under the times under consideration for national intelligence as walter isaacson just said, it would nice to have a ceo who knows technology, bring some order to intelligence in this country. as walter said, at the same time they'll be once again a revisiting of her tenure at hp, compaq, board drama, and all of that. >> yes, indeed. yes, we as cnbc know a lot of ceos. it's interesting, though, to see so many being considered or getting the nod for top administration post in an election that was so much about the little guy being left behind by folks like ceos. we'll see where this goes. >> and an appointment like that would be proof positive that the hatchet from the campaign can truly be buried. >> given the kinds of things that they bickered about during the primary and we all remember what they were. that would be quite a turn. i think we can all agree on that. when we come back, amazon, facebook, apple, now microsoft venture is betting big in artificial intelligence. get some details on that after a break. world ugly and messy. they are the natural born enemy of the way things ar

. >>> and walter isaacson will join us with his latest project.l about jobs, infrastructure and america's long-term prosperity. >>> 8:30 a.m., fixing the tax code, and grover nor kweus will be with us. they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful. >>> welcome back to "squawk box." the dow opening higher by 32 points and the s&p by nearly 5, and the nasdaq by more than 4. the dollar is backing off a little today. >> joe knows everything. >>> making headlines -- i was not joking. the ft announced the $65 million merger by wednesday. the industrial gas companies are said to be finalizing terms. >>> in other deal news this morning, british tobacco plans to add a cash sweetener for reynolds american, and reynolds american now demanded british american tobacco change the mixture of cash and shares it offered and that's attempting to buy 58% of reynolds it does not already own. >>> and it's a $4.9 billion deal in cash and stock, and fairfax

we'll have a conversation with walter isaacson from the aspen institute. >>> and then james quinn, tiffany'sr president, is going to join us on all sorts of things that i need to ask about how that store down the street next to mr. trump's house is doing this holiday. >> i was there the weekend before last, you have to wait in a line. there's one line to go into trump tower and one line to go into tiffany. it has to be disruptive. >> and a final, steve eisman is going to join us from "the big short." not the 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 marke

i read the jobs biography by walter isaacson and it is striking how completely different and similar apple is to exxon mobil. i walked away thinking what a country. only the united states could produce apple and exxon mobil. apple is a completely california bread -- in the book, steve jobs went into interviews and asked furious job candidate if they had evident lsd in the hope the answer would be yes. at exxon mobil -- please take this cup and provide a drug test. >> host: report your paper cuts. >> guest: they are very different. they are both the command management and driven by a desire to control their environment. steve jobs desperately wanted to control every element of the customer's experience, every element of the design, and both were good partners, they didn't believe in partnership. they believed in the advantages of total control and that makes them secretive. it is the secrecy that follows the desire for control, not secrecy is an end in itself. the other point about exxon mobil and its unpopularity, most big industrialized democracies because of the nature of energy ec