Wilfred frost. Lets check on Global Markets because we are on this friday seeing gains, at least on the futures side of things you can see futures pointing to a higher open, the s p up by about six points, the dow up by about 78 and the nasdaq up by about 13 points overall. Lets get a check on the fixed income markets on the treasury side specifically with the tenyear u. S. Treasury note, yields are 2. 362 , a little lower than they have been over the last couple of days. So the Interest Rate picture taking a little bit more clarity given the feds Interest Rate hike and some commentary about the future still, though, yields in focus, especially for those financials, courtney. Lets look at whats going on around the world in trading. So take a look at what happened in asia overnight. Mostly lower, as you can see the south korean kospi is the one outlier higher by about 0. 5 the hang seng was the biggest laggard, down 1 a lot of focus on whats going on here in the u. S. When it comes to our potential tax reform bill, and that was largely the focus of the asian markets overnight, also a weaker dollar against the yen toyota shares down 2 in japan, hyundai up 2. 3 in south korea, softbank down about 2. 4 for some of the bigger equity movers over in asia take a look at whats going on in europe. It was a mostly lower day in europe yesterday you can see again that is the way things are trending this morning. Spain is ever so slightly positive, at least for right now, but you can see that frances cac is down h m with disappointing sales, Retail Stocks among the worst performers in europe at this point. Certainly one of those stocks were focusing on in europe right now. As for the broader markets overall, look at the oil complex. One of the places weve been keeping a close eye on because of that brent north sea pipeline outage, wti crude, 57. 26, the last trade there, up by about a third of 1 . Brent crude futures, the world benchmark, just about flat, 63. 29 as for the gold trade, its not crypto, but it certainly is one of those assets people looks towards, towards a physical commodity. Gold prices up about 0. 2 . Comex gold at 1,259. 50 the last trade there. Lets look overall at the currency market that plays into the commodity trade as well. Euros 1. 1793, so stronger euro, weaker dollar. Dollar yen at 112. 15, weaker dollar there as well and pounds versus the u. S. Dollar sterling 1. 3427. And of course, well check the crypto side of things because it is one of the hot trades, better or worse Bitcoin Futures on the cboe 18,220 well see if the Trading Volume picks up remember, this is the weekend when we start cme futures trading for bitcoin. Courtney. Oh, yeah, thats right. Cant forget that. Its already friday, my gosh turning to todays wall street agenda, well get a pair of economic reports to round out the week look for Empire State Manufacturing numbers out at 8 30 a. M. Eastern time, followed by Industrial Production at 9 15 a. M. Lets talk more about the markets and the economy as we head into the final weeks of the year joining us is paul donovan, global economist at ubs Wealth Management, joining us live in london paul, ive got to say, as we talk about the political picture in the u. S. , theres so much chat about whether or not politics has any kind of an effect on the economy overall. Will it here in the u. S. And will it globally, i guess, is the big question . The honest answer is, no, not in the short term. Politicians are not nearly as important as they think they are. Economists are important, obviously, but politicians are not, not in the short term in the short term, people care about the fact, do i have a job, can i afford to buy what i want to buy and politicians dont really impact the answer to those questions near term. Now on a full fiveyear view, if you want to talk about trend growth, if you want to talk about competitiveness, yes, there politics and policies really do matter, but in the short term, basically, this is quite a lot of noise as far as the economys concerned. Thats quite funny. So, the economists matter, coming from the economist, politicians not so much. What about the Central Banks what about their role in global economies as we look towards potentially more normalizing of policy well, Central Banks are economists, so of course, theyre important. And as we look into 2018, what has shifted . Well, whats shifted is were getting a simultaneous tightening of Central Bank Policy i wouldnt say its synchronized its not really coordinated. I dont think janet yellen and mario draghi got together over a bottle of wine and decided they were both going to raise rates or tighten policy at the same time, but weve got a simultaneous move. But its important to understand what is it Central Banks are trying achieve theyre not trying to slow growth theyre not trying to slow inflation. Theyre not trying destroy pricing power. Theyve done that in the past with tightening cycles, but thats not their aim this time around this time around, theyre trying to preserve the status quo theyre trying to keep a balance in the economy so, its a different objective that weve got with this sort of tightening at the moment. Paul, i would say this. One of the things that a lot of these Central Banks have been trying to do is to stoke some kind of growth, some kind of inflation. Yes, we dont really feel as though things are going to be recessionary at any given point in the future, but does it concern you from a Global Economic standpoint that we dont see any real signs of that growth or inflation . We know its not bad its just not as good as people thought it was going to be to be honest, you know, were in line with average weve got average growth, weve got average inflation. U. S. Inflation is not low. U. S. Inflation is back in line with its 20year average this is not a lowinflation environment. Its a normalinflation environment. For over 30 years, ever since paul voelker took over the federal reserve, everyones been saying Central Banks have got to get low and stable inflation thats what we need, thats what we need. Well, Central Banks have finally done it, now everyones complaining about it i dont understand this. This is normal and i think what Central Banks are doing is very sensibly draining some of the liquidity, moving away from some of the excessive policy to make sure that we stay exactly where we are because where we are now is economically speaking pretty much a sweet spot. Paul, i understand that you dont think, as we discussed earlier, that politicians really mean that much in the short term, but politicians are certainly factoring in a pretty high growth rate for u. S. Gdp into this tax reform plan. What do you think about u. S. Gdp in the next year or so well, for the next year or so, and indeed, mediumterm, the u. S. Is growing around trend and for me, trend in the states is something you give or take about 2. 25 . Theres no point being too precise about this, but its about 2. 25 . Now, i know the u. S. President has on occasion expressed belief that u. S. Trend rate of growth could be 4 , even 6 i have to say, i think that is relatively unlikely. That is the source of growth rate that one would expect from an emerging market, trying to catch up with its neighbors. I dont think the u. S. Is going to be trying to catch up with mexican standards of living, not just yet so, that i think is an excessive view somewhere around 2. 25 seems to me to be entirely sensible assumption for growth. All right, paul donovan, we do care a lot about economists here at cnbc paul donovan at ubs, thank you so much for joining us, live in london thank you. Legendary investor jim chanos talking everything from f. A. N. G. Stocks to tesla in an exclusive interview on cnbc. He even made a game of thrones reference. Landon dowdy joins us with more. Good morning. Hey, courtney good morning Hedge Fund Investor jim chanos laying it all out with cnbcs kelly evans, the famed short seller talking everything from tesla to tax reform, even touching on net thank you reali neutrality and what it means pore the f. A. N. G. Stocks. I think the Net Neutrality rule combined with a bigger c g competitor in the content area will put more pressure on the content buyers, amazon, google and netflix. He also talked tesla. Chanos a longtime critic of the company is sticking with his criticism. I think mr. Musket and tesla has a broad, broad interpretation of the truth. You know, there have been all kinds of announcements in this company has made just in flippant comments that are public statements that turned out not to be true. Chanos also channeling game of thrones while talking tax reform and obamacare take a listen. I think it will be, as paul ryan i think has hinted at, it will be the opening salvos for 18 and 19 on cutting entitlements, which is medicare and medicaid again so theyre going to go after obamacare in a back door, sneaky way. And we have a saying with the health care stocks, we think winter is coming we think were about to see deflation. Guys, you can see more of his comments right now on cnbc. Com back over to you. Thank you very much, landon i dont even watch game of thrones and i know that was a game of thrones reference. In corporate news, csx Ceo Hunter Harrison is taking medical leave. The company says he is experiencing complications from a recent unspecified illness chief operating officer james foote will take the helm during harrisons absence its not immediately clear when harrison will return. Still ahead on the show, at least here on Worldwide Exchange, were going to talk all about the tax picture here, a look at some of the big winners and losers in the gops massive tax overhaul plan. But first, the countdown is on less than ten shopping days left until christmas. New numbers out this morning on how things are shaping up for retailers. Stick around Worldwide Exchange will be right back whats Critical Thinking like . A basketball costs 14. Whats team spirit worth . cheers whats it worth to talk to your mom . Whats the value of a walk in the woods . The value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. Morgan stanley wifiso if you cant live without it. T it. Why arent you using this guy . It makes your wifi awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking it gets you wifi here, here, and here. It even lets you take a time out. No no yes yes, indeed. Amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. If youre just waking up or heading into work, lets get you up to speed on the Market Action right now. U. S. Equity futures are green, as you can see the s p implied open about six or seven points. The dow jones up about 80 and the nasdaq by 13 or 14, so another good day for the markets. Well see if it stays that way into the opening bell. As for oil prices, if its friday it must be rig counts wti crude 57. 30, up about 0. 5 . Ice brent futures, the benchmark, 63. 29, just a hair to the down side as well so were watching gasoline stocks, baker hughes counts 1 00 p. M. Eastern time today. Thank you, dom. Okay, stocks to watch. Shares are higher on reports that Elliott Management is preparing a new proxy fight. Its reported he wants to move john hess as ceo or shares of the Energy Company sales are up in premarket trade. Oracle is under pressure despite an earnings beat, saying growth in its Cloud Computing business will come in weaker than expected for the current quarter, oracle also announcing a 12 billion buyback. Oracle shares are down more than 6 in the early going. Adobe shares are moving higher on upbeat Quarterly Results. The Software Company says quarterly revenues grew 25 in the Fourth Quarter adobe also raising its outlook for the next year. Shares higher by only about 0. 5 at this point. More stocks to watch here, courtney shares of h m plunging after reporting its biggest drop in Quarterly Sales in a decade. The company says it plans to close more stores as it focuses more aggressively on the ecommerce side of things. H m shares down by 15 certainly not a great day for them costco beating the street, reporting a 43 jump in online sales last quarter they also say membership renewals held steady, despite last quarter reporting they might drop and shares of Waste Management are higher this morning, upping its Quarterly Dividend and announcing a 1. 25 billion stock buyback program. Waste management up more than a percent in extended hours trading. Well, dont look now, less than ten shopping days left until christmas. Courtney, how are things shaping up for those retailers because i know that ive done a pretty good amount of shopping just in the last three days. You have. I have. See, youre kind of rare, because right now were in this lull we often see this retail lull. You see a big boom around thanksgiving, black friday cyber monday, yeah. That makes sense, right then people sort of feel like theyve put a good dent in it, then they pull back. Then right towards the end, that last weekend, you see the push higher so youre a little rare and youre helping retailers get through the lull. Heres what i would say about the lull normally, i wouldnt do this the trader in me always looks for the lowest prices. I know that as we get closer to that Christmas Holiday, were going to see that. My issue in the past has been the longer ive waited, the less availability there has been for certain inventory. Yes. And the shipping was a concern for me as well sometimes they just dont get there in time. Right. I dont care as much, but maybe some of the people i give gifts to do. Right. So now ive tried to balance it by saying that this little lull period that youre talking about, i hunt for prices i still only buy stuff thats on sale, but i will do it a little bit earlier than i normally would because i think that it will get there in time. And youve hit on a couple good themes. Inventories are a little leaner this year. We saw sellouts of toys early in october, actually, some of the hot toys, both from the retailers being conservative on what theyre buying and also the toy manufacturers in what theyre providing to the retailers. But you would think that as time progresses and technology progresses and big data becomes more a part of the retail picture, retailers will be able to get their inventories a little bit more in line. And what that ends up doing is we talk so often about, you know, in the First Quarter of next year, quarters beyond that, about how retailers report their Holiday Shopping season. Yep. About how their Profit Margins may have been impacted by a, quote, highly promotional environment. You wonder if those inventory controls now mean they wont have as much of a Pressure Point on Profit Margins thats what theyre hoping for. Right. And early when we saw those big deals around the black friday thanksgiving week, not even just those days, the discounts were less good if youre a consumer than before. Still good, but lets say the average is 47 off instead of 48 off or Something Like that so they are using the data to try to maintain the most margin that they possibly can. Meanwhile, we did see some numbers coming up from the retail trade groups. Yes, so, mpd sort of tracks all of the categories broadly. They wont tell us about specific retailers because they pay for that information, but they say for the first five weeks, sales were actually up 2 over last year its really bullish numbers out of the first weekend, so i havent seen anything to suggest that things arent going well. Thats not to say that retail still isnt a game of the have and havenots. Not everybody is going to do well we saw last year where the overall numbers were pretty strong, but when the individual retailers came out segments came in. Yeah. Its pretty clear. Well see what happens in january when that shakes out but so far, so good. And if you havent done all your shopping yet, be careful because were coming up on shipping deadlines, too nine days, 18 hours and 47 minutes left to go. Anyway, still ahead on the show, the big unveil, of course. Lawmakers expected to greenlight that massive tax reform bill later on today well have latest from washington, d. C. , straight ahead. But first, as we head to break, heres todays National Weather forecast from nbcs bill karins good friday morning to you, courtney and dom a little bit of cold, a little bit of snow as we head into the weekend. Winter weather advisories washington, d. C. , baltimore, philadelphia this is a little bit of a change in the forecast. Later this afternoon we have light snow heading your way. 15 Million People are under Winter Weather advisories. Again, not a huge storm, but as we watch the timing, nothing at 7 00 a. M. , but by 2 00 p. M. , light snow showers from new york to philadelphia to d. C by 5 00 p. M. , d. C. s done, but philly and new york still snowing and by 9 00 p. M. , it begins to exit southern new england np not big snow titles, just the timing during the evening rush hour a dusting to an inch on i95, as much as 2 inches in long island as well as the jersey shore. Rain in the northwest, a little light snow around minneapolis. By the time we get to saturday and sunday, we track a storm in the intermountain west, and watch o