MARIA-03
Beat Bricks During Retailers' Black Friday Weekend; Asian Equities Close
Mixed Following a Late Rally from China; Patriots Unbeaten Record Comes to
an End as Broncos Beat Patriots in Overtime; Kobe Bryant Announces
Retirement at the End of Season; U.S. Embassy Warns of Imminent Attack in
Kabul; Abdeslam Escapes to Syria; Massive Deadly Storm Slams Several States
Across the U.S.; Planned Parenthood Shooting Suspect Appears in Court;
Amazon Look Forward to Bigger Cyber Monday than a Year Ago; NSA's Authority
to Collect Bulk Phone Metadata Expires - Part 1>
Ling Kent>
McDowell, Sandra Smith, Michael Block, Cheryl Casone, Nicole Petallides>
Kobe Bryant; U.S. Embassy; Kabul; Abdeslam; Weather; Planned Parenthood;
Amazon; NSA>
MARIA BARTIROMO, HOST, MORNINGS WITH MARIA: Meanwhile the --
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Possibility to do something about it.
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BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, the holiday shopping season in full swing at this point. Most Americans though are choosing clicks over bricks.
More people shopping online than battling the lines of stores over the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, what the changing landscape of retail means for consumers and businesses and who won over this weekend anyway in retail.
Let's turn to markets this morning, Futures are indicating a higher opening for the broader averages, we've been gaining strength all morning.
The Dow industrials now looking to open up 40 points, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also in positive territory.
In Europe this morning, the major averages are mixed there, the CAC quarante is up 35 points in Paris and the Dax index is up about 1 percent.
In Germany, fractional moves for the FT 100 up, investors are waiting on the ECB meeting. The ECB; the European Central Bank will meet on Thursday and it is wildly expected that Mario Draghi will suggest more stimulus is coming.
We'll see what happens to the euro if in fact that happens. Meanwhile, let's take you overnight to Asia, mostly lower for markets there.
Although, we did have a pretty good bump up in the Chinese market, the Shanghai Composite up about a quarter of a percent, the Nikkei in Japan down two-thirds of a percent, the Hang Seng and the Kospi also weaker.
The International Monetary Fund is expected to name the Chinese yuan as a reserve currency. That will put the yuan in the same group as the dollar, the euro, the yen and the British pound.
They'll also raise the pressure on China's government to change how it manages its currency. Earlier in the program, Michael Holland told us that it will mean more flow of money going into China.
Amazon unveiling a new video of its delivery drone today, it is the first prototype we've actually seen since the retail giant announced plans for the drone service two years ago. And then there's this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the toss, Anderson he'll get it, (INAUDIBLE), he's got Anderson, is going to go all the way and the Denver Broncos win the game!
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BARTIROMO: And that is what victory feels like. The Denver Broncos handing the New England Patriots their first loss of the season in an overtime thriller this weekend after Patriots first loss of the season, final score 30 to 24 -- for the Pats.
It is the end of an era meanwhile for the NBA. L.A. Lakers legend Kobe Bryant announcing he will retire at the end of this season.
Bryant has played for the Lakers for 20 years, writing in his announcement that, "this season is all I have left to give." Back to our breaking news at this hour.
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan warning of an imminent attack in Kabul. Joining us right now is former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and former NATO senior adviser Andrew Peek.
Andrew, thanks very much for weighing in. We've been trying to figure out what specific evidence we're talking about.
U.S. officials at the embassy there in Kabul have said there's credible evidence of an attack that could take place in the next 48 hours.
How do you see it?
ANDREW PEEK, FORMER UNITED STATES ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER & FORMER: Well, there's always a couple of threat streams poking around in Kabul, right?
It's a natural target for the kind of high-end terrorist attacks that groups like the Haqqani network pull off.
But it's really important to remember even when -- even when the most dramatic images of an attack on the embassy are happening, the strength of the Taliban is measured not by these kind of high profile attacks but by their control of rural districts, right?
That's really where the strength of an insurgency like the Taliban is rooted.
BARTIROMO: Yes, but --
PEEK: So, I --
BARTIROMO: Have we seen this kind of -- this kind of threat before? I mean, that officials are saying this is imminent in the next 48 hours?
PEEK: Well, you do remember in 2011 right? In September, actually, U.S. embassy was locked down for a period of over 24 hours when --
BARTIROMO: Oh, right, yes --
PEEK: Militants took over one of the high buildings in Kabul and shot up the embassy in ISAP headquarters, right? So, you do see it from time to time, yes.
BARTIROMO: Sandra --
SANDRA SMITH, FOX BUSINESS: Yes, Andrew, I mean, when you look at the climate summit going on right now, it's so difficult talking about this imminent threat in Kabul this morning and then we see this climate summit going on.
I mean what is going on? And with the administration, with the President, with his thinking on carrying through with this, and going to the summit, carrying on with it, when we still see such a threat right now?
PEEK: Right, I mean, I always feel a little bit with these conferences like it's a madlib(ph) exercise, right? You take any of the statements by the world leaders attending, right?
Most pressing problem of our time requires urgent action and you replace climate change with terrorism. And I'm like, oh, makes a lot more sense, I get it.
As it is, it's a grotesque contrast between the rhetoric and the urgency on display in Paris and the realities of warfare and the threats facing Americans in Kabul.
MICHAEL BLOCK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, RHINO TRADING PARTNERS: Yes, Andrew, this is Mike Block.
You know, yes, the clip of Obama -- President Obama from this morning shows him sounding very strong and resolute --
PEEK: Right --
BLOCK: Talking about climate change. You know, as opposed to post Paris, frankly, it was sniveling on TV about it. While --
PEEK: Right --
BLOCK: You know -- while showing empathy for victims is important, he was not showing leadership.
What does this president need to do to show some leadership that may actually cower enemies rather than -- rather than embolden them?
PEEK: Right, well, clearly he likes this enemy better than that enemy, right? This -- you know, who is the -- who is the villain in the climate change issue, right?
It's like greedy American consumers, big energy companies, big business, right? He's real comfortable with the enemy at home. He's not so comfortable with the enemy, you know, in Syria and Iraq.
So, I mean the short answer to your question is, we really -- you really just need Republicans to be committing the terrorism, and then I think can be a lot more resolute.
BARTIROMO: What kind of strategy change do you think is required in order to truly defeat ISIS?
PEEK: Yes, I think -- so, this is a great question, right? I think, above all, you need to do two things. One, you need to arm the Kurds directly, right?
The Kurds are the only friendly, reliable fighting force on the ground in Iraq that's taking background from ISIS. They need a lot more weapons.
Two, you need to recommit to Assad stepping down in Syria, right? We've backed off of that in the last two weeks.
But that is the only message to Syrian -- to the moderate Syrian Arab rebels to keep fighting and to keep fighting Assad and keep fighting ISIS, right?
None of them really want to fight ISIS. They want to fight Assad, that's why they signed up in the beginning. So, committing to removing Assad will reinvigorate the war on the ground against ISIS.
BARTIROMO: How are we going to remove Assad when we know that Putin is defending him?
PEEK: Right, it's a lot harder now, right?
BARTIROMO: It is.
PEEK: It would -- it would have been easier two years ago.
BARTIROMO: When the President first drew the red line and then never did anything about it.
PEEK: Right, and even before then, when we committed to Assad stepping down. So, you know, there's a lot of -- there's been a lot of decision points in this along the way.
Which is -- which makes the President's comments about none of his -- none of his opponents having a plan just a little bit rich, right?
Because yes, there might not be many great alternatives now, but there were great alternatives in 2012.
BARTIROMO: Yes --
BLOCK: Andrew --
BARTIROMO: Yes --
PEEK: Yes, go ahead.
BLOCK: Oh, yes, Andrew, just getting back to your first point about arming the Kurds. You know, the Peshmerga proving to be formidable fighters against this terrorist threat.
The problem is, you have the Turks involved, and the Turks are very opposed arming the Kurds. How does this administration -- how does this country and all the other players compel Erdogan who has proven to be pretty, you know, tough to persuade of anything, you know, that, this is a good idea.
How do we fight that?
PEEK: Honestly, I think you just do it, right? I mean, if you remember when we first got airfield access rights in Turkey for the war against ISIS, the Turks immediately started bombing the Kurdish fighters, right?
It was -- it was about 3 months ago. So, honestly, I would just move forward with it. Particularly because Turkey -- because it's in a confrontation with Russia right now, needs U.S. support, right?
They are actually in a weaker position, so we can extract a concession from them in exchange for our help with -- you know, helping back down the Russians and Vladimir Putin.
BARTIROMO: Andrew, let me bring this breaking news here, because there are reports out of "Cnn" that the Paris attack suspect Abdeslam has escaped and is now in Syria, OK?
So that means he was in Paris and he got away. He is back in Syria right now, the Mastermind behind the Paris attacks. How do you think this happened and what does this tell us about where we are in this fight?
PEEK: I think it's a disaster. You know, groups like ISIS live and die off symbolism, right? So, I have no doubt that this guy is going to be in propaganda videos just like Arab terrorists were after the Munich massacre, you know, after the Olympics.
What does it tell us about the security in Europe? Just that this is an ongoing problem, right? There is heavily militant communities --
SMITH: Yes --
PEEK: In Europe that feel pretty -- you know, pretty supportive of groups like ISIS.
SMITH: And --
PEEK: So -- and yes, go ahead.
SMITH: Yes, and then it speak volumes, Maria, for just how powerful this group is right now. They continue to gain power, they continue to gain money.
We know they're still selling that oil on the black market, they're continuing to raise funds, they're continuing to strengthen, and this just goes to show you how much ground and human support they probably have right within France to escape to Syria --
BARTIROMO: That city was on lockdown, Sandra, Andrew, how is this possible that he was able to escape and get back to Syria? This creates a much bigger problem.
PEEK: Right, well look, I mean, you know, far be it for me to quote Chairman Mao, but Mao said that, you know, gorillas and terrorists by extrapolation swim in the population as if like fish in the sea, right?
SMITH: Yes --
PEEK: So, honestly, it just comes of navigating these militant communities in Europe which there are many of because the immigration policy over two or three or four decades has become so screwed up.
SMITH: Wow --
BARTIROMO: Yes, all right, Andrew, thanks very much for weighing in, we appreciate your time this morning. Andrew Peek --
PEEK: Thanks so much, Maria --
BARTIROMO: And as we are following the latest developments, we've got this new report out telling us that the suspect Salah Abdeslam is now in Syria.
He has managed to escape a massive manhunt trying to find him after he was the mastermind of the Paris attacks. We will try to confirm that.
Here at Fox, we've got the latest developments out of Paris and the climate change summit as well. President Obama is meeting with leaders from around the world, Peter Barnes is in Washington looking at that angle.
Peter, looks a lot less --
PETER BARNES, FOX BUSINESS: Oh, hey --
BARTIROMO: Important today when we have an imminent threat out of Kabul that could happen within the next 48 hours and the mastermind of the Paris attacks now back in Syria.
BARNES: You're right, and amid extremely high security in Paris after the terrorist attacks. President Obama is pushing for this climate change agreement with 150 other world leaders.
In remarks this morning, the President first offered condolences to the people of France on the attacks, he saluted the people of Paris for insisting that the climate change conference go on.
And said, there's no better act of defiance against people, terrorists who want to tear down the world than to marshal the best effort to save it.
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OBAMA: The United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.
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BARNES: But climate change skeptics have plenty of questions such as if this deal is not a treaty, who enforces it? What are the penalties for violations?
How does this keep the world safer when there are still disagreements over the root causes of climate change and the evidence of it and connections to terrorism? Maria.
BARTIROMO: So, what are the answers to all of that, Peter? I mean who is accountable?
BARNES: Well, this is all a voluntary effort at this --
BARTIROMO: Right --
BARNES: Point, Maria, and so it's -- I guess it's, you know, name and shame as probably the principal tool that the participants will have to try and get compliance.
BARTIROMO: All right, Peter, thank you, we'll be watching Peter --
BARNES: You bet --
BARTIROMO: Barnes in Washington this morning. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, but for some retailers, have turned into a big fiasco, we'll have the details next.
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BARTIROMO: Welcome back. A massive deadly storm slams many states across the country, Cheryl Casone with that and the other headlines right now, good morning, Cheryl.
CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS: Oh, good morning Maria, we are watching the weather. Oklahoma's governor declaring a state of emergency in all 77 counties following a powerful storm that brought ice and heavy rain that has led to massive flooding.
Minnesota getting hit with a foot of snow, Winter-storm warnings and watches have been issued there. Meanwhile, down in Texas, they continue to battle massive flooding engulfing cars and causing multiple accidents on interstate highways.
The stormy weather claiming the lives of at least 14 people since Thanksgiving Day. Well, the man accused of fatally shooting three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, Springs, on Friday will face a judge this afternoon.
Robert Lewis Dear has not yet been charged and search warrants and other court records have been sealed. Now, a law enforcement official says that Dear made a comment about "no more baby parts" after his arrest.
And finally, this from your weekend. The New England Patriots are no longer undefeated. They lost in overtime to the Denver Broncos in the Sunday night game 30 to 24.
C.J. Anderson, Maria, scored on a 48-yard run with 12:32 that was left in overtime to win the game. The Patriots did tie the game with a field goal with 4 seconds left in regulation play.
Now the Patriots are 10 and 1 on the season -- no, I'm not a big Tom Brady fan, but hey, look, what can I say? My Cowboys have gone out the window.
Look, real quick, the Carolina Panthers are the NFL's only remaining unbeaten team right now, Maria, they're 11 and 0. But it's been a really exciting NFL season so far.
BARTIROMO: All right, well, they got that going for them, I know this is exactly the way Sandra felt.
SMITH: (INAUDIBLE) --
BARTIROMO: Exactly the way you felt, Sandra --
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: Agree with me about --
BARTIROMO: Is it the --
SMITH: Tom Brady --
BARTIROMO: Cheryl, does the same way, Sandra --
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: East Coast reporting, you must stop -- great job for the Broncos --
(LAUGHTER)
For God's sake, give them a chance --
BARTIROMO: No, seriously, you were feeling the same way, shocks --
SMITH: No --
BARTIROMO: Come on, shocks, go Bears, thank you Cheryl. Up next, Amazon drones take flight, a new look at the company's latest delivery plans, back in a moment, we'll check it out.
The weekend and retail and Cyber Monday expectations, stay with us.
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BARTIROMO: Well, Cyber Monday is here, what are we expecting in the next 24 hours? Retailers are expecting to rake in $3 billion from online sales alone.
The leader of the pack, of course, Amazon doing something special this year. Jo Ling Kent is live at an Amazon Fulfillment Center, she's in Robbinsville, New Jersey right now with the story, Jo.
JO LING KENT, FOX BUSINESS: Hey, Maria, we are on the floor of the Fulfillment Center, it's really loud. Fourteen miles from there, about carrying at least 500 orders per second.
That's how much people are shopping on Amazon this year. And it's an incredible volume. And what we're seeing at Amazon is packages going from this fulfillment center to Utah, to Arizona, to Indiana.
And this is all part of a broader bend by the American people, Adobe is estimating $4.5 billion spent between Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Today will be even more, 60 percent of that will be on mobile, Maria. I mean, packages you see, are not just holiday items, but everyday items, some of the best sellers so far this year, the Amazon Fire tablet and the Amazon Fire circuit TV.
So, we're seeing these packages move very quickly, Amazon expecting an even bigger Cyber Monday than last year.
BARTIROMO: Jo, stay with us because we want to talk more about this. I was just saying, why is Amazon so good at this, and is there anybody who even comes close in terms of the precision and the effectiveness that Amazon has had?
BLOCK: To Jeff Bezos credit, he spent the money on this.
BARTIROMO: He spent -- exactly, he invested in it.
BLOCK: And that's what it comes down to, this company is not profitable. Look, it trades at 900 times current year earnings --
BARTIROMO: Nine hundred times --
BLOCK: Nine hundred times current year, it trades at a blistering 119 times next year. But earnings don't matter, you know, you can hear Bezos being hysterical after, earnings don't matter.
Evaluation doesn't matter, 32 times cash flow, it doesn't matter. They're eating everyone else' lunch, it's created destruction, they're moving forward.
SMITH: And this marketing is -- Amazon's marketing is masterful, I mean, somebody just said on our set earlier, you want something, you can order it at 80 and 1 and get it in the same day.
I mean, it's a behemoth that all these other smaller retailers cannot compete with --
BARTIROMO: And what about the larger, I mean, what about Wal-Mart, Wal- Mart cannot compete.
SMITH: They struggled to compete with them.
BARTIROMO: Isn't that interesting? Yes --
BLOCK: Look at where Jo is standing, look at what oil machine that is, that could --
BARTIROMO: Exactly --
BLOCK: Take on any army in the world versus Wal-Mart, it's probably like Keystone cops and Swedish chefs, you know, throwing things around --
BARTIROMO: Does --
BLOCK: You know, it's like that --
BARTIROMO: Doesn't feel as busy as you expected, Jo, I mean, from where you are standing and what you're seeing.
LING KENT: Well, what we're seeing right now is exactly a little bit less busy than it was last year anecdotally, and not because the shopping season is no longer the Cyber Monday of Black Friday, it's an entire week it's been since Halloween.
But Amazon is offering more deals than ever, trying to get people to buy because Wal-Mart is doing the same thing, investing a billion dollars.
And we should note though that Amazon did turn a surprise profit in a previous quarter, so they're trying to show investors that what they're doing with all of these fulfillment centers is working investment it seems to be.
BARTIROMO: Yes, that's a good point then, because they did squeak out a profit. I mean, I now understand the larger issue that you're talking about, Michael --
BLOCK: Sure --
BARTIROMO: Revenue, generating revenue has been really paramount to earnings --
BLOCK: Look --
BARTIROMO: Over the years.
BLOCK: I'm talking stocks --
BARTIROMO: Yes --
BLOCK: Here and you know --
BARTIROMO: Yes --
BLOCK: Stronger dollar, you think that retail would be doing better, I'm not so convinced that overall it's doing better, and that's -- and that's problematic. Amazon here is --
SMITH: Look, but it's what we already have hard evidence of, and Jo has been reporting this as well, we flash the number.
Amazon is already reporting that their average cart price, meaning what you spend when you check out is already up more than 20 percent year-over-year. I mean --
BLOCK: Wow --
SMITH: This is substantial increase. So, whether it might be less boxes, maybe those boxes are filled with more --
BLOCK: Yes --
SMITH: Expensive items --
BLOCK: That's an out wire. You know, the ticket size according to NRF, like the ticket sizes are not up everywhere. You know, really, Amazon just the winner overall.
This whole year, advanced retail sales numbers have been terrible except for non -- you know, general non-store merchandize. Guess what that is, it's there.
BARTIROMO: Yes --
BLOCK: That's a --
LING KENT: We also can't forget -- we also can't forget that there are some serious competitors in the game online.
It's not just Wal-Mart and Target moving in, but we saw Google shopping up 40 percent expected this holiday season.
So, as much as Amazon does dominate, there is room for many different incumbent players here. Amazon just has the earlier edge for now.
BARTIROMO: All right, Jo, thanks so much, we'll check back throughout the day on the Fox Business Network, Jo Ling Kent at Amazon this morning.
A key program in the National Security Agency's fight against terrorism expires. Former Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey is with us on the threat this now poses to the homeland, he is coming up next, back in a moment.
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BARTIROMO: Welcome back, major changes at the NSA today as the agency's sweeping authority to collect phone records data expires.
Our next guest wrote an op-ed in the "Wall Street Journal" last week, saying that this current environment is no time to pay back our intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Joining us right now is former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey. Judge Mukasey, good to see you, thanks very much for joining us.
MICHAEL MUKASEY, FORMER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: Nice to be with you.
BARTIROMO: First, explain to us what expires today and why this is important.
MUKASEY: What expires today is the NSA's authority to gather what's called metadata. Which is simply a calling number, the number that's called the length of the call and the date, that's it, no content.
The reason that that's useful is if we could run up against the number that we know is associated with a terrorist, they can then run through that database and see whether that terrorist number has either called or been called by a number in the United States.
And that data was in the hands of the NSA, have no content.
BARTIROMO: So how is government going to get their hands on that data now?
MUKASEY: What they're planning to do is have a system that allows NSA to go to each of the carrier separately and get their data, and run it through their data base. We don't know whether that system works. The letters written to endorse it were written by the head of the NSA, six months or more ago. We said, we think we can design a system with the cooperation of the carriers. Carriers aren't really crazy about this idea because it has them as the repository of the information, subjects them to sabotage and hacking, and Lord knows what else. We then had the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the Attorney General Loretta Lynch, writing a letter saying, "We think it's going to be fine and if there are any serious problems, we're going to let Congress know." That's not much assurance, isn't it?
BARTIROMO: No.
BLOCK: What's the carrot and what's the stick for the carriers here?
MUKASEY: The carrot is we will think well of you. There is no stick, as far as I know. There's no requirement that they hold the information for longer than they do consistent with their business needs, which is probably about six months.
SANDRA SMITH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK REPORTER: I guess my thought is, my gut reaction is, if you're talking about a terrorist number that then you look up to see if there are any calls to or from that number from United States. How quickly does the -- does say a terror network adapt to that? Adapt to our changing of our policies and, you know, I mean, there's --
MUKASEY: They've been adapting for quite a while. The information that was released by Edward Snowden, for example, allowed them to figure out how to communicate, how to communicate in dark areas of the net.
SMITH: Yeah.
MUKASEY: And how to avoid being detected. This is just one more problem that we have, one more obstacle that we have to collecting information.
BARTIROMO: We are learning today, there are reports out that the master mind behind the Paris attacks has managed to get back to Syria, Abdelsalam, who is of course, there's a manhunt looking for him after plotting the Paris attacks. Could this kind of information been helpful in that regard, do you think?
MUKASEY: You would think that if they had a number that they knew was associated with a group over there, they could run it through the data base, perhaps find out whether they had any U.S. contacts. But that's -- this isn't the only electronic means that is used to try to track terrorists. What's also needed, by the way, is human intelligence and we haven't been getting that to a large degree because people have been killed with drones rather than captured and questioned. We've restricted how we question them. So that information is not coming in either.
BARTIROMO: We're restricting how we question them. We're also having a specific strategy that is using only air strikes. Many people say those air strikes are missing their targets.
MUKASEY: Well, the fact is that many of those, not only that, not just missing their targets, but many missions are flown and airplanes come back with Bombay's full because the rules of engagement don't allow them to drop bombs in a situation where there might be collateral damage, i.e. civilian casualties. I understand the wanting to avoid civilian casualties, but the fact is that there are always civilian casualties in war and that, when you start restricting things that way, you make it impossible for them to do even the work that they can do from the air.