A 52week high in france and germany. Our road map this morning begins in washington where fiscal cliff negotiations according to the times has collapsed. At least for now. With less than a month until the deadline, who blinks first if anyone . Goldman takes dell from a strength to a buy. Is it time to look at the stock and maybe even other players in the beat up personal computer sector . Manufacturing data out of china. Not bad. 50. 6. Thats the highest in seven months. Although shanghai again trades lower even europes pmi improves a touch in november. First up, were one month away from the fiscal cliff and so far the white house and Congressional Republicans are still in disagreement over how to reduce the deficit and avoid a raft of tax hikes and spending cuts. Yesterday our own jim cramer and Maria Bartiromo were on meet the press and cramer had a message for fellow panelists and father of the antitax pledge, Grover Norquist. Most ceos are republican. Theyre on board. Theyre not on board with you. Theyre not on board with you because they fear your view. They think you do not favor going you favor going over the cliff. Thats what they think. They think that you favor just for the record since were on tv. Thats silly if they think that they shouldnt be ceos. It doesnt really matter. Thats what they think. I want you to walk me up to that moment. Behind the record. I like that too. Im stuck. Like grover is stuck with this pledge he made everybody take which is that they have to go over the cliff because they obviously will not ever say the word tax. They will only say revenue. Im stuck speaking to many more ceos than Grover Norquist is. He thinks its silly. He thinks ceos are silly. I dont think theyre silly. They control hiring in this country. Many americans play for dinner. I dont think Grover Norquist cares about who is paying to dinner. He has a pledge. Its important to him and important to the people who agreed to it. I worry about dinner for people. I worry about rising above and dinner for people. He wont surprise it. Ceos do. He has his principles. I went to college with him. Hes a very nice man. Very nice. You have a history. We should keep that in mind. Sweet guy. Likes the cliff. Wants to jump over. Favors recession. Thats how i read that. Recession isnt bad thing if youre a short seller. If you can go short, you can get your way. It could be big. It could be. It could be huge. You never know. At least for some period of time. Yeah. There is a big analysis on the cover of times about talks as they stand right now. They say the president has been burned, scarred is the word they used by the previous negotiations and that until republicans put a new plan on the table, he will not move. He will not change what hes put on the table as of last week. Is that compromise . I think that hes asking the republicans to say what cuts they would make. The republicans to me have not put anything forward that i see. I know that even when you Say Something like that, that becomes political. I think one of the things thats really important is that the republicans who do agree to raise taxes will be targeted by norquist. Norquist far more powerful than karl rove and fox news. You do believe that . Much more. He could destroy any republican who goes against the pledge. Hes really powerful. I have known grover for years. Even though democrats won the president ial election . Doesnt that change the calculus . He would say these people are all safe seats if they dont get against the pledge. Norquist has the division so to speak. He could destroy any republican who says the word tax increase. Has he said he said if theyre seduced by democrats in pure thoughts this is the socalled i can smell pornography when i see it. This is pornography for Grover Norquist. He can smell it when he sees it. He will target. He will destroy republicans who go against the pledge. Hes much more powerful than any individual republican. And individual ceo. Lets just face it. Ive always felt he was the most powerful person in the class of 76 at harvard. Enjoyed his success because he was a fellow member of the harvard crimson. I just disagree with him. Terrific guy. With friends like that with all due respect to my expartner larry kudlow with all due respect. The treasury secretary talks about how he does not think that in the end the gop is going to prevent tax rates on the wealthiest from rising. This is what he said. What were trying to do is make it more likely we come together on a good agreement for the American People that extends tax cuts for the middle class, brings our longterm deficits down. Tough spending savings as part of that and invest in things that matter to the american economy. We think we can do that. We have a good chance to do it now. Its important that we do it. I think were going to get there. Given tough talk over the weekend, why arent we waking up to down numbers, red arrows . Europe is terrific. Bond rates are phenomenal. A great run. China numbers are better. I think that theres a lot of people who feel like doug cast does who writes with me with a piece in the New York Times saying that most stuff is nontaxable accounts any way. Most stocks that people wont be as motivated to sell as people think. Of course that doesnt necessarily deal with the increase in payroll taxes and the whole recession side of it. It does deal with the stock market side in terms of selling. Why not say, listen, fiscal cliff, i have to cut numbers. I have to cut guidance. I think many ceos will cut guidance because of the possibility that the amt is going to this alternative minimum tax, people dont know they have to write a check for 3,500 at the end of the year. Once you jump over the cliff, you can reverse the payroll tax. Senator corker who is terrific and had good privilege of talking with him this weekend, we both know you cant reverse amt. Once you go over the cliff, amt is insidious. Its hard to figure out. In terms of negotiations we will sit here day after day, is it more theatrics, are they really stalled, will we get down to something at the end of the day that doesnt deal with everything, doesnt deal with fundamental tax reform but in terms of taxes and spending and put other issues into 2013 . Dont you think a lot of it is theatrics. I feel that if you vote if you cant utter the word increase next to the word tax, which is somehow many republicans cant put that sin tax you just need enough of them to do that. Thats a good point. Grover norquist my friend from college emphasizes that if we put cspan cameras in, we would find out the negotiation. We put cspan cameras in and you could target republicans that want compromise. Compromise is enemy for republicans that signed the pledge. Compromise is the devil. Im a big believer in compromise like lincoln had to do to get that emancipation proclamation thing. Thats not included with Grover Norquist. Nice guy. Your terrific friend. You love him. I just wanted to add that for you. Harvard crimson, forged friendship. You dont get that kind of friendship just in every day life. More of an acquaintance. Maybe thats a better word. Acquaintance. All right. Lets move onto dell. Shares are rising in premarket. Goldman sachs upgrading to a buy from a sell. Take note of that. Full upgrade like that. It says dells net cash levels provide an opportunity for a leveraged buyout or recapitalization. You hear the argument often times as a way to focus investors on something thats cheap. Because its a way for you to say, wait a second, how much cash do they have . You know, he does own 14 of the stock. What are opportunities here in terms of Free Cash Flow and yield . I tend to think these arguments do usually focus investors on cheapness relative to Free Cash Flow, relative to cash on hand. Unlikely. Highly unlikely that dell is going to be a lbo. Weve had two guys over the last couple months saying we can do a 50 billion lbo and equity check is maintained at not that large a level, you never know. Why does goldman use the term lbo in its upgrade . I argue its just another way of showing how cheap it is. Theater. More theater than they really believe this is going to happen. Certainly not the top bullet on their note. Top bullet is longterm concerns are now mainstream thought net cash position is decent, right . Yes. They would have to get a lot of cashes from overseas by the way. You hear cash at u. S. Corporations, a lot of it is overseas. Repatriation tax holiday is not part of any negotiations weve been hearing about. Not at all. An area thats a no go. So that is an important part of the calculation. If you cant bring that cash back and goldman says this. This is not something they think is going to happen. Do you remember when steve brought seagate private. It was brimming with cash. Raised the dividend next week. Why doesnt michael dell pay out a special dividend and everyone is thrilled. Fundamentals are still what . Fundamentals are i mean, look. Fundamentals depend upon a belief that the personal computer is going to be with us for a long time and is not that much in decline. Ipad will not crush it. I dont know. Why not redistrict some of that Free Cash Flow and that cash into an area where you think you can attain real growth. Try to recreate the company in some sort of significant way. I think that its not easy to do that by the way. As rivals have discovered. Maybe you want them to go into the pharmaceutical business. Allerg allergens weight loss business is for sale. Not a lot of synergy there. You cant find growth in the personal computer business. It doesnt exist. Maybe you could figure youll carry it around on your ipad, maybe theres more synergy than you think. Maybe he should take the cash and buy a lot of apple stock. I tell you why thats not going to happen. Were going to enter the new month for the markets after a mixed november that stocks saw the nasdaq and s p finish on the plus side. Dow posting second consecutive monthly loss. Futures on the rise this morning helped by china pmi for november showed expansion for the First Time Since october of 11. Wall street is waiting for ism manufacturing numbers due out in less than an hour from now. Smallest change in november for the s p, jim, since march. Smallest in either direction. Four points. You want the best december in the world, no vacation without legislation. We get legislation in december. Were going to break out. No vacation without legislation. Thats my new watch word. Do you like it . I do. Maybe on a billboard even. December is historically strong. I know. Thats what makes me think something has to happen. By when . If recent history is precedent, you would get a deal if youre going to get a deal at all around the 21st. Right before the holiday. Theyre on vacation. Legislate before you can vacate. A twist. I get it. I think its good. Then we have december to remember to quote an ad that we hear every year around this time. All right. You mentioned the special dividends. You have hca and dish and cato. Cato mentioning the cliff as motive for the move. No way that tim geithner is ever going to let that dividend tax rate stay the same. Thats a done deal. The president does not like dividends being taxed at a low level. They just have it in for dividends. Not crazy about that. Wealth disparity. Things like that. Mitt romneys tax rate. Those come up in that argument. Listen, it may be certainly they wanted to do it before the end of the year. This having been a leverage buyout, they like to keep their leverage ratio pretty high. 4. 5 times. Then they generate cash flow and pay it down and go to Capital Markets and borrow another billion dollars and they pay two more dollars to their holders who continue to be some of the lbo firms that took it private. Thats a game plan that works. It has worked well. Rates are so low. Why doesnt everybody do that . Works well. As a former fully owned by private equity they are more comfortable with leverage than others are. A level of comfort that i find to be they are insensitive to the economy and theyre a winner in obama care. 2014 begins and im picking numbers up. Hca. Even with this leverage. Raising numbers, hca, 2014. Im doing that right now. Cramer firm is taking up numbers. You did it in your head. I did. Im going to ask the sales force to go out with it and i think he can get the stock moving and by the end of the day ill let Retail Investors know and theyll take institutions out wait until tomorrow. Delay is better. Dont make the call yet. That works well. Hedge fund cliff. Line two for you. When we come back this morning, the key to averting the fiscal cliff could come from a Bipartisan Group of senators called gang of eight. Mark warner is coming here to post 9. One more look at futures. More squawk on the street is back after a break. If we want e our schools. What should we invest in . Maybe New Buildings . What about updated equipment . They can help, but recent research shows. Nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. Lets build a strong foundation. Lets invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. Lets solve this. Olaf gets great rewards for his Small Business pizza [ garth ] olafs Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase, every day helium delivery. Put it on my spark card [ pop ] [ garth ] why settle for less . Great businesses deserve great rewards awesome [ male announcer ] the spark Business Card from capital one. Choose unlimited rewards with 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day whats in your wallet . For over 60,000 california foster children, the holidays can be an especially difficult time. Everythings different now. Sometimes i feel all alone. Christmas used to be my favorite. I just dont expect anything. What if santa cant find me . To help, sleep train is holding a secret santa toy drive. Bring your gift to any sleep train, and help keep the spirit of the holidays alive. Not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. Candle is burning low lots of mistletoe lots of snow and ice everywhere we go a bright spot for one u. S. Car maker. Chrysler says the u. S. Sales up 14 last month. Thats best month since 2007. Sales were up over 32 from last year. Well get gm at 10 00. Were talking 4 1 2 to 5year highs for all these guys. You have a combination of 11 year old age of autos, destruction of by the way, sandy was an auto destroyer. Loss of life. Horrible. Terrible. It also took out many more cars than people realize. You have to pump overtime to be meet the demand. Were still adding up sandy and figuring that out. Were far from figuring that out. Hundreds of thousands of automobiles. Where are we . 15 plus at the end . Its possible. 15. It puts people to work in the country. They dont just add in mexico. Mexico is booming. Fabulous moment for mexico. They will add in this country too. Theres talk that their share of the market in the northeast, the big three, is not as high as it is in the rest of the country. We live in part of the country where incomes are higher. You may see better numbers out of bmws and mercedes. I dont know the percentage thats brought into the new jersey, new york area, the ones that you always see when you go over a bridge and you look down and this is new york i dont mean to be too centric. The foreign cars have to replenish quickly. American cars have to be put on a trailer and take them here. Again, those numbers coming out later on and we expect them to be good. In addition to ism which comes out at 10 00, which will be a market mover for sure. When we come back this morning, get ready for a special dividend called cramers mad dash payable to shareholders of record today. Well hear what jim has to say and if it can pay out for you and later, jpmorgan chief u. S. Economist, Michael Feroli. Futures up 60. Back in a minute. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. So we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, inbranch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our teams have the information you want when you need it. Its another reason more investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. You can stay in and share something. Or you can get out there with your friends and actually share something. The lexus december to remember sales event is on, offering some of our best values of the year. This is the pursuit of perfection. Seven minutes until the bell. Lets get cramers mad dash on this monday morning. First trading day of december. Jim, people are watching apple because the 50 retracement of the correction is at 605. So we might test that level. I think it can get there. One of the best pieces i read about apple in ages yesterday the Washington Post about apple. What is tim cook doing . Here they are talking about Breakout Products coming. They are talking about much better sales for imac which some are assembled in the United States. Ipad mini off the charts. This piece says the stock should go higher. I urge everyone to read it. Its very contrary to conventional view about whats happening under tim cooks regime. And they take the forecast for december up to 47. 5. China hasnt really kicked off there. I know theres a percentage that says samsung game, set, match overseas. This piece says apple just Getting Started overseas particularly china. Very positive. We remember 505. You think those days are over . We hit 505 and then you have one of these things. Now, what i want to emphasize is i think they are having a Great Holiday season. A terrific piece on another network on bloomberg where i heard a major retail seller saying the apple is blowing out. This is big. Europe has been weak. All right. Finally, a call on apple and takes rimm to a sell. They say the blackberry 10 is a better User Experience and will not turnaround the longterm problems. I thought that was interesting. Carriers wont get behind it. Stock has had a monster run. You know what . I agree with this call. Enough is enough. It has been a lot thats for sure. When we come back, can the bipartisan gang of eight, the senators, fle