13 points. The nikkei was down. Closed down by a half percentage point. You did see that stocks were higher in china. Hang seng up by 1. 5 then this morning in early trading in europe, take a look things are mixed stocks are slightly low ner germager lower in germany and france. Stocks in italy down by 0. 6 then you have crude oil. Crude Oil Yesterday ended up down back below 58. This morning its up, but still below 58, trading at 57. 57 to the story of the morning the closely watched senate race in alabama, Democrat Doug Jones is the apparent winner there, though republican roy moore is not conceding just yet john harwood joins us from birmingham he has that story. Good morning good morning. This was a very big victory for the Democratic Party first time they won a United States senate race in alabama in 25 years a big defeat for President Trump and his party. Look at the numbers. Twopoint lead for doug jones. Roy moore has not yet conceded he said gods in control were still waiting for writeins and a possible recount. Though the twopoint margin is outside the boundaries for an automatic recount. If you look at the key groups that compelled doug jones victory, africanamericans with strong turnout subpar turnout in conservative areas for moore. College educated, white women, doug jones did well there. Moderates did well for doug jones. The candidate came out this is a man who prosecuted klansmen for the bombing of the 16th street baptist church, he said this was a victory for justice. Tonight is a night for rejoicing. Because as dr. King said, as dr. King liked to quote, the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice [ applause ] tonight tonight, ladies and gentlemen, tonight in this time, in this place, you helped bend that moral arc a little closer to that justice. Now there were extraordinary circumstances in the alabama race roy moore, the republican candidate, had been accused of child molestation of a 14yearold when he was in his 30s and pursuing other teenagers when he was in his 30s President Trump went in for his campaign, conducted a robocall, pulled the Republican Party back in after they tried to get out the president sent out a tweet last night, saying it was hardearned, a win is a win is a win. Well see if he keeps that tone today. Without question the republican agenda has gotten more difficult to pass by shrinking the republican majority in the senate from 52 to 51 it puts the senate in play in 2018 by providing one seat that democrats would need to take over that chamber. Unlikely that this is going to stall tax reform but not impossible we have to see what comes out of the conference you had senators like rubio and collins yesterday raising questions about the 37 rate that came out. You never know whether or not though some republicans will say we need to pull together and pass this, its also possible some small number will say, whoa, lets wait the tax bill, of course, is unpopular. It could add to the burdens of republicans in the 2018 midterms if i were to ask you, did mcconnell win or lose, you would say i would say all republicans lost i know you would. But if moore had won, he would especially to you and others, he wouldib be the hood ornament for the Republican Party. I tell you who else won, alabama and the south. Sure. If they elected roy moore t would be like it would be like 91950s america or something theres a lot of nuance. Also, john, in terms of voting youre exactly right. Let me talk about your point yeah. Youre completely right you had a potential loselose either way for republicans if they kept the seat, they would get the blowback in 2018 from roy moore when you talk about the 1950s, if you look at those exit polls last night, it was exceptional the lopsided margin that jones had among voters 45 and younger, and moore won people over 65 thats a sign that the winds of change are blowing even in the deep south the other point i expect the Republican Party will adjust to that. I know its 5149 now, who knows how roy moore would have voted sometimes with mcconnell youre exactly right. If this guy wants to get reelected again, you could see him not necessarily going down party line with democrats either he is still in alabama thats 100 true. A lot of nuance to this not to mention, this was the republic republicans who did this 22,000 writein votes from republicans who did not want to vote for moore he lost by 21,000. Right yes roy moore was exceptional in the baggage that he brought to this race we have not seen anything like this before. That caused a lot of this splintering. Andrew what do you make of the stories that this is a loss for steve bannon, and, in fact, inside the white house the president blames steve bannon. You know, this goes to the joes question before. I dont know how you parse its Steve Bannons fault, Mitch Mcconnells fault or Donald Trumps fault. This is about the nature of the most conservative core within the Republican Party especially in the deep south, which nominated roy moore, even though establishment republicans, republican donors, Republican Leaders in washington were trying hard to keep that from happening. Yes, steve bannon played a part, but i dont think steve bannon decided the election one way or the other. This is about the mate picture of the Republican Base if the Republican Party adapts, changes in ways that allows it to expand its base, they will avoid outcomes like this if they dont, they have got trouble in other states. We look at the map in 2018 and see democrats as having shots at only a couple of places. Consider tennessee next door to alabama, you have a former democratic governor jumping into that state to run for bob corkers seat. I wouldnt consider him the favorite but he has a shot when you look at the energy on the democratic side. I dont know. Roy moore was unique its hard to imagine that you could point to something even more like, you hear alleged child molester okay thats pretty bad. But you look at some of the comments hes made, you have to think this guy had some antiquated or you know, comments about lgbt. Yes exactly so comments about 9 11 comments about slavery. Right heres the other thing theres a part of me some men like to watch the world burn, thats from batman if he had gotten in there to watch mcconnell and these other guys, watch the chaos that would have resulted t would have been a media story that would have been compelling to follow. Im glad we dont need to go through that it would have been divisive, and airing the worst part of i think on net, joe, Mitch Mcconnell is happy that doug jones won. Even if its harder for him to pass that would have been harder for him to pass some elements of his agenda thats a headache he has trieded to avoid and he has avoided it would have been like a 100car crash people look at on a highway. Horrific to watch. It was loselose every republican senator running for reelection in 2018 is happy roy moore lost that race exactly it is nuanced. Even when schumer said how great this is, that would have given every democrat something to talk about. Im not sure this would have been something that could have been a positive for democrats if he had won yes 100 whats with the no tie . I dont know yesterday and today, harwood you get to a certain level its campaign trail casual. It means hes been up all night. John, we never talked about it crunching returns yes, sir. How about those screaming eagles the bc screaming eagles. Are they not an inspiration to everybody . I was very impressed. I didnt think they had that level of talent on their team. They shot lights out more power to them they they deserve to win. They built this lead, we came back, and we were ahead with three minutes to go. They knocked us back again if you would have tripped that guy a couple times no, no. Its a new gracen allen this year i dont watch sports, i know as soon as you started bringing it up, what, they beat duke . I watched it, too it was great it was tough. Im sure you enjoyed my tears over that. God, did i that schadenfreude thank you. The win by doug jones makes the gops push for tax reform more urgent. Ylan mui has details President Trump will be delivering his Closing Argument for tax reform today as republicans close in on that final version of the tax bill. The corporate rate will be 21 , and there is debate over whether that will take effect right away or delayed until 2019. The top individual rate would fall to 37 , the deduction for mortgage interest would apply to loans up to 750,000. The deduction for passthrough businesses would be 20 . A white house official confirmed these details as well to eamon javers last night and said they represent the current state of play already there is pushback, of course senator marco rubio criticized raising the corporate rate to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and he warned of big problems if the money didnt go to expanding the Child Tax Credit instead Susan Collins says shes not a fan of lowering the top rate for individuals, but this could appease ron johnson who wanted a bigger deduction for pass through businesses the lawmakerers will hold a Public Meeting on the tax bill later today. And President Trump will peek about the tax bill later this afternoon. Republicans need to get this out of final committee by friday with what happened last night, the pressure is on back over to you ylan, thats it so, 37 21 37, 21, 20. Sounds like hut. Exactly then the mortgage is grandfathered, right mortgage is grandfathered in. The 750 deduction is higher than the 500,000 cap in the house version of the bill. But lower than the current limit of 1 million give a little bit, take a little bit. Is the alternative minimum tax in or out for corporations or individuals unclear i was unable to figure that out. There has been talk about it folks recognizing that could pose problems for businesses, particularly when you look at the corporate rate being at 21 instead of 28, but not confirmed whether its officially in or out. So that hasnt been decided yet . We were talking to sources late last night, early evening overnight im sure there were negotiations and talks going on. Well check back in this morning. Thank you very much sure. Apple making another big investment this time in texas josh lipton joins us now from the lone star state. Good morning apple just making a big announcement its going to be investing 3 390 million in finisar, a small hightech firm in california this is part of apples 1 billion advanced Manufacturing Fund that fund is to get highly skilled jobs back in may, apple announced its first investment, that was 200 million to corning this award to finisar will help to build out a new 700,000 square foot facility in sherman, texas. That will allow finisar to ramp up production of vixel chips super small, fragile and critical they enable depth and proximity sensing. That powers a range of apple technologies, including face i. D. , amoji and finisar will hire 500 people including engineers and tech people. Apple saying theyre thrilled to partner with finisar over the next couple of years to push the boundaries y ies of vixel innov. The new facility in sherman, texas, will open up the middle half of next year. Josh, thank you very much we have more coming up. Media movers disney, fox, comcast all trading higher after comcast stepped away from buying assets from fox. We expect an announcement from disney regarding this as early as tomorrow. I think we should do that meeting tomorrow. Well wait. What did you think about her . Its definitely a new idea, but theres no business track record. Well, have you seen her work . No. Is it good . Good . At cognizant, were helping todays leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience. Credit history. That more accurately assess a business chances of success. This is a good investment. Shes a good investment. Get ready, because were helping leading companies see it and see it throughwith digital. A used car, truck, suv. Thats smart. Truecar can help. Its great for finding a new car, but you already knew that. Its also great for finding the perfect used car. Youll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. So, no matter what youre looking for. There it is. This is how buying a used car should be. This is truecar. Welcome back to squawk box. Sources telling us that disney and 21st century fox are on a glide path towards a thursday deal for a valuable handful of fox assets joining us is tim nolan. Good morning to you. Lets start on the basics. You look at this transaction, you think its a win for disney . I think it is i think its an excellent move for disney what it brings to disney is a couple interesting things. One is a much stronger studio presence and content for ott service. Second an issue that maybe is not talked about too often in the press, the fact that fox has a powerful series of International Cable assets, that gives disney more distribution potential for branding think about all the brand building disney wants to do. Lets talk over the top service first. Bob iger came out and said he would start his own over the top service. When the deal was first rumored, the idea was, now we have a library, all these other assets. We can put that on this new over the top service. As people have started to think about it more, then theres a talk emerging that maybe you merge or basically rebrand or just take hulu, which they can troll a c control and turn that into your service, what do you think happens . Its an embarrassment of riches for disney if they get this done. They own 63 of hulu, and they have a Live Streaming virtual bundle, then with the bam tech service, they have the streaming capability to put all their content on any way i dont know which they would choose they have both options available. Comcast owns 30 of hulu, 10 owned by time warner do you buy those partners out or do they go along for a free ride this has been a partnership of thrlehree companies for years now. They have managed through the changes. I dont know if anything has to change comcast consent degree ends next year, so they may exit if they choose to. Time warner entered hulu before they announced the at t acquisition. With at t running directv now, does time warner need to be part of hulu and that directv now service . I dont think much about that being a problem. Do you still want to own 21st century fox . The remnants, the stub, whatever you think is left of it, which is substantial sure. Its a good company with powerful assets. Think fox shares have moved from 26 bucks, 27 bucks to 34 on this deal speculation if a deal is announced around the current price of 34, 35, a lot of that value would have been realized. Lets wait for the announcement. Are you a believer that 21st century fox remains a publicly Standalone Company or gets rolled up with news corp. Or do you let them both hang out there. The murdoches would still control both companies if its an all share deal, the murdochs are owning a stake in disney, they might wanted to own that for some time clearly it looks like they want to sell to a good company in the shape of disney. What we believe and what the news has been talking about lately, James Murdoch may be next in line to be running disney a few years down the line you have an interesting dynamic, you have one brother running fox and another one running disney which, by the way, is like pacman merger. You can take over control of all of them. I think the murdoches have clearly said for some time, they have particularly interest in live news and sports content they would still have that they split out fox and news corp. A few years ago. They would own stock in disney which eventually they could sell down im sure they would take their time to do that. If youre a betting man, are you betting on James Murdoch to be a part of this transaction . I dont think its a deal breaker. I think its likely thats the next step for disney there is no obvious successor for bob iger the two previously presumed candidates have left disney. Iger said he thought he was leaving by the end of fiscal 19. Thats not much time to develop someone internally maybe theres somebody waiting in the wings but James Murdoch, the fact he has all this experience Running International businesses and tv weaknesses, thats where the weakness has been in successors to bob iger. I think the fit is there disney is such a big complex animal the theme parks, so many other things, tying all of those back together thats the weak spotted in james resume, not having that experience previous disney ceos have come in and made the rounds internally and got to know the company well on the one hand you have somebody potentially waiting here that would know the trouble the businesses within disney theres no perfect fit thank you thank you we will watch for that transaction. Its a mouse, a complex animal now part mouse part fox. Because the fox said. Exactly coming up, Stocking Stuffers for your portfolio barrons is out with the list of top stocks for 2018. Well reveal the names that could make you some money after the break. If you have anything left to invest after your bitcoin binge. Heres a look at yesterdays s p 500 winners and losers [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. It can provide what we call an unlock a realization that often reveals a better path forward. At wells fargo, its our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and Wealth Management firms in the country. Discover how we can help find your unlock. Win an uncertain world . K predictable income pgim sees alpha in real assets. Like agriculture to feed the world. And energy to fuel its growth. Real estate such as ecommerce warehouses. And private debt to finance transportation and infrastructure. Building block