hopefully we're not in for the same exact gain. >> what does alexa think about the markets?ave you asked her? >> i have not. cnbc has an app both on the -- on alexa and homm, and i tried it. >> people have probably seen that ad on our network if they watch cnbc. andrew, thanks for being here. mike, thanks as well. let's get over to "halftime confessions" and scott wapner. >> all right, kayla. thanks so much. i'm scott wapner. the bullish sign for stocks that could keep them climbing long after the dow hits 20,000. with us for the hour jim levanthal, joe terra nova, sarat with us as well. also with us kevin o'leary, etf chairman. let's begin with the sign. one market watcher says could lead to big gains for the s&p in 2017. jonathan of mkm partners joins us now on the phone. jonathan, welcome back. >> thanks

the prosecutors' requests. for now, more from martin savidge. >> alexa what did you hear? ssible the device witness add murder inside this arkansas home. what police in bentonville are wondering. only not asking the device. they're asking echo's maker anson. so far the tech giant is saying no to a police warrant seeking data and recordings, the always-on gadget may have picked up. >> a lawfully issued search warrant by a judge. amazon's position they simply don't have to comply. >> reporter: this man was found dead face down in a hot tub. there were indications of foul play arresting 31-year-old james bates on suspicion of murder. bates' attorney says the death was nothing more than a tragic accident, and her client is innocent. she applauds amazon's refuse toll comply with police demands calling it chilling a christmas gift could be used against people. >> it scares me our criminal system is coming down to technology supposed to help our daily live its and now used agat us. >> reporter: in a statement provided to cnn amazon stead could change its willing to cooperate sayin

this creates an effect where people use the alexa. u use amazon and go devices, the more you use amazon. if you can put this in people's house, they become more frequent customers, like prime customers. >> shannon, it is great to have you on the show. give us a sense of the mobile element you are covering. buoyancy in the way we shop. shannon: before the brick-and-mortar retail's -- retailers talk about their apps, it is the battle of the apps. consumers will be using a couple apps. dominates that space. maybe a couple retailers can make a dent their, you have the app on your phone, you are using mobile in real-time, ordering things, price checking in the store. the debate will not be around who has the best website but who has the best app and mobile platform. there -- that is where consumers are moving. playingrick and mortars catch-up? think they are doing better than they were a couple atrs ago, but when you look amazon and the sales of alexei and the way amazon continues to dominate this space and is drawing more consumers into th

but can the echo and alexa the digital assistant solve a murder?ice in arkansas say the answer may be yes. why is amazon refusing to help the police? fox business' jeff flock is on the case for us. >>> and a busy day for donald trump. the president-elect expected to make new comments on the economy in the next hour. we're going to be listening. a potential roadblock on cabinet pick hurt mr. trump's plans to kick the economy into high gear. we have a political panel tackling that question and a lot more. "countdown" is live from the floor of the new york stock exchange. we're coming right back. . . cheryl: all right, we're getting some breaking news on the floor right now. japan's troubled auto parts company takata, we're told is nearing a settlement with the u.s. department of justice. this would resolve allegations of criminal wrongdoing how they handled the rupture-prone airbags linked to several deaths and injuries. the agreement expected to be reached next year, they would pay up to one billion and agree to criminal misconduct. it may take a li

. >> it's unanswerable, alexa. turn thevolume to ten. >> we apologize if your alexa has ordered paper towels. >> my echo is right next to my tv. if my son is not watching the nfl network but is watching his daddy, it has probably just gone off six times. >> alexa, watch daddy. >> i'm watching shares of nvidia at an all-time high. a lot of analysts have turned positive after a massive run over the past year or so. they turned positive. goldman sachs adding to conviction buy list. we made fun of these analysts but this stock keeps going in the sweet spot of automotive, ai. >> i like to get my shopping done early. as i went to the malls i noticed the parking lots were not crowded. i can get a spot like i hadn't been able to in prior years. >> thanks for watching. "closing bell" starts now. >>> welcome to "closing bell" i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffith. bringing ground hogs day to broadway in february. >> the movie? bill murray? >> as a stage production, a musical. we are living through that

does it have to record the words before and after alexa. y wake it up. >> there are basic things a cop could learn. maybe learn when the person was alive. because he said alexa at this point. that will help you time the death. >> james bates and his brother norman invite you into the hot tub, you think twice about -- >> you say hey, alexa. >> norman bates, that rings a bell. i'm at the bates motel, should i go into this hot tub? no. >> okay, that aside i would say -- >> oh, we're going back to -- >> and who is keeping alexa in their bathroom, next to the hot tub. maybe the hot tub was somewhere else. >> maybe in the back yard. >> could you keep the alexa in the back yard? >> you don't know what they were talking about. maybe there's coverups. >> maybe they were ordering from alexa while in the hot tub. >> the murderer could throw people off by saying hey alexa. >> alexa may get a bad reputation from this. >> i'm going to hobble you so you can't leave. anyway. remember that? >>> coming up, former governor mitch daniels penned a letter to dona

the experts. >> santa? >> alexaurn off the light. >> reporter: in santa's bag the must-have gadget for tech geeks and the rest of us. he c echo from amazon nicknamed alexa -- >> alexa, what do i have on my cal endar? >> a dentist appointment at 2:00. your flight to portland is delayed by 30 minutes. >> reporter: and google home. >> google, turn the lights on in kevin's room. >> reporter: but here is what you may not intelligence is always listening, waiting for the wake-up words. >> okay, google -- >> alexa. >> reporter: in california the potter family is always hooked on alexa. >> alexa, what day is christmas? >> christmas day will be on sunday, december 25th. >> reporter: answering questions on demand, playing dance music. ♪ even singing a song. ♪ oh, jingle bells part of the family. >> reporter: here is how they work. both devices are always on. they record your voice print and keep track of your questions. every inquiry is transmitted to a google or amazon server to collect your answer. but all the conversations

the amazon echo where you can use the voice to give a command and they are using ai, for example, the alexaan let you order an uber. i think the idea is for these big tech companies to have some connective language that you can use so that when you want to control your lights or your oven or your washing machine, instead of having to open up seven apps on your phone and trying to command these different devices, you have the singular hub that you can use your voice to talk to so everything is becoming more and more natural. >> and then if you hear it on tv, apparently tv can now control these devices, too, but, hey, okay, google. am i your friend? >> i have a lot of best friends. i guess you can call me a people person. >> she can hang out with me. that would be fine. what about fitness? we're hearing about all these wearables that help you achieve your fitness calls. >> smartwatches and fitness wearables tend to get lumped into the same category and they are performing really, really differently. you have seen the market tank over the past few months and basic wearables have taken off and

until you say the key wake words. >> alexa, what's the weather today?currently in oakland it's 53 degrees. >> reporter: david pierce writes about artificial intelligence for "wired." >> the companies promise over and over in specific language that they are not sending data anywhere until you say the wake word. >> reporter: still, once on, the devices are always listening to conversations that could be mundane, financial for intimate. >> nothing really to hide there. i guess i don't think think about that too much. but now i will. >> reporter: both echo and google home light up when the wake word connects them to servers. you can hit the mute button, go into your accounts and delete your queries. amazon tells nbc news echo and alexa were designed with privacy and security as part of the design. google says only the store's voice-based queries received immediately after recognizing one of the hot words. >> what a lot of the tech companies figured out is that consumers pick cool, convenient features over privacy. >> reporter: look what happened when one fa

. >> reporter: from the moment you wake up -- >> alexa, what's on the calendar>> reporter: until you go to >> reporter: the amazon echo delivering music, news, weather, and more. police in bentonville, arkansas could prove their case against this man, james base, accused of killing his coworker, mr. collins, found dead in his hot tub after a night of partying. when owners talked to alexa, it records the conversation. the question is, was it recording that night? the case brings new legal questions about high-tech devices that are always on. >> as much as we love the convenience, i think customers are legitimately concerned about their privacy rights. >> reporter: base pled not guilty and mining his data is an invasion of privacy. >> amazon will not release data without a legal demand and, quote, objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands. they turned over some account information to the authorities, but not echo. the case is set to go to trial next year. abc news, new york. >>> all right. coming up next, we go into the abc news vault for a revealing

the bathroom. and i yell at alexa, that's even worse. teresting that they store that on the cloud, that extra information. we have to leave it there, tau so much and happy new year. now there's a shortage threatening restaurants across the united states. we'll explain what's going on. >>> welcome back. a shortage of cooks causing a crisis in america's restaurant kitchens. the bureau of labor statistics predicts some 200,000 new chefs will be needed in the coming years, but the pricey cost of culinary school and low wages driving aspiring cooks away. anita is live for us in los angeles with the details. anita, no. >> reporter: yeah, nice location here. we're at louie's restaurant in west l.a., a popular spot and one of many restaurants across the nation having trouble keeping cooks in the kitchen. heather, it seems even aspiring chefs nowadays don't want to work their way up the food chain. >> here we have jamie, right now he's a line cook, but due to the nature of the shortage of line cooks, jamie is also, like, my kitchen right-hand man.

we dug into the online retailer and its record sales of alexa devices. consumer reporter sean and bloomberg editor at large cory johnson. >> amazon is very fast and lse with theumbers they throw out. the fact that this was the biggest holiday ever. if it wasn't, it would be a disaster, because the expectation was for 25% year over year sales growth. we don't know how many they sold last year so we don't know what , that number means and the , company is reticent to release actual figures. rbc capital markets estimated about midyear the company sold about a billion dollars of alexa products for perhaps very little profit, but the motion that it could be a much larger number coming in. let's say three times that number, it starts to be a significant number, maybe not on amazon's scale where they are expect to do about $45 billion in revenues for the quarter. profit, but the motion that itbf things is good, not just because it works for amazon, it creates an effect. one of the things we found out with a study earlier this year, the more they use amazon echo

clues inside a home. >> reporter: alexa, what's the weather? >> currently -- >> reporter: amazon's aassistant echo, better known as alexa, was a best seller this christmas. now police hope she can help solve a real life whodunnit. but amazon is saying no to a warrant seeking electronic data in the form of audio recordings, transcribed records, text record from an echo inside a home where a murder maybe committed. >> when you buy these things, even if it's not on, it's on and it's listening. >> reporter: prosecutors say 32-year-old james bates murders his co-worker found in his hot tub. beets pled not guilty. he is scheduled to go to trial next year, his attorney says bates has nothing to hide but this is an issue of privacy. >> you should be able to do what you want in your home. >> that is free from the view of public, the view of police. >> reporter: amazon tells nbc news, it will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. amazon rejects to overbrodie and otherwise appropriate demands as a

the center for digital government. i have a lot of questions. my inlaws have an alexa and we were playing with it over the holiday. one thing, morgan, it's sleeping in theory when you're not using it, to wake it up you have to say alexa, what time is it, alexa, turn on the lights, are we sure that there are recordings of the murder unless the victim was alexa but that would be the coincidence. >> you set up 50,000alexa devices around the country. [laughter] >> this is interesting, a couple of weeks i was talking about a patent be able to serve advertising, these things do, melissa, they are on and what they do is take a segment, it's like a 15-second buffer, they are always listening for 15 seconds and they hear the wake word, hey, it's time for me. you have to be able to be in the mode to listen and hear. how much was recorded because it does send it to amazon, mothership to process it and fulfill actions like call uber. there are certain things that are saved, i believe, only for a limited amount of time. the real question, this is going to get underneath the covers, are they really doing what they say they are d

i always have alexa turn the volume down. up. >> if some stranger try to use your echo. >> they will be able to use it. >> they are? >> it didn't recognize my voice. >> that's because you're talking like this. we all have our own dialects. go to settings and then voice training so it starts to know you. the last thing to do with you. this is amazing. alexa, raise the temperature in the hallway 60 degrees. >> i couldn't find any smart devices. >> alexa stop. alexa stop. >> just like at home, no one did it to you. >> all right. i don't think nick is going to come in. we'll show it to you next time. of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. for all day and all night protection... banish the burn... with nexium 24hr. listen up. etes. we're not professional athletes... but that doesn't mean we're giving up. i'm in this for me. for me. along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes, lowering a1c by up to 1.2 points. do not take if allergic to farxiga. if you experience

abc's mara schiavocampo with the clues they're looking for. >> alexa, alarm off. >> reporter: from theyou wake up -- >> alexa, what's on the calendar today? >> reporter: until you go to bed, the amazon echo, delivering music, news, weather and more. but police in arkansas say it could help prove their case against this man, james bates, accused of killing his coworker, victor collins, found dead in bates' hot tub after a night of partying. when owners talk to alexa -- >> ask domino's to send me mill last order. >> okay. order placed. >> reporter: it records the conversation. the question is, was it recording that night? the case brings new legal questions about high tech devices that are always on. >> as much as we love the convenience, i think customers are legitimately concerned about their privacy rights. >> reporter: bates has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say mining his echo's data is an invasion of privacy. amazon saying they will not release data without a legal demand, and, quote, objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands. so far, amazon has turned over some

rbc capital markets estimated the company sold about a billion dollars of alexa products. ery little profit but the motion that it could be a much larger number coming in say three times that number, it starts to be a significant number, maybe not on amazon's scale where they are expect to do about $45 billion in revenue. it's good not just because it works for amazon, it creates an effect. things we found out with a study earlier this ar, more they use amazon echo devices the more they use amazon. same way amazon prime customers become more frequent amazon.s of >> shannon, great to have you on the show. us a sense of the mobile element that you're covering, how much? used to be a buoyancy. i think before the big brick retailers, people talked about the app, it's the battle of aps. they know consumers are only to be using a couple of aps on their phone. dominating. maybe there are a couple of other retailers that can make a dent to have the app on your phone, that you're using, in real-time orring things while night, lying in bed at price checking from your app. o i think m

, turn off the lights, alexa, turn on the tv.i have never seen anything more intuitively dead on to making a guest experience seamlessly delicious. effortlessly convenient in the ability to talk to your room. that means alexa is always listening for her name. and when you talk to alexa what you say is recorded and sent to the i cloud. there is a microphone alexa and hears you all the time in your las vegas room and when you haven't -- >> she knows when you have been counting cards so don't cheat for goodness sake. >> pull the plug. >> i love alexa. she tells me how many points carmelo anthony had. >> i think the most common question is how do i win at blackjack. i think people go to vegas often. their whole marketing campaign is about being loose. >> i'm sure people in vegas have talked to their rooms many times befo before. >> now it will talk back. >>> it is time for check please. my is new battle donald trump versus "vanity fair." you remember guy who opened a restaurant in times square. the "vanity fair" review of trump grill

detectives hope to pull clues from the device always listening to alexa. refusing that information. the question is, should it? here's the former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney jonathan stillmore. it's amazing how many questions alexa can answer. you both have different perspectives on this. you say amazon should hand over the evidence, why? >> the more evidence a better. we know a homicide occurred and this device is capable of recording audio. that's probably cause to think that the device has evidence related to a crime. that means the constitutional standard is met. if i'm a prosecutor seeking that warrant, if i'm a judge, i'm signing that warrant. >> here's what amazon says. amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. we object to overboard or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course. you're on their side to say they should not release it. >> i applaud them. amazon has a duty to its customers to withhold any information from the government without, in this case, wi

>> and last but not least, we have the alexa speaker.m amazon.com. >> oh, that's cute. >> but it's done in a buffalo plaid. this thing is so powerful. it well help you order a pizza, play your spotify. it's bluetooth enabled and alexa enabled. alexa, order me some more wine. >> awesome. >>> coming up, after all the gift giving is done, you know what, it'im a rest and all the things to look forward to. should we put a jellybean on the top? purple? absolutely. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i was born a dreamer... ♪ i was born a dreamer... that sound. like nails on a chalkboard. but listen to this: (family talking) that's a different kind of sound. the sound of the weekend. it's baking season. warm up with pillsbury. is that they contour to your body.r-pedic mattresses... it keeps us comfortable and asleep at night. most highly recommended bed in america for as low as $25 per month and 90 night free trial. drum roll please.hing. it's the sing sweepstakes. it's some of this, loads of that. 'cause you can win $100,000 from