To 2 here as we await a big week in europe as well. We start with the markets. New optimism about the cliff. President obama in myanmar saying hes confident the fiscal situation will be dealt with hours after he hit the phones calling top ceos. Lowes shares on better than expected earnings. The results renewing hopes this morning about the housing recovery. International pressure mounts for israel and gaza to agree to a ceasefire after a weekend of air strikes leave a dozen dead and hundreds injured. Brent continues to climb with gold going higher. The president and congress will strike a deal to restore the fiscal cliff. Over the weekend in asia, the president said hes confident we can get the fiscal situation confident and reached out to ceos including tim cook, Warren Buffett and jamie dimon. After top house and Senate Leaders say fridays meeting was constructive. We see headlines that may bring news to other companies. Intel ceo Paul Otellini to retire. During this period where a lot of companies moved toward mobile, was not pioneer mobile. Arm holdings to go a bunch of shares. This may be a positive viewed as positive for intel. They will conduct a search or process to choose otellinis successor. Will consider internal and external candidates. Hes been at the company for 40 years. Only the fifth ceo in 50 years. A company has had long service from those in its ceo position. Again, he will step down at the annual meeting taking place in may at which point well learn who his successor will be giving them six months or so to figure that out. They managed to destroy. Thats what they did. In the end they are in a hewlett packard, dell based system. If you go to what jobs said over and over before he passed away. This is not a company i can make a deal with. I cant work with them. Rather work with samsung. To your point of maybe this doesnt make a difference, weve seen the stock decline. Its at a place in the tech world where it is crucial to many systems but it is not want you when it comes to tablet and mobile. Its not in the sweet spot. It doesnt have competitors nipping at its heels, you see shares are halted right now. Thats what i have. Huge yield. Fabulous Balance Sheet. Perhaps the Seminole Company in terms of changing the power of a pc to be equal to a main frame but at the same time linked with microsoft in a product that is what does a Management Change mean . How does a management shift compete against a secular change in your Business Model . I think what they have to do is do something theyve never done which is go to apple and say, listen, well pay to do it. Take samsung out. Does your gut tell you that hes being forced out . Boy, its not the intel way. This has been just the worst period ive ever seen for the stock. I knew andy grove had the ability to talk to important for some point in my career. The intel of old is the company that was always on the cutting edge. This intel has tried and failed to do communications work. They do have cell phones. They are sold in countries that are not competitive with a lot of other countries. Intel is a Brilliant Company filled with brilliant engineers and makes a problem not able to crack into apple other than the mac and samsung has been able to crush them which is extraordinary. Hes been ceo for eight years. Coming in around the average tenure. Six months is indicative perhaps of an agreement that his time was up. Its hard to imagine he was forced if you want someone out, you may not want them in there for another six months. That being said, they do promote a number of people. It will be interesting to see renee james. Stacy smith has also been promoted. Stacy has been a remarkable job within the confines of a product cycle and a product that while its just fast and fabulous for networking and for when you go into a data farm its filled with intell. In the end because of the way the cell phone switched to become the device of the future, intel has been left behind. No word on whether or not otellini was a cell phone he spoke to over the weekend. He talked to jim at costco. Buffett. Dimon. Does that add to positive vibes we got from friday out of the white house . I think so. These are people who for the most part i regarded before the election as people that he wouldnt pick up the phone and call. One of the big black marks against the president versus business is that they didnt speed dial him. Wasnt on speed dial. I remember during the Clinton Administration he used to talk to these guys as a matter of course. He would speak to all of the oil companies. It was a great give and take. These are people who so far other than buffett i felt were not on the short list of people he would give a call to. I think thats fair to say. Many of them harbor hostility. Were dealing with large egos. When Valerie Jarrett was the person they sent to meet with them, many had bruised egos to a certain extent and felt like they had no ability to forge a relationship with the president during the last term. I heard that any number of times certainly from leaders in the Financial Services arena which he may have wanted to stay away from anyhow. Whether its one phone call or going to be perhaps a series of phone calls over a period of time which is going to actually create a dialogue. Costco was founded i shouldnt say founded. Its a democratic its been a long time democratic supporter. What you needed to see is him calling people who gave people to romney. Jpmorgan, we dont know. Jamie dimon for a long time was a democrat. Hes been saying for years hes barely hanging on. I have no idea who the man voted for. He didnt call me and tell me which bothers me tremendously. I would have felt like after you leave the voting booth, you give cramer a call. There are people who people are republicans that are speaking to the president. Suddenly you have paul ryan back in the mix. This is like having john back in the mix. I dont know if you remember him. There are still a lot of people, a lot of people in the Republican Party who are saying this 250,000 and more, i will go to my grave before i raise taxes for the wealthy and im not hearing any of these guys saying i used to believe in not raising taxes for the wealthy and now i believe it. David has been a critic. Problems are going to come along. In light of that, whats today all about . What are these futures all about . We live in a period of hope where you come in and the last guy you spoke is positive. The next guy senator mcconnell, i think what he says is futures you should be up, market should be down. Were not going anywhere. Go short the market. Thats not exactly what mcconnell would be saying but thats how i would read his comments. Favors lower stock prices for all. Thats a problem. It was interesting that he addresses december selling and notion that higher Capital Gains taxes, higher dividend taxes are going to increase selling. Jpmorgan is also out with a note this morning saying theres no historical evidence that Capital Gains or dividend tax changes actually prompt people to change the way they invest. Were not selling year end because of this. Jpmorgan says theres no impact whether it be increased to taxes or decrease to taxes. I will tell you one thing thats prompting companies to do. Pull up their Dividend Payments earlier. Walmart this morning approving a change in payment data thats regular dividend to december 27th. It was originally going to be january 2nd. How convenient. Walmart is pulling it in saying to people lets make sure that when we pay our dividend, you know what tax rate youre going to pay on it. So is the journal article about Companies Selling themselves fewuriously or have they not read that or because were down week after week is because of Hurricane Sandy . Its because it makes sense to sell. It makes sense to sell. The yields arent going to be after tax arent that good. If youre a rich person, 250,000 and you have taxable accounts that have stocks, do you think apple does that gentleman at jpmorgan looked at apple decided is the ipad mini . The funny thing is jpmorgan says companies arent changing the way they pay out dividends. Weve seen it with walmart and west lake chemical this morning issuing a special dividend. Weve seen it time and time again where you have to think theres something behind these special dividends because they do seem to be stronger than they have been in years past. Fourth quarter is seasonally a time for special dividends but this year it seems like were hearing about them more and more. If we were in a great bull market and theres a tremendous cost to selling stocks, is that research may hold water. The truth is were in the period where we all know were 2 million jobs if we go over the fiscal cliff. If you were to say if you look at the fiscal cliff, it may change the way people have historically invested during alrise in Capital Gains and dividend taxes. That would make more sense to me. Lets switch gears and talk about lowes adding to the upbeat mood on the market. Shares of Home Improvement retailer are going higher with 40 cents a share a nickel above estimates. Revenue and same store sales beating estimates. They are inching up same store sales. Conference call 12 minutes in but we want to hear about sandy and the impact there. People are looking for 1 . There was a creep up on same store sales 1. 5 . Talking with people this weekend about what needs to be rebuilt, i dont know if anyone realizes the profound nature of the rebuild in new jersey. They are razing entire neighborhoods. Contractors can bring one person in besides the contractor. Louisiana National Guard with rifles keeping contractors from being able to go in. No one can visit these homes. Who knows what this will mean. Chris christie funny on saturday night live. I dont think people realize theres National Guard from louisiana, state troopers from louisiana with guns, saying youre not allowed here. Who knows. Once they let those people pass and they build roads, youll see a rebuilding effort. There will not be a piece of sheet rock in the northeast. You are going to have to pull everything from all of these other areas. This is going to be, i believe, maybe next it hurricane andrew, the biggest rebuild in history and we know that since you cant even get to the homes, youre not seeing any impact yet on rebuild. Brings to mind what the fed said. Industrial production down by a full point. Deutch yoi is out saying nonfarm is up. They didnt have as many stores that were down versus irene. I want to hear about lowes. I do believe that there is going to be a concerted effort to try to get the federal government to break the rules and pay a lot of money and that new jersey is a populated state. One state cant pull gdp up after pushing it down. What we saw in 1992 in florida with andrew was that it did pull up the gdp. The rebuild did. This is a similar rebuild although there will be tremendous tension. Those of house have property down there who submitted our bills to the Insurance Companies, how much of it was water damage . Well, a lot of it. Nice to know you. Its good. I hope you dont have mold down there. If it got flooded, you should hope a tree fell on top. The Insurance Companies are telling you to read fine print. Fine print is very bad. When we come back, taking a bite out of apple in bear territory after a slight gain on friday and stock up in premarket. Is it finally the time to buy . You might remember David Shulman now with ucla forecast. He says why you should brace. Nice rallies given that dow in the past four of six weeks have been down more than 200 points. More squawk on the street is back in a minute. Take a look where we are set to open here up 112 points on the Dow Jones Industrial average. A little bit of optimism this morning as some commentary over the weekend and on friday that perhaps were closer to a resolution of the fiscal cliff. Look at shares intel halted right now on news that ceo will retire in may. We understand that intel will have a delayed open. 9 35 a. M. Eastern time is the time it is set to open right now last close here 20. 35 on shares of intel. Were watching shares of apple. Still in bear territory down more than 23 in the last two months. Perhaps the worst is over for apple. Shares are rising premarket after rising slightly from friday. Bank of america reiterated the buy rating on apple but lowered the price target. And the bullish outlook on the stock saying that the valuation remains compelling trading 6. 6 times earnings excash. You cant deny that. The sentiment has been curious. They also say that the selloff has been insanely insane. Anyone who has a big gain on apple may not be up as much now. We have 20 decline. Its a remarkable opportunity to be able to take a capital gain without having to worry about where the rates are going to be. A bounce at 505 and 506 and nice reversal. You have that intraday reversal thats what bulls have been waiting to to see if people have been washed out. I believe earnings will be good. I think as far as i can tell you would say two bad quarters . Two missed quarters versus expectations. Some say three. How much of this is just a source of funds, you know . Its widely owned. Have you met anyone that doesnt own it . Yes, i have. Really . They should rise above. I think its very important to recognize that this is a moment where if youre a tax person, if youre advising, youre an accountant advising people, youre a broker, you must get on the phone and say we dont know where the rates are. I think you should sell it and buy it back because its too important to let that gain go to be higher taxed because the stock has to go up 10 to 15 before youre right again. Thats the call you make as a responsible broker given chaos in washington. How should you go long at the beginning of a shortened trading week . Cramers mad dash is coming up next and a look at why p pinterest. S p looking to add about 14. 5 right at the open. Much more squawk on the street straight ahead. Customer erin swenson bought from us online today. So, im happy. Sales go up. Im happy. It went out today. Im happy. What if shes not home . together she wont be happy. Use ups she can get a text alert, reroute. Even reschedule her package. 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They say its showing signs of winning the mobile battle. Facebook is, i think, not necessarily taking share but seems to have a mobile alternative that can make them more money. This is mark zuckerberg. Hes deeply focused on this. Everyone knows that his sponsored Story Initiative is gaining traction. All of the different ceos notwithstanding what mark cuban said over the weekend, calling it a time waster overthinking what they are as a social network. There be many time wasters. I wasted time being an eagle season ticket holder. Groupon . This is interesting. Deutsche bank is warming up to groupon shares. David and i often joked about whether its time to warm up. Deutsche says yes. They are seeing stabilization of trends. Immediately i go and it turns out there are seven manhattan locations offering laser hair removal. If we can get out now, you have that 11 00 to 12 00. Will that remove hair permanently from right here . Is that a deal . You dont know how hard it is to keep this short. Well take cameras to that. It could grow back. I need groupon. U. P. S. Releasing shipping predictions for the holiday season. Well get those when we come right back. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] the mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 c250 for 349 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. They dont know it yet, but theyre gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, theyll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. Theyll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. We have breaking news in the past 30 minutes from some of the Biggest Companies in the world. Walmart moving dividend up. The head of intel stepping down next year. And who knows what the rest of the day could bring. Already have some m a action from cisco. The eighth Cloud Acquisition since february for this company. Interesting. I would not have known that they have done that. Cisco has always been active as you know in terms of smaller deals. Hasnt done that in many big ones. You have to go back to the box maker scientific atlanta they bought. Those are some of the bigger ones. They do a lot of deals. Smaller, private companies but they do a lot and they have large m a practice at cisco. They had a great quarter. It was obscured. As we await the opening bell, interesting week, short week. Claims will come wednesday instead of thursday. A lot of housing data. Bernanke speaks tomorrow. Well talk about that later perhaps. Theres opening bell. S p 500 top of the screen. A lot of green today. Executives of belgium listed