you disagree with what steve eisman is pointing out. >> this is a big change. i have been very bullish on your show from valuation. morgan stanley and goldman sachs were trading at 80% as recently as june. with this move morgan stanley has gone from 23 to 43. it is trading at 1.3 times. that's not outrageously overpriced but gone from being objectively cheap to fair value. sometimes things go from cheap to rich stopping only briefly at fair value. at this point i don't see how you can say banks are cheap. >> what would you say? >> i think bank stocks make a lot of sense today. i am bullish for three reasons. one is the potential for regulatory improvement, rolling back of dodd-frank or limiting regulatory exposures. banks are offering a lot of products at a loss because they can't invest the assets with the fed bumping interest rates up and committing to doing it more that could be a big improvement to banks, as well. >> and you don't -- to charles point you doint hg that is already in the stock and then some right now of the financials? >> we had a big move si

. >> are you as bullish on the banks as steve eisman is right now? >> i'm afraid i'm not.ou know, i think if i were to categorize myself relative to what bob just discussed in your previous segment, i'm more in the pragmatist camp. with continue to respect of the yield curve, many things i would argue as being discounted in bank stocks are still i think very early, and i'm in a little more of a skbat see mode to see if they, in fact, benefit future earnings. >> one of the things that has been pointed out by a number of analysts as a bullish scenario is regulatory reform. but you seem to think that perhaps not as much reform is going to happen as a lot of people think. >> yes. that's correct. so the big debate is really around the repeal of dodd/frank. and i would say quite flatley, the likelihood of repeal or significant reform to dodd/frank is zero. the one thing you could see is some new legislation targeted at regulatory relief for smaller community and regional banks. but broadly speaking, i don't see a big -- a high likelihood of deregulation, as long as that requires

crisp programing note, steve eisman will sit down exclusively with the "squawk box" crew, up next, your tweets and the final calls for to the "options action" pit. hey gary, what are you doing? oh hey john, i'm connecting our brains so we can share our amazing trading knowledge. that's a great idea, but why don't you just go to thinkorswim's chat rooms where you can share strategies, ideas, even actual trades with market professionals and thousands of other traders? i know. your brain told my brain before you told my face. mmm, blueberry? tap into the knowledge of other traders on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade. ♪ guyhey nicole, happening here? this is my new alert system for whenever anything happens in the market. kid's a natural. but thinkorswim already lets you create custom alerts for all the things that are important to you. shhh. alerts on anything at all? not only that, you can act on that opportunity with just one tap right from the alert. wow, i guess we don't need the kid anymore. custom alerts on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade. >> end of show time, which means it is

this hour a rare tv interview with steve eisman. >> you have no idea the kind of crap people are pullingrybody is walking around like they are in a video, and they are all getting screwed, you know. >> he joins us in an exclusive interview. >> donald trump tweets and beijing responds. we will tell you what chinese state media is saying today, as the second hour of "squawk box" starts right now. >> announcer: live from the beating heart of business, new york city. this is "squawk box." >> i am joe kernen. treasury yields have been a little quiet these last few sessions, the 10-year, and the oil prices under control, and we have seen 49 for a while and somewhere below 55, and we are at 52 today. >> the dollar a little quieter this morning. in the headlines, apple will launch a legal challenge to the european union's demand, and the tax deal with ireland amounted to illegal state aid provided by ireland. ireland is also challenging that ruling. >>> reports say vw is near a deal, and earlier they reached a deal that covered most but not all diesel vehicle owners. >>> and then it's like a bar

. >> and a final, steve eisman is going to join us from "the big short."he actor, the real guy. he'll be here at 7:00 a.m. >> good stuff. looking forward to "squawk box" in nine minutes' time. meantime, we'll discuss what to expect for the market trading day. and the week ahead. the dow hitting six straight weeks of gains. the longest positive run since november 2014. joining us to discuss whether it can hit 20,000 this week is julian emanuel, the executive at ubs strategy. we focus on the target and pause a little bit for the general bullishness from last week. but the dow is in positive territory. can that go to 20,000 before the end of the year? >> the markets tend to get quiet the last couple of weeks in the year. and we suspect you'll go sideways. we'll have 20,000, but will you go roaring on through? that's probably going to wait until the new year more than likely. >> when it comes to what stops the march higher end stock, what sort of factors are you looking at? >> well, history is a pretty good guide here. if you think about it, the market has bee

>> steve eisman. >> he told us democrats are the party of compromise.h a straight face. >> the great thing is there's lots of different opinions. >> wow. >> that's aggressive. >> all right. >> if we'd all follow steve eisman during the financial crisis, we'd be in a much better place in life. >>> separately, we've got a lot more ahead on "squawk." you're sticking around. up next, we're opening up cnbc's 2017 playbook. alook ahead at small business in america. plus trump says one web will create 3,000 jobs in the u.s. we'll talk to the founder of one web. back in a moment. amic express open cards n help you take on a new j, or fill g order and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and servic can help prepa you r growth at open.com. >>> welcome back to "squawk box." the futures have been a little bit weaker for most of the session after a -- one of e the worst sessions since the election yesterday. triple digit. the s&p has now turned positive though. now the dow. see. we've got charles kantor here. already responding. although

. >> anton, steve eisman was on cnbc recently, he was saying that we were entering a golden age for theector, a golden age of investing in financial stocks. that certainly gets your attention, but as an investor in these stocks, are you concerned at all that this is becoming a pretty consensus type trade going into 2017? >> well, i still think they're underowned. and, you know, the thing that i've always done throughout my career is look for, you know, strategic changes in companies and mergers and acquisitions. so if you remove some of the regulations that have been hampering transactions, ie the $10 billion level for durbin, d fast and the $50 billion level for ccar, you could have a lot more activity happen in mid cap banks in terms of m&a and i think you could create a lot of value from those transactions. we've started to see some companies use their stronger currency to create value. ibtx in texas did a very smart deal, immediately accretive to book value, immediately accretive to earnings. you see those kind of transactions out there that are smart and create value for shareholde

. >>> well, steve eisman on "squawk box" earlier. >> i think the financial system is going to be at leastly deregulated, i think over the next couple years they'll be more leverage and this will be a golden age of investing in financial stocks. >> so you would be very long right now financial stocks? >> as long as i could be. >> and is that what you are? >> and that is what i am. >> all right. for more on this call, let's bring in our own wilfred frost. clearly eisman a goot not afraid to go negative on banks but likes them here. >> absolutely right. he said it was a golden age in investing for banks. of course that era has already begun with a huge rally we've seen in banks over the last few months. what's that down to? it is in part hopes for things like deregulation and tax changes, but it is the move in the yield curve more than anything else that is played the biggest part in the share price moves. thus, a constructive view on the banks from here should be more based on whether you feel the rise and steepening of the yield curve can be maintained or extended than hopes for deregulati

what did steve eisman say? democrats wage -- does that sum it up?n this is -- i mean, barack obama had much better celebrities. i'm just saying. he got all of them. >> there's a reason, right? >> i know. >> barack obama is a great president that had never made a payroll. right? >> that's true. >> learning on the job and he wasn't a celebrity at the time. so he needed to surround himself with celebrities which is fine. this president is already a celebrity. >> you're being so diplomatic, sir. it's a pleasure. >> president obama came into the office without any successful executive experience and is leaving the same way. anyway, good to have you here. it's okay. you don't have to counter that. >> i'm just saying the happened -- hand is on the scale. >> pleasure to have you. >>> coming up, media and tech deal. will more deals get done under the trump administration? we asked the ceo of lion tree after the break. (fans cheering) because when you really, really want to be there... but you can't. (cheering) at cognizant, we're helping today's leading medi