Of course, the jobs number next week. We begin with good, not a great. Thats how one group is describing black friday retail sales. Live checks from malls across the country. Plus, a lawsuit against Sumner Redstone making some shocking allegations. Well have more on what that means for viacom and cbs and their response. And Vladimir Putin saying he will cooperate more with the terror fight in syria, but the war of words between russia and turkey continues. First up, though, black friday has arrivinged, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Good but not a great from Customer Growth partners. Also seeing an increased trend of shoppers earlier with retailers opening the night before. The nrf says 22 of consumers expect to shop on thanksgiving day, up from 18 last year. Out of the stores, adobe predicts a record 1. 7 billion spent online. 3 billion on monday. In fact, theres a sense that because so much of the shopping, guys, has shifted to online, essentially customers wait for monday to get things going. Thats been the question in recent years. How many shoppers will actually show up in stores for deals. I think the context is key here. That is for retailers, its been a really mixed bag. We talk about consumer discretion nair stocks. That does include names like netflix and other internet retailers. If you look at the S P Department store index, for instance, which is macys and nordstrom, its gone in the complete other direction. Its actually down. Theres the chart for the day. Corn super discretionary, up. Thats why its going to be so key for them to get excited. Even if theyre going to entice consumers with promotions and bargains. Is there any real reason to expect that the trend thats been going on for some time is somehow going to reverse . I mean thats going to be the trick. Target, for instance, has really racked up its online presence, trying to go up against amazon. Its going to be factors like that. The weather is not helping. 60 degrees in new york. If those stores are selling parkas and puffy coats, theyll have to do it at 50 off to get them interested. As analysts told us, its about capturing market share and sales. Its still a very important week for them. Still 20 of holiday sales for the retailers and holiday sales are 20 of overall sales for the retail sales. For a closer look at how things are shaping up, lets get to Courtney Reagan whos at Woodfield Mall outside chicago in schaumburg. Hi, courtney. Reporter happy friday. They expect another 100 million to come out in stores and online. Some got an early start on thursday on thanksgiving. Pretty big numbers that were getting from across the country. And as much as 20 of retailers holiday sales can come from this weekend, so it remains a very important one. Retail firm jjl says 90 of its traffic is stronger than last year. You might remember last year was a bit more muted than perhaps weve seen in years past. Now, weve talked to a number of shoppers here at Woodfield Mall that come out every year. Theyre still going strong. Take a listen. Looking forward to the sales. We cant cover everything on friday. Weve got to wait for another day. Its like disney. You cant do it all in one day. Reporter now, walmarts chief merchandising officer says he would classify it as calm and safe. Lots of families shopping together with pretty full carts. Electronics really led the way and walmarts bratz by said the roku tv as well as the 40inch tvs across all of the brands were the bestsellers. Adobe sales including beats by dr. Dre and i know that you mentioned it earlier but it bears repeating. Adobe says online sales for thanksgiving day top 1g . 7 billion. Thats up 22 from last year. Today theyre looking at 2. 7 billion. So shopping is happening. In stores and online. I know we talk a lot about the graying of black friday, but it is still expected to be the heaviest volume shopping day that well see all year. Back to you. Yep. Still very important for those retailers. Courtney reagan, thanks very much. Heres what was said about sales. Last night was clearly the kickoff to thanksgiving shopping. It was a combination of online sales. Macys has the second largest business in america today. It was very strong combined with our store business. Thats what its all about for us. Omni channel is the buzz w d word. Susan, i guess well start with you and go straight to a live report from the wall. Can you confirm what Terry Lundgren was saying . How is the traffic at this hour . Yes. I think definitely consumers are starting to shop earlier like we were talking about. Last night was very crowded. Overall i would say pretty strong traffic. So, neely, would you agree . The New York Times busy section today has three articles. The graying out of black friday, door busters, no, and black friday bargains are fewer than you think. Theres a lot of gloom and doom when it comes to major headlines. Do you agree or do they have it wrong . I think they have it wrong this year. Holiday has kicked it dead. We saw in minneapolis last night and again at 5 00 a. M. This morning the weather cooled and she showed up and shes converting. Thats a very good sign. You say jcpenney is a winner. Why . They opened first. Jcpenney absolutely won. But was really a great, a lot of people on black friday going for an item and they leave with an item. They went in for an item and came out with a store. Thats how you win at black friday. Neely, its coming at a time when youve got the savings rate at 5. 6. Spending running at 0. 1. Do you agree with susan that black friday is in any way rejuvenating a more abundant consumer . We think this year has been largely an issue of discretionary time, not dollars. It was so gorgeous this fall across the nation. She chose to spend time with her family and outside. We saw it in google and facebook. Now its time to get the job done. We showed the chart, the S P Department stores index going down. Trouble with macys, nordstroms, and walmart. And Consumer Discretionary stocks in general having a very good year. Is there any reason to think these Department Stores can turn it around this Holiday Season . Yeah. I think definitely consumers, you know, weekdays, are spending a little bit less on apparel these days. You know, i think that theyre buying more electronics. Theyre looking for more leisure activity for outdoors, which is why were more focused on the athletic retailer too. That said, we think this Holiday Season, under armour is going to be a big winner out there. You do see promotions on athletic wear like under armour and nike . Thats always been the thing. Theyve been able to keep their retailers because you dont usually see a lot of discounting activity. Is that changing . Yes. I think especially with the warm weather, there are some things that are not moving, the hoodies and the fleece. Thats kind of where were seeing the promotions this Holiday Season. But i think they have other items selling very well at full price. Theyre selling very well given the warm weather. That will probably offset that. Neely, what are you seeing in terms of promotions and discounts and what thats going to imply . Weve been tracking promot n promotional activity for 20 different retailers. We saw 70 of our retailers that we track. You know, in fact, id note that more exclusions existed this year than last year, which is also a positive sign, but we saw 15 retailers. They have lower promotion this year versus last year, so we think overall its not a bad start to a good Holiday Season. All right, guys. Thanks for joining us to kick off our black friday discussions. Much more to come. Susan anderson, neely ta min ga of piper jaffray. Good to see you both. Thank you. It was a shock. The former livein girlfriend claimed the 92yearold share holder is unable to speak, eat on his own, and unfit to make decisions. Redstones attorney called it baseless saying its a meritless action riddled with lies and a despicable invasion of his privacy. It only shows shell stop at nothing to pursue her personal financial agenda. She claims she filed it on behalf of him. They go on to say its prepolls truss. You can see the shares did have a nice move there. Theyre also look up this morning. All of this, of course, goes to the larger question, which is whether or not hes 92 or even old e 93 or 94. Mr. Redstone certainly toward the end of his years and the question becomes what will happen to viacom. Now, what will happen to viacom perhaps should he be deem not in a capacity to be its chairman of viacom cbs. Although, again, his lawyers make it clear its baseless allegations from miss her zer and a record shes building. They say it has nothing do with any present concern for his protection. In the lawsuit they do go on as well to state i think we have this in text. Mr. Red stones 92 years old. He suffers from impaired mobility, has had a substantial speech impairment that makes it difficult for him to communicate with newcomers unfamiliar with his speech pattern. They say all thats left is an elderly man subjected to discomfort and indignity of strangers. Indignity of examination. By strangers because of a former friend claims to know better than the relevant treating physician and geriatric psychiatrist. That trust includes sherry redstone, sumners daughter as well as his grandson, tyler. It will be seven people overall who willed a jude indicate that trust. And there is nothing that says there is going to be a for sale of any kind when the day does come however many years it may be that mr. Redstone passes away. Always a difficult subject to discuss, of course, somebodys health, somebody who i spent a lot of time with, enjoyed seeing, have not seen in a number of years. But certainly a towering figure, if you will, and a towering personality to match is mr. Redstone, sara. The tax bill from the e estate which will be generate cleveland be paid off by the trust and the dividended generated through cbs and viacom. Theyll have ten years to do so. So those speculating perhaps doing so at their own risk, but well see. Certainly if he were to be deemed mentally incompetent in some way. The ceo of viacom is also the person who is dealing with that or will make those determinations so to speak. I guess i mean besides the salacious details and you dont want to get into the lawsuit stuff, hes still in his 09s. Theres still a question of secession and the company. The backstory is advertising. They take in television, watch television. That poses existential questions with an article like that. It does. One of the largest issues is viacom did not have it, one would wonder if they would still be running the Company Given the difficulties they have had as sara mentioned both in the Advertising Market and yourall. Theyre going to fight it. Im read 1g 23 pages d123 pa holiday reading. Yes. Coming up, a look at which retail sales might be in the hot seat. But first Vladimir Putin saying hes ready to cooperate with the air strikes but continues to spar with turkey. Well take another look at the futures. Well get to disney and its 10k they filed on wednesday night. What theyre talking about regarding espn subs. A light volume day is expected and the stockmarket closes at 1 00 p. M. Eastern. Were back in a moment. Here at td ameritrade, they work hard. Wow, that was random. Random . No its all about understanding patterns like the mail guy at 3 12 every day or jerry, getting dumped every third tuesday. This happens every third tuesday. We have Pattern Recognition Technology on any chart, plus over 300 customizable studies to help you anticipate potential price movement. Theres no way to predict that. For all the confidence you need. Td ameritrade. You got this. Vladimir putin hosted french president Francois Hollande. This as the war of words between russia and turkey continues. Our jeff cudmore is in moscow now. Hi, geoff. Reporter thats the meeting with Francois Hollande. The message is there is room for further intel sharing and there will be an escalation of strikes against isis targets and both the nato community and ruf will Work Together to identify isis targets. Thats a positive stop here because in that press conference, president putin used the opportunity to again bring up the issue of this downed russian jet and he made allegations that the turks knew where this jet was because russia has been giving information to the americanled coalition and he called turkish claims to the country lame. Well, that then kicked off a round of very undiplomatic language. President urd one has come out and said president putin shouldnt play with fire. So far he has refused to apologize for the downing of that fighter aircraft, and he has also hit back at allegations that turkey is taking isis oil by saying russias ally syria is, in fact, the one who is paying for oil from the terrorist organization. So while we may have seen some progress, carl, in that meeting with Francois Hollande and president putin, the undiplomatic language continues and the russians for their part are still looking at how they may levy economic sanctions against turkey in retaliation for the shooting down of that aircraft. Back to you. Geoff cutmore from moscow. Thanks so much for that. When we come back, well get an idea on what to expect. Also the ceo of ethan allen and what the Furniture Store is doing to boost sales. A lot more squawk on the street from post 9 returns in a moment. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy for my studio. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Thats huge for my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . So wi got a job ews . Ill be programming at ge. Oh i got a job too, at zazzies. friends gasp the app where you put fruit hats on animals . I love that guys, ill be writing code that helps machines communicate. interrupting i just zazzied you. phone vibrates look at it friends giggle i can do dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs. You name it. Im going to transform the way the world works. proudly i programmed that hat. And i can do casaba melons. Ill be helping turbines power cities. I put a turbine on a cat. friends ooh and ahh i can make hospitals run more efficiently. This isnt a competition just about minutes till the bell. Good to have you back, sarge. Nice to be here. Youre not, i would say, overwhelmingly positive about the consumer going into this black friday . Well, i think there will be disappointment. I myself like a lot of traders, we kind of beefed up on the retail sales. At least i took some money off the table wednesday. Aisle probably take more off today. What about the plunge and the setoff. Does that concern you . It does concern me. Europe kind of wobbled a little bit when it happened, but they recovered. They were in the green. They were in the green yesterday nicely. I think it may be something we miss. Well, the reason for it theyre attributing is the expansion of this propose which wouldnt feel like it would affect maybe it affects the chinese economy. Certainly it doesnt affect us here, does it . No, no, it does not. Theyre still evolving in that regard and theyll continue to do so. Whats important to keep in mind for next week . Weve got a few things. Weve got mario draghi, weve got the jobs numbers and your expectations for draghi. Its a big expectation. Hes talked loudly. Does he carry the big stick . I think theyre going to add some muscles. Its a matter of how much muscles they add. Meaning what . Duration . Duration and size. Im not willing to gauge how big they go. I think you can see by the way the european equities have traded. I dont know. The euro is getting hammered again. Good luck, sarge. Thank you very much. Well get the opening bell in just four minutes. Announcer if youd give thanks for a better nights sleep. [barks] sleep train has just the ticket. [train horn blares] through thanksgiving weekend at sleep train get three free gifts with selected mattress sets save up to 300 on beautyrest, posturepedic, serta, even tempurpedic plus, get up to four years interestfree financing but sleep trains thanksgifting sale ends sunday sleep train [train horn] your ticket to a better nights sleep squawk on the street live from the Financial Capital of the world. Opening bell in just a minutes time. A lot of employees kids down there. I guess its become something of a tradition. Theyve set up tables and chairs. It lightens the mood. And santas here to ring the opening bell. That helps. Were watching opening bell. Traffic pattern at the malaysia has changed as shopping online has become more of a phenomena. But the nrf says 100 million expected to shop. Theres the opening bell and a look at the s p at the bottom of your screen at the bigboard. The marine toys for tots foundation, santa ringing the bell for the second consecutive day over the merchandise retailers bed bath beyond. Ill tell you whats getting a lot of attention is disney. The 10 k. They lost 3 million subs in the fiscal year putting a number on what iger had said were some subscriber losses. Yeah. They list Current Subscriber levels at 92 million. It does appear that over the last two years, carl, theyve lost as much as 7 million subs. Thats not an insignificant amount, certainly when you consider how much money disney takes in for each espn subscriber in terms of what youre paying for the service to your cable company. You can get caught up in the acronyms that they all like to use. Its main concern as you watch cord cutting and cord shaeving. That being the smaller packages that become more readily available that dont include espn and those who choose to cut entirely getting video via cable, perhaps only taking it via broadband. Gaining subs overseas, though, we should mention. Espn is not alone in this. They talk about numbers at disney channel, disney xd, losing 5 million over the last five years. Its changing. The question is how fast will it occur. There are those who are still waiting for it to occur and suddenly theyll argue the suddenly is now here. Weve been waiting for it for years and were now in the midst of a seminole change. And it will show itself in, of course, the lower and lower totals of people who take the pa