1 00 p. M. , the bond market i believe at 2 00 p. M. We are poised at what would seem a higher open. Were not going to get a lot of hours of trading in. As in for the 10year note yield, lets take a look and see where we are. There it is. 27. 66. And well go to the map in europe where i can never figure out the geography. You know the boot is italy. I know the boot is italy and i can pick up russia. Our road map here back in the United States starts with what else, retail. Millions of shoppers, yes, millions hitting the stores for black friday. Well go live to say how sales are going. Brian . The markets are open today for an abbreviated trading session and we are poised to open at record highs again, which will be about the 40th time this year. I guess you guys could say that here on squawk on the street. The nasdaq finishing wednesdays session at a 13year high, kayla. And thin trading today on a shortened trading day. And also bitcoin keeps on surging, topping 1,200 earlier today, doesnt even sound real. Its having its on black friday development today. I think were going to be talking to someone from the retail side of ebay. If bitcoin keeps going up in value and it keeps going up in value then i will have overpaid you. But why would he accept that . Because it will be going up in value. Or he doesnt want to lose my business. The holiday search for bargains is under way this black friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, of course. Many consumers across the country lined up at malls in the wee hours of the morning to get first dibs on sales. Courtney reagan is at the mall at Fairfield Commons in dayton, ohio. Shes checking out the action. A lot of tinsel behind you. Its pretty festive in dayton, ohio. We a a big pick up last night when the Stores Opened earlier. A bit of a lull overnight here but traffic is starting to pick up. If we think about categories, electronics near the top of the list of what shoppers are checking out with today, including smartphones and tablets. Which cant be easy. We know some of these employees have been working the eequivalent of double shifts and we opened at 4 a. M. And ill be working until 10 00 at night. Math a little fuzzy here, about 18hour shifts. It seems that the foot traffic has been heaviest at macys. Shopular, an app, says thats where shoppers are spending the most time on average, 79 minutes followed by jcpenney. Certainly those are not the only stores that shoppers are hitting. Came out at midnight. We went to kmart, old navy, h. H. Greg, here, the mall. Payless. She was pretty ambitious. Were hearing from ibm that loon sales on thanksgiving day up 11. 5 . So growth there, too, for those who didnt want to deal with all this. Online sales will represent almost half of the sales if not more than that. That almost seems like a low number, given how many people are on their tablets rather than going to the mall. Its a huge issue people buying the devices to of course buy many things but not store. You wonder is it because they stink or is it because everybodys wave ug. Or if the parent isnt bringing the mall, are they not bringing their teens . Ive called for years for everybody to do 100 of their shoppingline so that america is just littered with empty strip malls. Well, speaking of malls, the biggest mall in the country, what is black friday looking like at the largest Shopping Mall in u. S. . We go to jay gray at the mall of america in minnesota. Good morning. Reporter hey, there. Good morning, kayla. Here people take blad friday very seriously at americas largest mall. They work in shifts. So the late night shift that came in looking for deals have just about wrapped up and the good news, for retailers anyway, that. Walking around has a bag or two bags or three bags. It looks like theyre shopping and talking to them. They say they are finding deals. They say it takes some work and some walking but that they are finding deals. A lot of people are saying theyre spending a little more this year than last year. So all good signs for the retailers. Jay gray, good luck out there in the mall of america. Lets bring in stacy and brian. Brian which retailers are doing it right and will win this season . Its tough to say now but within my group, best buy will be a winner. Theyre pricing better against the competition offline and online. Stacy, welcome. It good to see you. Not to get into best buy for a little bit are you surprised at how well it been . Yes. Buttist in best buy last night, one of 3,900 in line waiting to get in, but you talk to the salespeople and they actually know what theyre talking about now. Theyve cleared out all of the sort of c players and the staff is incredible. I i was there for research and i did not buy a thing but purely supposed to be the market for yes. But the best deal is on the games. And there as a lot of gift cards. So there are good deals out there. Brian, this stock price we all have remarked on it many times on this show. Were talking 12, they couldnt get an lbo done at more than 17 a years ago meerp we are at 40, backed off from 43 after the last quarter. Given what youre seeing, do you think its actually got more room to run . I think best buy is still cheap here. I think the real catalyst for the stock has been a new management team, new ceo, new cfo joined the company about a year ago. Theyve been in a very short amount of time, significant change to that company. I look at best buy still inexpensive here. When you think about the big promotional environment, the question is to what extent are they discounting some of these products . Did you think that will hurt margins in these stocks in the long run . It tough to say. I think one of the benefits there it gives the retailer a lot of time to prepare. Theyre working with their vendors. No question price motions are a negative for margins. When you look at the retail holders, it outperforming the s p 500 by about 3 . Jcpenney the top performer. Thats a special case. Macys has done well and surprisingly dillard. If you take a macys, theyre a middle income and they also have a lot of brand notice store like any of the others that have been limp manying around. Theyre probably the better retailer. The the key is is theyre going in and theyre getting the market share and theyre not letting it walk out the door. Analysts, well done, you go and do your store checks but of course, for example, in best buy were talking about showrooming. We dont hear about it anymore, but the idea of so many of these potential sales going online. Stacy, what are your expectations . Online stales are about 10 of the business right now. Loon purchases right now, almost 25 are being made on handheld devices. The guy who is do omni channel, like macys, theyre going to win. We cant leave without talking about jcpenney. Do you believe theyll be able to turn it around based on this Holiday Season sp. Theyre up against minus 31 comps, how can they not top comps . Have they sent their customer headed for the exits and how do they get them back . Thats not a stock im involved with. Stacy and brian, thank you very much. Happy thanksgiving. Coming up, black friday from a ceos perspective, were going to talk with farooq and steven when we come back. Looking at covered call strategies to generate income . With fidelitys options platform, weve completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. To get a list of equity options. Evaluate them with our p l calculator. And execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. Im greg stevens, and i helped create fidelitys options platform. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. When it comes to black friday, we know it can get serious. A video on youtube showed shoppers screaming and fighting over televisions at a walmart in North Carolina. Im from the south. Thats thursday. The user says hooves kicked out of the walmart for reporting. You can see the fight. Somebodys victorious. I was at an opening of a walmart in china, many years ago at this point, and there were fights at the cashier register routinely, just in the two or three hours we were there so this is not uncommon. And its also true for social media, too. And those tvs are probably smart tvs enabled with a youtube app, they can go home, install the television and watch a video of themselves trampling their neighbor for the purchase. Its like the pink floyd im off on a left field never mind. I like when you do that. Are there street signs today . No. We say black friday like its easter. Many of the stores have started their specials, like macys, a week ago. You wonder if today has the same meaning for retailers that it did once prior to the interweb. The interesting this evening is cyber monday, too, that used to be the big day for the deals online and now people have been shopping on line for the last week, two weeks, even a month. Heres a good question for the viewers, what do you guys have squawk on the tweet or something . We do. Are the deals really good today . I dont buy anything for anybody anyway so i dont have to worry about deals but is today a good deal day . I actually dont know. Theres door busters but are prices better now than they will be in a week . I have no idea. Im a similar shopper to you in that i dont. Im a nonshopper. If jim cramer were here, hed have an answer for us, he goes through i got a 75pound bag of dog food for the four dogs in my house. It appeared to be the same price. Coming up, want to avoid the masses at the mall . Ebay would like to tell you. Well tell you how ahead. And the nyse closes at 1 00 on this shortened closing day. We are up 34 in the dow. Can anything stop this market run . Were going to talk about it when squawk on the street returns on this holiday black friday. Stick around. Ya know, with new fedex one rate you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. How naughty was he . Oh boy. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [tdd 18003452550 life inspires your trading. Tdd 18003452550 where others see fads. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. Hi honey, did you get the toaster cozy . Yep. Got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. So i knit until it was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is that nana . [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Were just about ten minutes before the opening bell on this shortened trading day. Ben, it seems like theres nothing on the calendar, a very thin next week. What are you watching for in terms of retail . Its the only thing the market is going off of this day. The only thing is the arbitrage in the retail sector, target versus coach or macys versus penneys. Why the traders are interested today will be the closing, when you get whats called window dressing, whether defending those positions, long or short going into the closing bell today, you may see a little bit of excitement. Other than that, keep an eye on money flows that are going into mutual funds, its going to keep this bull going. Were at 16,097, do you think the win dro dressing today will be largely profit taking . No. At this point i dont see any reason to take profits. Ride this as long as can you, flight. The bull called tina. There is no alternative. Right now the market seems to be collecting in the money fund market, sitting short term, waiting for the right time to invest. But if youve waited, you missed the trade. Is there a quiet feeling that this will end badly at some point that, were just going to ride the roller coaster as long as we can . Why be the first one off . Everybodys enjoying the ride. Are there whispers this will not end well . Ive been in the business for 30 years. Every professional i talk to will tell you the money they want to spend is at least on some protection to the down side. Weve not had any significant correction for the year, we had one 5 , one 4. 5 , a lot of complacency. Were going to be in december soon and thinking about the end of the year and the taper. As i tried to explain to people, if you want to retire, you should not be in bonds. This market is going to continue to do what its going to do in anticipation of one of the worst recessions depressions weve ever been in. I think the low fruits been picked. Its where do we go from here . The conventional wisdom is the market will keep going up but there could be volatility in december. You have the jobs report, november retail sales and you also have the budget deadline december 13. I hope so. I hope for volatility. What happens in the middle of deficien december . In full disclosure, i believe the fed was going to taper last month. So that was my whole prediction. Im not alone when i see firms like goldman sachs. The fed gave a clear signal to the market and they disappointed. Youll see the fed try to regain that credibility. Are we in the media too focused on this idea of taper . The reality is we know it going to happen at some point. If you know somethings going to happen, you plan for it. It may be longer away than you think but its still going to happen. I think earnings still should matter. If we grow the 1 next year, youll see the market go down considerably because earnings are going to go up. If we grow at 4 next year, the market should go up because earnings will expand. It is that simple. Its not necessarily the media but the fact of the matter the fed has interjected itself to manipulate the marketplace. If its quantitative easing, the opposite of easing has to be tightening. It may not be the tool thats what they call their tool, but thats why weve seen the tenyear go from 1. 6 to 2. 5 to 2. 7. In the meantime, these few short months will look like a blip on the screen in the history of when you should have been in the market. The opening bell on this holiday shortened trading day is just about four minutes away. Squawk on the street is back right after this. Ng, isnt a thing at all . Its lots of things. All waking up. Connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Became big business overnight . Like, really big. Then expanded . Or their new product tanked . Or not . What if they embrace new technology instead . Imagine a companys future with the future of trading. Company profile. A Research Tool on thinkorswim. From td ameritrade. That aside, heres the issue. Do i care how much somebody sells . Do i care how much theyre making from what they sell . Jcpenney will probably sell a lot of stuff but what is their apple going to be . What is apples margin . 40some percent . Thats a good point. You hear the opening bell here at the nyse. At the big board, we have chaired buzz, raising funds for nonprofits. Over at the nasdaq, sears holdings. And which also owns kmart. Is lampert there . Hes probably down in florida. Theres more green. Then i leave it to cramer and he takes it from there. People say why are stocks higher . You say because people are buyi buying, more buyers than sellers. Thats always the answer. The small cap is beating the nasdaq by about 5 . No ones paying attention to the small caps. They are just continuing to run. What im saying to our audience, this worldwide audience of billions right now, Pay Attention to the small caps. Hes a good piece of advice. Some people paying attention to best buy this morning. We talked a good deal about if around the 9 00 hour, the stock was at 1. 8 right now. Off of its high but what a story this has been over the course of the last year. That stock up around 250 or more percent. 240 . Just trailing two of your favorites, netflix and tesla. Best buy was my pick for street signs last year. And i finished i think second if the season would have continued, i would have destroyed my competition, like i like to, but you brought up that the founder, richard scholes, could not get a buy at 15. The run for best buy has been spectacular. When you look at the leaders over the last month or so, no knock on the jcpenneys, the first solars, the xerox, the pitney bowes. When you talk about those stocks that have risen, a lot of those are best performers from an alltime low. Jcpenney is one of the best performers from the alltime lows. A lowquality rally. These are not leading names. I havent heard the tina analogy that ben made earlier because theres nothing else to buy, there is nothing else to buy, t. I. N. A. , im going to borrow that. Europe, a lot of very shot people said im poking around in europe and im starting to buy big cap european stocks, a lot of people said he was nuts, hes outperformed. You can be right but at the wrong time. A lot of people said go buy europe, buy european equities. Do you think that right now is the time to actually get into its hard to know. Last year my main prediction was the nikkei would be the best selling developed market on world im going to listen to you this year. If you picked the nikkei and best buy, you got something going on here. Why are you working here . Even a blind skiquirrel finda nut. Ill give you a preview. Cinquo demayo. It has nothing to do with the date. If we rallied off qe 1, why wouldnt be nikkei also rally when the experiment is bigger and japan is working up to the fact that they need more bursts and they need to put people in the workforce. The whole men work and women dont is garbage. Mitsubishi bank, i used to work there. Put the smartest people in the job. In the next five years, i think mexico is going to be a fantastic story, unless its not. In which case ill never mention it again. Citigroup is making big bets on mexico. The consumer is just starting to have spending power. The middle class. Manufacturing capacity. If they can control the violence, the drug violence. A lot of people used to go to mexico on vacation, they say i cant go. Mexico needs to fix that and you should see tourism rebound and give the market another runup. James, target, home depot all up this morning. Generally a positive take on retail. Mary thompson joins us on the floor with more on what is moving this morning. Good morning, mary. David, we see a continuation of the record run weve had on wall street today in a holiday shortened trading session. Well close at 1 00 eastern time. A little bit of weakness in the banking stocks and Energy Stocks as well as the reits today. The markets are on track for their third month of gains, the dow up 3. 5 , the nasdaq up 3. 2 and the s p up 2. 9 . So overall a very strong threemonth period for the markets as we head into december, which also is historically a fairly strong month for the markets. Lets take a quick look at the retailers. I know david just mentioned them in early trading