the thin market, that might have had an impact you know, the transcript of that interview with the president last night showed he was sort of fix sate fix sated on this idea of somebody getting oil to north korea. therefore, it would have been more top of mind than otherwise. >> michael, for sure it's the number one issue when people say what are my concerns for 2018, they say i don't know about north korea of course, the relationship with russia there perhaps maybe even more unsettling to the markets. how do you interpret this? >> yeah, i mean, the geopolitical concer

seema modi is at the commodity price. >> oil slipping since mid 2015, surpassing the crucial $60 perarrel milestone as an explosion at a pipeline in libya brought supply concerns. they do produce 90,000 barrels of crude a day also adding to the concerns, a closure of britain's largest 40s pipeline currently pumping about half of its normal capacity. despite this disruption that we're seeing in supply, in the global context of things, it's still very small take a look at wti, trading 59.63. the focus will be on opec and the ability to keep the current supply cuts in tact with saudi arabia and russia leading those talks. as cold weather braces in the northeast, want to look at nat gas prices, higher by 3% melissa, back to you. >> seema, thank you at the commodities desk coming up, financials have been riding the trump rally in a big way. will we see more in 2018 now that the tax reform bill has been signed into law as we head to break, take a check on the movement in t treasury market this morning (siren blaring) ♪ working as an emt in a small town usually means hospitals aren't very c

seema shah covers the heart time retailers. theseout hard-line retailers have adapted to the challenging environment. you see home depot -- >> the housing market continues to be strong, home depot, lowe's . the other portion of hard lines is anything that is not apparel or food, including jewelry, home furnishings, office supplies. relativelybeen strong compared to other sectors, but has decelerated. home furnishing is strong in the sense that -- but other players like bed bath & beyond and pier 1 are really struggling to drive sales in their stores. the classic divide between those pushing more business online versus those with the bricks and mortar. >> if you push business too much online and you don't have the infrastructure -- you basically have to offer free shipping as a promotion, otherwise -- urban necessity. one of the biggest reasons people abandon their cars is they don't want to pay for shipping. the stickiness of amazon drives by having membership, you already have the shipping, two days. at this i'm looking chart

perhaps a sharp departure from what we've heard from european regulators carl >> thank you very much, seematching europe's close this morning let's get a news update with sue herera good morning again, sue. >> good morning, carl. thanks so much here's what's happening at this hour, everyone iranian's president says president trump will not succeed in destroying the 2015 nuclear deal between iran and world powers he told a conference in tehran that president trump had tried to kill the deal several times but hasn't been successful so far. >>> a house committee has received additional information on sexual harassment settlements from 2008 to 2012. the total amount of the awards, including race and age discrimination, total to more than $350,000. >>> audi is recalling more than 52,000 luxury cars in the u.s. and canada to fix fuel lines that can leak and increase the risk of fire that recall covers certain a6 and a7 cars from the 2012 to 2014 model years >>> and disney's hall of presidents has been updated with an audio robot of president trump. the attraction has been closed since january. di

anthony, what is your outlook on nat gas especially if temperatures continue to dip >> seema, i thinkn go higher from here we're looking as we started the season prices at 320, supplies right in the middle of the five-year average and temperatures that were good. as you mentioned, it is cold now. it's going to continue that puts us down to 2.60. now we're doing triple-digit draws in supply. i expect that to continue and that will lift prices going forward. >> jim, what are the levels investors should be watching here >> well, if you look at the two-year out chart, over the last year and a half, it's obvious that the 2.5 level is a level of significant support now, it got really cold, yes, but could it be that easy? well, it's a little more complicated thanthat we already consolidated. the cold snap came in, pushed higher, i agree with andrew. >> and thank you joined by david stockman revealing his warning on bitcoin, plus why commodities are being picked over stocks in the new year the "halftime report" is back after this short break see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm

we had seema mody caught up with camer cameron inklevoss and he think this is a multitrillion dollaret. we'll see. it will take a while for that to get there. what's next? well, we've got to build some open interest. they've got to get more volume in this thing. we have to see more people long and short. the contract, we'll get some kind of notions in the next week or two about how many people are shorting that. they should have weekly numbers. need a more narrow bid it's been wide overnight and most importantly another futures contract starting on december 18th we'll see how that goes from there. overall, it's an orderly open, but very, very small numbers keep in mind >> interesting features of bitcoin as an underlying market, bob, relatively small number of people estimates are like 1,000 people own 40% of outstanding bitcoin these are early adopters and the question was were they going to take the opportunity to maybe hedge or take some off the table and that's impossible to see right now, but it's unlike, for example, gold or any other commodity where you have such kons at concen

. >> such a sobering statistic, sue, thank you very much >>> let's get the european close now, seemay is at post 9 >> right here, here we go. >> hello >> european stocks are on the rise today ftse is on the leaders with uk consumer confidence hitting a four-year low. markets also paying close attention to a pivotal election in spain's catalonia election. once again polls are about to close in about two and a half hours from now the contest is between pro independence parties and their unionist counterparts seen as too close to call. prime minister rajoy called for the new elections after seizing control of catalonia two months ago while ousting the catalan president and government after the historic referendum. keep in mind since the catalon referendum on october 1st of this year, the spanish stock market saw a lot of volatility, but only down about 1% since then although when you look at the bond market, the spanish ten-year yield has posted a somewhat larger move, down about 9% during that same time period. and we finish with the stock of the day in europe, and that is nestle, sayi

. >>> seema, thank you very much we're coming to the final countdown now, just about two days to go untiley reagan is in new york, queens, hey, courtney. >> that's right, hi, mike. actually, the stores have only been open for a couple hours, but the traffic is picking up. i don't know how much you can see in this shot behind me, but it's going to be nothing compared to what you're going to see on saturday when almost 126 million americans are expected to hit the stores. that's about half of the u.s believe it or not, it's down from last year because so much shopping got done earlier in the season, but certainly not all of it we caught up with more than one procrastinator take a listen. >> i just started, because i work all the time, so today's my first day of shopping and i'm not close to being done. i'm stressed i refuse to do it on christmas eve. i'm going to try to get as much done today, tomorrow morning, and that's it. >> so, she may have just started, but others have certainly been shopping. first data has new transactional data that shows sales on stores and online combined up 6.6%

is our favourite brexit duo, the conservative nigel evans who voted for brexit, and the labour mp seemaboth, lovely to see you. as you head off into the christmas recess, honestly did you think that the first phase would be done and dusted by now and did you expect theresa may to be sitting on the front bench today? well as we approach the season of goodwill, we re approach the season of goodwill, were not quite out of this place yet, we have boats taking a slate into the night tonight. and i think there has been strong debate today in parliament. it is something that i'm struck by today, theresa may is getting a big law more for all the long grass she would have to deal with next year because it is clear that she's managed to kick a lot of stuff into the long grass. were not clear what will happen with the customs union, with ireland, whether the agreement last week, the joint report, is going to be legally binding. because david davis seemed to change his mind after the agreement was reached. so theresa may i think i stumbled to the end of the year but the idea that she goes out on a

. >> eamon javers on the north lawn now to seema mody with futures now for us. >> scott, copper is tumbling% and pacing for its worse day in over two years let's bring in scott nations what's behind the move, scott? >> well, we got a surprise increase in supply in futureses warehouses also, there's now an expectation that chinese demand is going to fall, particularly in infrastructure i mean, copper is still up nearly 20% for the year, but as you can see from this chart we're now below the support that's been really important for the last three months, and below that level it's look out below. >> china seems to be part of the story as well. brian, what levels are you watching here? >> well, i don't think it's unusual to see gap moves when we see moves out of china that. has happened before in copper and the year to date up 24%. the longer term chart, bring that up and look further 280 level down there i think there's a ton of support and breaking the 3.05 range and now the range is 3.05 on the upside and 2.80 and 2.85 on the downside and i'd become a buyer at that level when i would look to

guys >> all right, seema, big move there. >>> let's go down to bob at the new york stock exchange. bob, it doesn't appear to be systemic, i guess. doesn't seem to be impacting the equity market. i would imagine they're talking about it down there, as well >> the mania extends all the way to the floor of the new york stock exchange let me show you what is going on with the cme future. remember, this is only one week old. the contract there are price limits on it pauses that may or may not halt tradings once you hit 20% down, though, you can't trade below that you can trade above that you see that oval that i circled there, that's when it hit the price limit of 20% down a little after 9:00 for almost an hour, it did not trade above 20% and you can't go below that only close to 10:00 did you see it was starting to move up above that those were the price limits and we've come off of those lows right now. the important thing, take a look at the cme contract for the whole week we've had huge volume today. almost 2,000 contracts that's 700, 800 would be an average. we had four, five times

seema mody joining us with more. >> incredible.ding says what we're seeing right now is panic selling driven in part by retail investors and first-time buyer whose bought bitcoin around 10,000 and are now experiencing their first major pull pm back also warning, capacity and liquidity constraints. ongoing issues at coinbase, which had to temporarily disable buy and sell trades overnight, has since then fixed the issue separately, strong warning from financial industry regulators still making the rounds this morning on companies touting their association with cryptocurrencies, long island tea, net element, and riot blockchain down substantially following big moves earlier this week thehope that the entrance of larger players like the cme and cbo will inject a stability into the market, but so far, volatility has not subsided. bitcoin now down over 40% from last sunday when the bitcoin futures contract went live for long-term investors, here's a silver lining. we have seen five separate 30% drops in bitcoin the average one-week gain

talk every day about what bitcoin is doing some people think it's going to get a lot more expensive seemaith cameron winklevos and said long term it's a multitrillion dollar asset, may be wishful thinking we have a very, very long way to go for that to happen. still, you have to think the cbo is happy i'm waiting for them to issue a statement but we've got a new product launch, two halts but built into it. there was nothing that happened that was unexpected. the website went down briefly but overall you have to think they are happy here's the next step, they've got to figure out, it's day three, four and five and six that matter. we want more people long and short. you need to narrow the bid and ask -- $20 to several hundred dollars, that's fairly wide. when you get more active trading that bid ask should narrow interesting day, bottom line, cme will be starting next monday, maybe get more volume there. the dow up three points right now. back to you. >> thank you, bob. now to the bond pits we go joined by rick santelli. good morning. >> good morning, david real quickly on bitcoin, i've se

. >> we appreciate you both joining us >> seema mody has a quick sector report >> and health care issome activity in fa pharmaceuticals. sucampo will buy mallinckrodt. both trading hire on the news. and stay right here, we'll be right back i used to have more hair. i used to have more color. and... i used to have cancer. i beat it. i did. not alone. i used to have no idea what the american cancer society did. research? yeah. but also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. i used to maybe give a little. then i got so much back. i used to have cancer. please give at cancer.org. your new brother-in-law. you like him. he's one of those guys who always smells good. his 5 o'clock shadow is always at 5 o'clock. you like him. your mom says he's done really well for himself. he has stocks and bonds. your dad wants to go fishing with him. your dad doesn't even like fishing. you like your brother-in-law. but you'd like him better if you made more money than he does. don't get mad at your brother-in-law. get e*trade. >>> good morning it is 8:00 a.m. in california, 11:00 a.m. here o