It was being called the christmas protest. Three big hours for you. Buckle in. Merry christmas. Varney company about to start right now. Charles huge gains for the markets this year. The calendar year, in fact, has wall street looking extraordinarily well. Want to bring in market watcher Rebecca Walser on these gains and of course, at this point in time, we always look ahead. What do you make overall of this market, considering all the negative headlines, all the negative speculation . First to have this kind of market is really remarkable. Charles, it is. Merry christmas. Im having such a great retail season high. I dont care what the retail experts, you know, were expecting. We got 3. 4 growth and Super Saturday, charles, the biggest shopping day ever. 3. 4 billion on Super Saturday. Thats what happens when you have a short Christmas Shopping season, right, from thanksgiving to christmas. Charles yeah, no doubt about it. And i got to tell you, its anecdotal but as i looked around at malls i saw greater foot traffic. Im starting to see genz hang out in malls like their grandparents used to. It feels like the retailer, brick and mortar folks who have survived, have figured it out. The magic word has always been omnichannel. Its starting to work. Of the retail sales, are you okay with the idea then that this could be an area of investment, because over the last two or three weeks, i have seen a lot of folks buying macys, i have seen pretty good action in kohls and those kind of things. I know theres a search for value but is that too dangerous of a move . No, i dont think so. I think long term, you look at macys, look at that history of that store. Obviously, brick and mortar eventually is going to dissipate in lieu of the online or hybrid model with, you know, shopping. You look at sales for this retail quarter, they were up 14 , almost 15 but they were still less than 20 of overall total sales. So yes, do we eventually see a total cyberOnline Shopping experience, where people maybe just go, i dont even know about groceries anymore. Everything in the future is going to look different. Drone delivery, all of that. But for now, longterm, we still have, you know, purposeful buying at these stores that people are going into and enjoying the inperson experience. Theres still nothing like trying on something before you take it home, before its delivered to your house and say i hope it fits you. Yeah, i think longterm, yeah. Charles especially when i go into the stores knowing that most of the stuff wont fit me in the first place. Want to bring in kristina partsinevelos. Shes with us. Okay. The numbers so far trailing what expectations were, but to rebeccas point, the data is still very impressive. Kristina we saw u. S. Consumer spending grew in november, we are expecting strength for december. Those numbers havent come out. You did mention the National Retail federation, they revised their numbers a little bit lower. They are expecting sales during this Holiday Season to be between 3. 8 and 4. 2 . So its a little bit lower, but overall, its still really strong. The other thing, too, we havent talked about is i have seen numbers of 42 billion worth of Online Purchases are expected to be returned, and we know that online sales as a whole are on pace, this is according to mastercard, to increase 18 , almost 19 through the Holiday Season up to Christmas Eve. Did you buy a lot of things last minute . Charles not as many as normal. I am that guy who is always in the mall at the last minute and i was wondering if any stores were open yesterday morning. Kristina no, i checked. Charles i want to bring in retail watch er kristen benz wih us. Its been awhile. How are you . Im great, charles. How are you . Merry christmas. Charles its wonderful seeing you. Of course, you were the first person years ago that hit me with bukl. I made a lot of money on that. Whats going on now . A lot of great retail numbers, regardless of what the nrf said. We had a fantastic christmas selling season. The consumer is absolutely healthy and i think theres a lot of really good news out there. Charles so what about, you know, because on the nonbusiness channels, the retail story, a lot of folks hear about the massive amounts of bankruptcies, the empty malls, those kind of things. Those stories still go on and you know, no one ever explains the Amazon Effect or those kind of things. Our overarching feel sometime is that maybe retail is in trouble. Retail is not in trouble. Retail thats not performing well, and retail thats not thoughtful, those retailers are drowning. But if you can actually capture the attention of the consumer, have a thoughtful product, on sale at the right time, where consumers can get it on their schedule, and make it interesting and entertain them, those retailers will prevail. Charles kristina just brought up the mastercard numbers. Heres what i think is fascinating. You have apparel up 1 but 17 on digital. Jewelry was up less than 2 but almost 9 on digital. Department stores are down almost 2 but they grew by 7 online. Electronics up 4. 6 . I think the point im trying to make here, its ironically as much as we talk about the internet and amazon killing brick and mortar, could it be the savior if played right . Absolutely. Amazon was responsible i think for 80 of samsung sales on black friday. So definitely, it can be a savior. You know, retail is very darwinian, right . So its only the strongest survive. So only the most strong and clever and thoughtful retailers that can really capture your share of wallet and attention will thrive. Kristina which is why experiential shopping is prevalent. You can hang out at the store, get a massage. But in terms of other numbers we are seeing i would love to do that u. S. Retailers also released some of their holiday numbers, Holiday Hiring numbers, and so for macys it was unchanged at 80,000 Seasonal Workers but target did increase, they planned to hire 130,000 store employees, 10,000 more than last year, so little bit of a change to the good. Charles on that note, let me bring rebecca back in. Target is in the top ten movers of the year, written off over a year ago, couldnt compete in an amazon world. They have been able to compete. Amazon themselves just posted their numbers, the best shopping numbers ever. They talk about the items that sold, how many people they have hired just for christmas season. I think quarter million. They have 750,000 employees around the world. Rebecca, the impact now that i think is more positive for the overall economy, because we hear about all these retail jobs that are going away, but they are being replaced by better paying warehouse jobs, better paying jobs, you know, moving this merchandise. Absolutely. To your point on target, just so you know, they were open until 10 00 p. M. On Christmas Eve. I happen to know. C charles now you tell me. I know, right . I always have the feeling i go to stores at the last minute, it will be an empty shelf, whats the point. But target was open until 10 00. Whats happening is target had a great sort of benchmark with walmart and the fact they dwoul do a hybrid. You order online and go to the store and pick it up same day and its right there at the front, customer service. You dont have to go through the whole store to get your item at the very back. Target and walmart have both done an incredible job in the last two years of really starting to compete with amazon and say look, how can we leverage the brick and mortar as a positive with our online, you know, benchmark that we need to hit. Thats really the benchmark and the new way its going to have to be for all these retailers that will stay long term, and obviously the grocery experience as well. Order online, pull your car in and they deliver it to your car. Its awesome. You cant complain anymore. And also target has partnered with delivery where you can have it delivered the same day. Order online, and its coming from the local store. So these are the things that are happening. Charles its fleereflected in e prices. Dont forget about dow component boeing. They have a new ceo, dave calhoun. Hes focusing with the faa, trying to cooperate with them. Also take a look at uber. Their founder, Travis Kalanick, has completely severed his ties with the company. Hes off the board and sold all his stock. Now take a look at nike. The Colin Kaepernick true to 7 shoe, it was a hit, sold out. Give us the details. Kristina 110 black and white, part of their air force one line. I guess it raises the big question about controversy and people that are controversial. We know Colin Kaepernick took a knee, then afterwards asked for the betsy ross flag shoe to be removed because of he was saying it was linked to slavery. Hes weighed in on all that. You have some people saying they wanted to go against nike, boycott nike was actually a hash tag that was trending. But sales did increase and then for this particular shoe that we started talking about, it sold out right away. 110. Charles how many were sold . Kristina i would have to get back to you on the actual number. Charles nike has a history of doing this, not just with this shoe. They put out a limited amount, sell out and create this frenzy. Kristina everybody does that. Charles thats right. Kristina thats called the drop and supreme is one that started that in terms of shoes if you are a sneaker head. Charles kristen, i want to bring you back in. Overall sales have been up for nike since the Colin Kaepernick controversy but not u. S. Sales. I go through all of the numbers and this is what people are missing. They have been carried by growth in china, growth in europe, in fact, this last earnings report, the stock was down three bucks because north american sales came up short. But you like nike, right . You think they can compete in an amazon world . I absolutely do. Because they are creating an ecosystem around their brand, kind of like amazon does, kind of like disney with disney plus. So you have all these sneaker heads and they have a whole sneaker head app they are using, nike plus app. They have Experiential Retail stores where people want to go work out. Its kind of like a local neighborhood store, very much like lululemon type of playbook. I think they are very resistant to any kind of controversy. Lululemon has seethrough yoga pants, they bounced back. Nike is bouncing back from the kaepernick issue. I really think they are extremely wellpoised to continue taking market share. And i think their numbers look fantastic. Revenue is up 10 . They beat on comps, eps and revenue. Theres a lot for me to like here. Charles the stock has been absolutely phenomenal, no doubt about it. Lets face it, they have one major global competitor, very much like the boeing airbus situation. If you can, stick around. Right now i want to check on stock futures. We have been up most of the morning, not runaway stuff but you know, just gradually higher. What youre looking at, more record, potential records for the stock market. Meanwhile, impeachment is in limbo as nancy pelosi delays sending articles of impeachment to the senate. The question is, will pelosis strategy actually work in favor of the democrats . A lot of people are worried about that. Last week, President Trump signed a defense spending bill. In there, he raised the legal age to buy tobacco to 21. Will it deter young people from taking up smoking . We are asking that question. We are keeping an eye, of course, on hong kong. Protesters there clashed with police on Christmas Day. More Varney Company right after this. Most people think as a reliable phone company. But to businesses, were a reliable partner. We Keep Companies ready for whats next. man we weave security into their business. second man virtualize their operations. woman and build ai customer experiences. second woman we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. Like 5g. Almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. woman when it comes to digital transformation. Verizon keeps business ready. Charles well, the Christmas Holiday did not stop protesters in hong kong. Former cctv business anchor is on the phone with us now. Phil, these protests, any signs that they are going to start to let up, because it feels like they are getting more intense and the tactics involve more public protests. Yeah, good morning, good morning, charles. Good morning to all your viewers over there. One of the key Critical Issues for hong kong right now is that as we end the year, its been six months of this that has been ongoing, as you said, its ebbed and flowed. It was peaceful, then violent, then peaceful, and recently its kind of dialed up just a bit in the last 48 hours. There is a major protest thats planned for new years day in hong kong, organized by civil rights organizations, and i think that will be a true test of how we start off the year next year between the protesters and the police there in hong kong. Charles it felt like there was a schism for a moment there when you had all these protesters show up saying hey, we want to do it in a nonviolent fashion, and pushing back against some of maybe the more exuberant younger protesters who were maybe seeking or not afraid of confrontation. Is there any sign of who may be sort of directing this, you know, where the leadership on this is coming from and what the tactics might be going from here out . Its unclear at this point. One of the issues the protesters have is that theyre not very well organized, and they certainly lack any tools that traditional protests have involved, either an elected or volunteer leader and its very fragmented. Now, the Police Obviously have the backing by the state and of course, some support by beijing as well. So you can imagine they have access to numerous resources, including surveillance, weapons, vehicles and the usual tools that a police force would have. So clearly, its not a very equal fight, if you want. A lot of media is calling it a fight. Its not really a fight. You have dozens, hundreds of Police ChasingCollege Students around shopping malls and it all started when, over christmas, many of the Young Students that you mentioned were singing and protesting sort of within city malls, and of course, the police had a great dislike for that. Charles well, thank you very much for catching us up. We will stay on top of this. We appreciate you helping us as well. Meanwhile, lets check on these futures again. Now, theres now talk, of course, of dow 30,000. I mean, maybe it could happen this year. Want to bring in gerri willis. Gerri, listen, stocks have been big winners this year and now people are saying hey, why not 30,000. I dont know if weve got that much momentum for this calendar year. Gerri well, maybe not this calendar year, but maybe the first two weeks of january. Traders down here have two words. Melt up. Let me show you three stocks here that have had shocker performance. Im going to start with tiffanys. 65 gain year to date. Remember when we had basically thrown in the towel on this stock . Guess what, they are reporting a turnaround in holiday sales, especially china. Up 5 to 7 during the holiday sales season so big numbers for tiffany, the stock soaring this year. Target, for example. Bricks and mortar, what can that Company Possibly do and yet the stock up 94 year to date. Amazing performance there. I want to talk a little about apple, too. We had low expectations for this stock, even earlier this year. Remember the skepticism about the companys ability to rev up that services revenue. Iphone 11 would never do anything, right . They are up 80 and on Christmas Eve, dan ives at wedbush raising his price target on that stock to 350. Look, nasdaq futures right now poised to hit yet another record at the open. We got a lot going on down there and it seems very positive indeed. Back to you. Charles theres two investment lessons there. When apple said we are going to stop releasing the actual number of sales on the iphones, the stock cratered, to your point. If you had bought it then, you would be up significantly. You would be outperforming every money manager in the world. Tiffany left for dead, taken over by louis vuitton. People out there should understand theres amazing value often in the names that are most beaten down. Thank you very much. Gerri i agree with that. Merry christmas. Charles much to stuarts chagrin, official baby yoda merchandise is finally here. The plush doll didnt make it in time for stores in the holidays, a huge miss, a big miss in opportunity for disney. Its the next one. You always drive this slow . How did you make someone i love . That must be why youre always so late. I do not speed. And thats saving me cash with drivewise. My son, he did say that you were the safe option. And thats the nicest thing you ever said to me. 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