Recession. And whether you hit the stores yesterday or not, plenty of people are out this morning. If you are planning on waking up early for your black friday sales, youre late. Step et up. Shoppers are expected to spend an average of 650 this weekend. Thats 11 1 more than last year. We have the chief merchandising officer at toys r us. Then well be joined from Tysons Corner, a huge mall in virginia. Bobby kotick will be join onning us on air. Electronic items are expected to be a big seller this year especially with the launch of the xbox and the new play station consoles. Coming up in the next hour, we have Terry Lundgren. And at 8 40 this morning, the ceo of Brooks Brothers. We have a packed line upof guests ready to giving us a look at the American Consumer. We start with dana telsey this morning. We have heard a lot of stories about some expecting disappointment, some maybe not great retail numbers. But what do you really think is going to happen this Holiday Season . I think its the season of insurgency. We have six fewers days between thanksgiving and christmas. Look at the season started earlier than it ever did before. There are items out there for people to want, whether its accessories and hand bags and watches. Certainly electronics with all the new tablets out there. So overall, it should be a 3 to 3. 5 total increase, 2 to 2. 5 like for like. But it will be promotional. And with online and stores, you have to be in it to win it so you have to be open in order to be able to get the shop. I have an open question. Everyone is opening their stores. However, if you look at all of the sales growth for all of these stores, its all online. Its up 20 , 30 online and invariably at the store level, the fiscal locations where everybody is supposedly running, its down. People are actually losing shares. Well, one of the things happening is you order online, pick up in store, reserve in store. Its complimentary. Retailers need an Online Presence and a store presence. Dont forget, though but the black friday versus the cyber monday. Black friday and cyber mon nobody is going to order stuff yesterday and pick it up today, right . You may be doing that. Whats hopefully happening is if you order online, pick it up in the store, not only are you picking up what you ordered, but youre getting more, too. Well talk to Terry Lundgren about that. Its working. I look at these numbers. Weve had a few people who come on and said, look, maybe you get an upside surprise. If you had to go with the over earn, whover over under, what would you take . Side say over. Retailsers need to move the merchandise. Does that mean lower margins . Yes. Are they going to be profitable . It will be pressured margin for some of the retailers. Dont forget, 40 off today is what 10 and 20 off used to be years ago. Theyre planning for promotiones and planning carefully. So far, the markdowns that weve seen out there yesterday and this morning so far, for the most part, theyre very similar in the last year. When you say 40 off, there was that wall street journal story last year saying 40 off, but thats because we marked the price up 35 . Exactly. And i believe that is happening and they mark the margins in order to be able to hit. I think when youre getting 60 , 70 off, its whats taking off that initial markup. Is it margins and pressure, meaning its still a profitable share . Still a profitable sale. Its margin compression. These retailers came through 08 and 09 and they know thou manage their expenses in order to make a profit. Who are the big winners . Walmart came in and said they were going to offer plenty of discounts. That put plenty of retailers into a tailspin, a bit of a panic. Who wins and who loses . I think macys wins, tjx wins, michael kors will win. Limited should win. Best buy, outside of my office the traffic, the line went straight down the block. But best buy said their margins would be compressed. Right. What would you do with this stock, best buy . If i could buy it or sell it, id buy it. The reason why . Great expense structure to make profits down the road. Dana will be with us all morning. tis the season for early spending sprees. Joining us now is richard barry, the toys retailer and merchandising officer. How are you . Im great. How are you . Im great. Give us a sense of what has been going on overnight for you and what youre seeing today. We opened at 5 00 p. M. Last night. The sales staff at midnight the night before online. What we expected for this thanksgiving and for black friday period was that people were going to shop how they wanted and thats what weve been seeing. So great sales online at 12 01 midnight. We saw great crowds at 5 00 p. M. Weve seen a nice stream of traffic heading through. Right now, weve got our 5 00 a. M. Specials running so weve seen another really great surge of traffic coming through again. And were going to have great deals all the way through until we close tonight and again for the weekend. And, you know, this period of promotion is not just about black friday any more. Its about the period before black friday. Its about cyber what used to be cyber monday which is now cyber week. So well be taking our cyber seevent on saturday and that will continue through next week. So for those procrastinators who will wake up monday morning and realize its december 1st, well have plenty of deals to get them motivated. Richard, when you said you had a 5 00 a. M. Deal, what is available at 5 00 a. M. And what is the price point . We have deals across the store, whether youre looking for toys or electronics. For example, we have tablet b with a 10 inch tablet thats 99, 50 off. We have disneys infinity figures. Buy one get 50 off. Weve got deals really across all the stores, whether youre looking for barbie or lego, youll find really great deals all the way across the store. Plus, we have about 250 door busters that are still running across the store. Wile we started early yesterday, we have plenty of vinventory to see us through today, through tomorrow and then well kick off our cyber event, as well. Richard, there are six fewer shopping days between thanksgiving and christmas. Is that an issue for you . Well, weve been planning for that all year. We knew they would be a tightened and compressed season. For us, it works in our strength. We carry the widest assortment, great exclusives. Were going to work on our instock position as we get through the next few weeks. So for those customer thats get pressured on time, we will be the only stop where you can make that quick stop and get everything you want and get a few surprises and quick deals. Richard, real quick, this next 48 hours, will you make money . Will this be a profitable 48 hours for you or is this just to get the brand out there and hope more people come in between now and christmas . Well absolutely make money over this period. We see customers buying into our door busters. But what was exciting last night boor busters is a euphemism for an unprofitable trade for you, right . It can be. But what we saw last night is customers coming in, buying whole shopping carts of goods, literally doing their complete christmas shop on this day. So that helps us with our margins outall. But the fact is, wpt to give our customers a great place. One final question and then would he have got to run. All of these door busters and they promotions and all of whats happening, is it just pulling forward the sales or do you think its actually increasing incrementally the sales . I think weve got a couple of things to look at. First youof all, we have a compressed Holiday Season. We have to make sure every single day counts between now and the 24th of december. Its not our fault this is pulling forward sales. This is absolutely necessary. Its important to give our customer tess convenience, the time to be able to do that shopping so that they can get the right gift for their kids so they have a big smile on their face for christmas. Richard, thank you so much for joining us in times square this morning. Happy thanksgiving and happy holidays. Happy thanksgiving. Were just getting an update. Walmart processing more than 10 million registered transactions thursday. Dana, is that a big number . Sounds like a very big number. 400 million page views on walmart. Com. And they said big screen tvs, ipad mini among the top sellers. Laptops, xbox 1, ps4 and call of duty ghost. Call of duty is interesting because bobby kotick is going to be here. Thats a new video game they have out. This is interesting in the release, too. There has been this talk about protests from workers today who are going to be protesting the wages paid by walmart. Listen to this line. In appreciation for their hard work, walmart will be providing 70 million in holiday pay to hourly store associates. They say store associates who worked on thanksgiving day will receive a 25 discount on an entire purchase on december 5th and december 6th, allowing them to save millions of dollars on Holiday Gifts for their families. So first of all, from walmart, just the numbers that are out there getting some of these transactions, they say there were more people who came through, some 22 million customers would came there on thanksgiving day. In four hours. Just from 6 00 to 10 00 on p. M. What do those numbers tell you . It sounds huge. Huge numbers and you have to decide are you going to keep the store open or not and do you want to be amazoned or do you want to have the competition from online . They want to gain share. This way they can hopefully work with the workers and their staff and be able to generate sales. How 41,000 transactions a minute. A minute. From 6 00 to 10 00 p. M. Thats why im here today to calculate this. 2. 8 million towels, 2 mill n televisions and 1. 9 million dolls. This sounds like alibaba and china every day. How far behind are they relative to amazon . Are we about to enter a new paradigm . I heard from somebody who suggested in the next two years, people may start going to walmart. Com for orders more than amazon, for certain types of things. What weve always heard is that people go to amazon for specific items. They go to some of the retailer sites in order to be able to browse because they know theyre going to find a complete assortment. Harder to browse on amazon when you know exactly what youre going there for. Easier to work when i browse for tvs, ill always go to best buy. Thats my thing. Do you want to do google shopping search. I would go to amazon. I would probably going to amazon. Id look for the comments to see what everyone says about them. Then i would go to google or do something so i could find the cheapest one to physically buy. Thats what i would probably do. I think what dana is saying is its the automatic places that you go, there are reflective places and walmart may be becoming one of those. Thats amazing. Right. We have dana here all day to comment on all the incoming information we get from retailers. Here is what you need to know about trading hours. The New York Stock Exchange will close at 1 00 eastern. Commodities, gold trading as the nymex closes at 1 30 eastern. And electronic trading finishes at 5 15 eastern. So these guys at dotcom, theyll be on all day. Lets check on the markets this morning. Where are the boards here . Here we go. Dow jones looking not too shabby, up 35 points if you do the fair value calculation. Nasdaq, which crossed the 4,000 barrier thursday or friday last week sorry, this week. Tuesday. It was a shortened week, right sdmp. Tuesday or wednesday. And lets see, hoyle now was in the 90 area, 92. 567. Brent around 110. Natural gas, 392. Theres the tenyear treasury. 2. 75 . It was up higher. Seems like the new middle ground for it. Where is the dollar trading today . 102 on the yen. 1. 36 on the euro. So weaker against the euro, which has defied expectations in keeping its strength up. And finally, gold. In the 1200 range, now 1246, up 9 today. Well see if that sticks. Time for the Global Markets report. Ross westgate is standing by in london. Ross, how was your thanksgiving . It was very good, steve. I had a chef on set with me and we prepared a turkey. Merry thanksgivingkuha, by the way. Thank you. Wouldnt joe rib you endlessly about the lack of celebration of thanksgiving in the uk . Yeah. Clearly, it was the guys that left that youre giving thanks for. They were, you know, a little too uptight for us, to be fair. Its an unusual holiday for us, if you know what i mean. Ill tell you what has happened, though, retailers today, fist time this has happened, british retailers are pushing black friday discounts in britain. And that has never happened before. So we have now inherited that from you. There you go. Its come all the way back. We forgot why thanksgiving happens, but the shop onning retailers come all the way back here with discounts based on the same thing. Meanwhile, steve, equities today just above the flat line. Around about 5 to 4 advancers outpacing decliners at the moment. The ftse yesterday without the absence or with the absence of u. S. Trade didnt do an awful lot. The ftse wanted up 10 points. Pretty flat for the xetra dax and the cac 40 in france. The xetra dax is at the alltime highs at the moment. The mts mtsftse mib is fairly f. They downgraded and cut the aaa rating for the netherlands to aa plus. They did say the outlook is stable. This is a country that has been on negative watchout look for around two years. They said it no longer wants that aaa so theyve trimmed it down. It was a negative outlook for a couple of years on that. But they said they dont want it to be on the same rating as germany. Tenyear spanish yields a little higher today or lower today. They also got an upgrade in terms of the outlook from s p to stable from negative. And we focused on the uk through our mortgage approvals ticked higher once again this month. We heard from the bank of england yesterday that they stopped their funding for lending scheme for mortgage finance. They are using this theme to give banks cheap finance if they extended more mortgages. Theyve cut their house price he and rebounded quite nicely. Were stoking house prices a little bit too much in this recovery. So the bank of england stepped in and said were going to do chief financing. There was a moot point about whether it was funding an awful lot of mortgages in the first place. Otherwise, were pretty flat. Well see how your shopping goes stateside. Back to you. Ross, thank you for that. Is it thanksgivingkuh or is it the opposite . Hanukkah came first, technically. Hanugiving . Hanugiving, something. Thanksgiving kkah is catc catchier. Coming up, youll be surprised by the stopping. Plus, russia, why theyre raising minimum vodka prices and how china could be controlling bitcoins fate. We have all those stories. First, alex wallace is joining us now from the Weather Channel to give us a breakdown on how things may be faring over the weekend. Alex. Good morning to you and happy post thanksgiving. Things are looking pretty quiet. A few light snow showers moving across parts of new york state and pennsylvania. What we have, though, is the chill thats in the air. Its going remain quite cold throughout our day today. 30s and 20s through the interior. 30s from new york city northward. By tomorrow, not a whole lot warmer. 42 in d. C. With syracuse now getting up to 34. So a bit of a moral victory, at least getting out of the 20s there. It will remain cold heading into the weekend. 32 in detroit. Once we get into tomorrow, only about 5 degrees warmer. We do find it into parts of the south, this is where were getting to see a chance of temperatures in the 60s. Some of these areas were freezing with crazy cold temperatures yesterday morning. By the time we get to sunday along the gulf coast, mid to upper 60s to enjoy. Thats your National Forecast heading into the weekend. More squawk box coming up next. Announcer before you hit the road, here is your travelers check. Las vegas and los angeles attract business travelers. What else . Find out next. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. aaron purrrfect. vo meeeow, business pro. Meeeow. Go national. Go like a pro. Announcer what makes these cities more desirable for conventi conventions . Direct rail rides from the airport to downtown. According to the u. S. Travel association and American Public transportation association. Time for the now executive edge. This is our daily sellment focused on giving Business Leaders a leg up. We start things out with retail. Retailers at this point to find out whether buyers are on work computers, mobile devices or standing in the grocery aisle. That data can be connected with other personal information like your zip code. The techniques can help customize Shopping Experiences. But consumers argue aggressive tracking and profiling opens the door to price discrimination. Some of the things they talk about in this article are creepy. The idea of them tracking which items youre walking up and down, if you pick up something or put it back on the shelf or into your cart. That is starting to sound truly invasive. Im not bothered by any of this. The only thing im bothered by is the possibility for price discrimination. A year or two ago we did a story, i think it was on staples. And there was a physical story that was close by to your house or not, they would charge you more or less money. And that actually frustrated me. I think the prices should be the same across the board. A point of information here, the economic concept of surprise discrimination is not bad. What do you mean . Well, retailers discriminate all the time between those who are willing to pay more for a product and those who will pay less. And you can think about that in terms of the two different models o ft same automobile that was put out by, for example, there was mercury and there was, i guess, ford. I guess they got rid of that. So what was it . It was a more ornate version of the same automobile. So yeah, but a more ornate version is not the same. No, but its very much the same product. The concept itself tsh you go into starbucks, starbucks is price discriminating. You can get a cup of coffee for 1 or you can get a 6 cup of coffee. And whats happening is starbucks is discriminating. Now, the discrimination youre talking about thats a different type of discrimination. The idea of discrimination based on if youre looking at their sex or gender or their race and deciding but its a different there are retailers that in some certain instances, the better customer you are the more they charge you. What you want to know is if youve been subscribing for a long time, theyll charge you through nose. Theyll discriminate between new customers and old customers. Perhaps. But this