It right here live. And we are looking for more market records today. The dow and s p and the nasdaq, all expected to make records. It was a year ago today that the market was in freefall. Remember that . It was about 6,000 points lower on the dow. That is very much not the case today. Varney company is about to begin. David and there is news overseas. We are watching hong kong this morning. Monthslong protests are flaring up once again. Riot police fired tear gas at protesters this morning. We are going to be monitoring this throughout the morning right here. But lets focus on some positive news at home. A brand new sales record, Super Saturday sales hit 34. 4 billion, the biggest single day of retail sales in u. S. History. The figures coming from Customer Growth partners. Joining us is retail watcher michael zacore. Ive got to think this is all about the economy. We have fatter wallets because people are making more. Weve had increase in wages and we have jobs galore. Is that why people are spending . Yeah, good morning. Merry christmas. Absolutely. You know, people the Consumer Confidence index has been up over the year, people have money to spend, they feel really confident. We predicted numbers that would be around 2. 9 to 3 higher. Its actually been 3. 8 higher year on year spending. David thats about twice what you were expecting. That was a fairly optimistic estimate so it blew past na. But in the context, the 34 billion, it was part of the first trillion dollar Holiday Season in u. S. History. It means consumers during the Holiday Season which roughly began right before thanksgiving, right up to today, tomorrow, last minute christmas shoppers, a trillion dollars was spent. David thats extraordinary. Have we ever done that before . That was a new record. David what was the previous record . We have approached that number, close to 850, but this was by far a record. David lets look at both online and brick and mortars. I understand at malls, foot traffic is down. However, the conversion rate, that is the number of shoppers that actually buy things, is up, correct . Yeah. I think people are going to malls and Department Stores with intent, but they are definitely the laggards in the Bigger Picture here. If we look at, as part of this trillion dollars in spending, 135 billion of that was spent online this year. Thats a huge number. That number grows 15 , 20 every year but it tells another story, which is, you know, youve still got roughly 850 million being spent in physical retail locations. The companies that are doing well are the companies that blended that online to offline experience seamlessly. We look at Companies Like target and walmart and even amazon now david costco. One of my favorites. These are companies that have blended the new retail which is online Offline Technology and logistics for a whole new consumer experience. David so there are enough products out there that people want to pick up, see, feel, try on, that we are not going to see the end of brick and mortars. No. In fact, i think this is a great time for bricks and mortar companies. Yes, there are store closings, there are david we will talk about some of that later. But i think this is a banner time for retail. The banner time for companies to reinvent with their physical locations and as long as they are integrating it with the online world and the digital experience, they have nowhere to go but up. David hold on. We have breaking news on uber we want to tell the audience about. Travis kalanick will depart the uber board of directors. Uber has been through a lot of problems recently, particularly dealing with city governments, also dealing with the pressure from unions, to unionize, to change the status of the drivers who are working for them. We will bring you more on that as we get it. Lets see. Go ahead. Okay. David Scott Shellady is with us now. How are you . Good morning. Merry christmas. What do you make of these spectacular shopping numbers . You know what, we finally have given the consumers in this country some certainty. Thats a big deal, right. They feel secure about their position, they feel secure about their wages and their jobs. Thats really where this is all coming from. Then follow that with the fact that they all have jobs. The unemployment numbers are fantastic, as well as Interest Rates being so low, and thats where you come up with this rosy scenario with our economy and these markets. David i want to get back to retail but first breaking news on uber, what do you think happens to this company . The whole ride sharing and its not just with regard to rides, its also with regard to things like airbnb and other services that provide that sharing of property. I mean, does it have a future or is it on its way out . I think its got a future but i think they have really screwed up this whole offering. You know what, uber is kind of modeling lyft as well that can be easily replicated from city to city. You can do Something Like that. Airbnb i think, that model is going to be a little different. I think that that could be something thats really more here to stay. I like that model a lot better than the ubers of the world because again, you can kind of replicate that in a city. Its hard to do that with airbnb because you have such many more tentacles with folks traveling around the world looking for a place to stay. David with kalanick dumping his stock, we now see premarket taif activity, a little upward movement in uber but with more stock in circulation, does that mean the stocks going to come down . Well, it doesnt mean its going to spike higher, right. Thats a bad way to answer that question. But lot of times the markets like to see, you know, get past events and that could be what the market sees with this. We are done with it and will move on. David lets get back to the happy news which is the blowout numbers in retail. We have never seen anything like this in u. S. History. We just had michael zakkore on telling us this was 5 to 10 greater than his most optimistic projections of what was going to happen. What will keep this market going, particularly in the Retail Sector . Whats going to well, we have to continue with the certainty. Thats going to have to be something with china. We will have to continue going down that road and keep working. I dont want to be sitting here next year talking about phase 43, right. We have to kind of get on with that. Number two, we need to see something happen positive with that brexit outcome. I think the world would like to see that. Finally, get usmca behind us as well. So there are things out there that could also affect the market Going Forward, at least underpin it but i need to remind everybody, stay in their line a little bit because the s p is up, what, 28 for the year, the nasdaq 34 . How much more do you want right now you would take this if i told you the beginning of last year how bad we started. Be careful. Stocks are about to go down, and not get too greedy. Its the time of year to be humble and kind, not greedy. David isnt that nice. You avoided the coal in your stocking this year. Merry christmas to you, my friend. Thank you very much. Lets come back to michael. Despite the blowout numbers on saturday, there are a lot of store closings going on. There are 9,300 store closing in brick and mortar. That means that its not so rosy for a lot of people that havent been doing it right. The sears and row bucks, what are they doing wrong, these stores . You keep hearing this term retail apocalypse. We have been hearing it for awhile now. And the truth of it is, theres not a retail apocalypse. There is a store apocalypse. Now, the stores that are failing have three things in common. They are legacy retailers who havent changed who they were for the past 20 years. They were slow to adopt a digital, they were slow to integrate online and offline david michael, i have to jump in because the president is speaking. Again, hes in maralago down in florida speaking to our troops. Lets see if we can break in and listen. Making a lot of progress there. As you know, we are also reducing troop force because we were unequal what we had there and we reduced troop force and are in the process of doing that very significantly. Thank you very much, general. Back in the United States, we are joined by the 20th attack squadron at Whiteman Air Force base in missouri, great state. Greetings to Lieutenant Colonel daniel waspman and all the airmen on the air base. You know what happened, recently you helped us so much, one very very big, you crushed isis from the air, kept the taliban running scared and conducted countless lethal aspects against the enemies of freedom. You are an Incredible Group and we are supremely grateful for your service and the job you do. What happened with isis was incredible. As you know, we took over 100 of the caliphate and destroyed them. That doesnt mean they dont come back in smaller sections, and we handle them as they come back. But we had 100 and al baghdadi is dead, the founder of isis. His replacement is now dead. We have our sights on the new replacement. I dont know why anybody would want that job, frankly. Finally, we have we have with us a captain who is somebody thats so highly respected, michael frawley. Everyone on the Coast Guard Air station in alaska, we want to thank you for your work. You conduct treacherous mountain slides, towering waves, thank you for being our faithful guardians, and you really have. The work theyve done during Hurricane Season two years ago in texas, in particular texas, because they saved 16,000 lives. Nobody understands what that means. 16,000. Even me, i heard that number and i said can that be possible. 16,000. They served 16,000 lives and saved. People out at sea, people on the land, where we had that massive, probably the largest david the president delivering a Christmas Eve message to the troops from his home at maralago, as you might remember hes one of those tax refugees from the city and state of new york, going down to florida, changing his residence. So he is now speaking from his residence in maralago to the troops. Congratulating them for an extraordinary job and again, we hope you keep our troops in your hearts. Its a christmastime they feel it the most. They need your prayers, they need your thoughts. Check the futures as we go into this last trading day before the christmas holiday. We are doing quite well. Its not spectacular. You wouldnt expect it to be on Christmas Eve but again, when you think of whats happened in the markets, all the doomsayers proven wrong, particularly when the retail Sales Numbers are factored into all of this, you realize how strong the economy is, how well not only the consumers but workers are doing with their jobs, with their pays, et cetera. Its all paying off. We see all of the major indices on the plus side. This may be a record day. Meanwhile, nike has released a new Colin Kaepernick shoe. It was an instant success. It sold out in minutes, if you can believe it. Contrast that with the betsy ross flag sneaker that it released and then pulled in the summer. Apparently there is something bad about betsy ross flag and something good about the face of Colin Kaepernick. We are going to be asking some Young Americans about why that is so and whether this is a continuing trend in the new year. Meanwhile, how much has President Trumps tax cuts really helped the middle class . Weve got the numbers on that coming up next. More varney after this. Than you. You are my diamond. For the diamond in your life, get up to 40 off storewide or get these one of a kind deals at the you are my diamond event. Exclusively at zales, the diamond store. thud crash grunting whistle play it cool and escape heartburn fast with tums chewy bites cooling sensation. Tum tututum tums david okay. Check out this headline from the wall street journal. Boeings new ceo charts own course in 737 max debacle. What does that mean . Joining us is jeff wise, an Aviation Industry analyst. Did anything surprise you about this ceo change and what does this guy have to do that the other guy wasnt . Muilenburg wasnt . Frankly, i think the thing that was most surprising about it was that it took so long for boeing to take a step like this. Boeing is a company thats been building airplanes for over 100 years, it has earned a reputation as the most reliable maker of commercial jets. Yet over the last nine months, we have seen a steady erosion of that trust as the Company Found itself in this crisis that just seemed to get deeper and deeper and deeper. David muilenburg is an engineer, one of the finest aviation engineers, i have been told, that there is, but he lacked a certain diplomatic skill that apparently calhoun, the new ceo, has. Hes not only going to have to he had a Conference Call apparently with a few Airlines Yesterday just to reassure them that they are making the changes that will because a lot of airlines now are short airplanes because there are so many maxes that have been piling up. Whats more important for him right away, to deal with the airlines or to deal with the faa . I think really, neither. The problem isnt a question of diplomacy, its a question of the underlying rot. We live in david rot, thats a pretty strong word. Absolutely. You dont get to a situation like this, a crisis of this magnitude, by accident. Its a state of Corporate Governance in the world today is such that theres a prioritization of shortterm profit, interest of the shareholder comes first, all other considerations go by the wayside. David including the lives of your customers . Exactly. Thats the amazing thing. When it turned out that muilenburg had allowed the coverup of damning information where engineers had tried to come forward and say hey, theres problems with the way this plane is being designed and built, and they were not forthcoming. What they need to do, to answer your question, is to be forthcoming. David very quickly, is calhoun the person to turn this around . Because what you are describing is a major turnaround of the company. Right. They need to do a major reboot. David is calhoun the guy to do it . That remains to be seen. He needs to take decisive action. David jeff wise, aviation expert and author of the taking of mh370 good to see you. Thank you very much for being here. Switching gears to the trump tax cuts, there has been some chatter about a second round of cuts in the new year 2. 0, as it is, but how much have the first round of cuts really helped the middle class . Hillary vaughn is live from the white house right now. I guess the answer is quite a bit. Reporter david, thats right. Of course, the more you make, the more you save under these tax cuts, because your tax bill is higher, with your higher income, but Congress Joint Committee on taxation did give us insight into how the middle class is faring under this tax cut. If you make 20,000 to 30,000 a year on average, you saved about 186 through this tax cut. If you made 50,000 to 70,000 you saved about 840. It doesnt sound like a lot of money, its not in the thousands but you are saving more than you were under the Previous Administrations tax structure and of course, if you you have probably seen your wages go up through this administration as well. So you have to take that into consideration. But bottom line, the middle class is saving money under this tax cut which is something democrats argue is not happening. David . David they are spending it, as we saw in these extraordinary saturday christmas numbers. By the way, real disposable personal income per household has increased 6,000, per household, since the tax cuts were passed. Thats a lot of more cash running into the system. Hillary, thank you very much. Well, monthslong protests are flaring up again in hong kong. Joining me now on the phone is phil yin, former cctv business anchor. Phil, has this been planned for awhile, the protests we are seeing today . Hi, david. Happy holidays to you. Six months of this, can you believe where were at here on new years eve in hong kong. By the way, for your viewers, it is new years eve evening in hong kong. Its been relatively quiet for the past few weeks. Mostly peaceful protests and today, something sparked again. I think the frustration from the protesters is they are probably thinking about 2020 now, as what have they accomplished in 2019, and they have had some accomplishments but at the end of the day, the government is still in place, which they dislike, and at the same time, there are still many questions about human rights and the Way Police Officers treat their citizens when they go out and protest. David the one thing that sparked the protests initially, that is the change of the law which would have allowed chinese law to override hong kong law, that was changed, correct, so they won on that major point but as the protests began to develop, so did their demands. Thou those demands are the ones that havent been met. Theres a critical element there, i think, had that law been reversed earlier on or withdrawn, as they call it, probably a lot of this would not have happened. Now theres the greater question, whether or not the people of hong kong want to be i dont want to say under chinese rule, but under heavy influence by beijing, and unfortunately, the laws state that hong kong is a part of china, and that makes it extremely difficult for the protesters to have anything to stand on unless they are really willing to fight. As you can probably imagine, the police have all the weapons and the protesters have umbrellas. David thank you very much from hong kong. President trump is still talking to the troops. Lets listen in. With women, they are down to a 71year low. We will soon have a his tore numb historic number there, if it keeps going, we will have an historic number, in t