MARIA-01
Lufthansa Flight Makes Emergency Landing Due To Bomb Threat; Amazon
Shoppers Face New Scam; Trump Picks Tillerson; Hacking Concerns; Dylann
Roof Trial - Part 1>
Church; Religion; Rex Tillerson; Donald Trump; Business; Aviation;
Business; Amazon>
MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: Hi everybody. Good Tuesday morning. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Thank you so much for being with us. It's Tuesday December 13th. Your top stories right now at 6:00a.m. on the East Cosat.
President Elect Donald Trump gears up for a busy day today. He will officially name Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his pick for secretary of state this morning.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell weighed in on the selection and the confirmation process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENT.: Well, I've been impressed with the nomination so far and we'll have to wait and see who is nominated for secretary of state and will obviously treat with whoever that is with respect.
Let's wait until we get nominees. I think of the nominees that we're already aware of, I think -- I'm optimistic that they'll all be confirmed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Plus president-elect Donald Trump postposing his news conference about business after inauguration day. Instead, he tweeted about it last night. We've got the details, and tell you why he's pushing back that press conference on the separation of his business.
The deep freeze setting in, bone-chilling temps. Temperatures, heavy snow causing chaos on the roads and at airports across the country this morning. Another winter blast expected this week, we will have the details.
And a bomb scare in the sky to report. A Lufthansa flight traveling from Houston to Frankfurt made an emergency landing in New York City after a threat was phoned in. The latest developments coming up.
Amazon shoppers, beware. A new scam hitting your inbox. What you need to know to protect your information and bank account.
And privacy concerns for Uber, a shocking report that there's -- the company's employees have access to trip information and they're using it to spy on people, including celebrities. We've got the story.
Oil prices edging higher this morning, adding on to that big rally yesterday. Now at another new high. Take a look. The International Energy Agency says that oil markets will rebalance early next year as long as OPEC members actually cut production. The price now, up half a percent to 53.06.
Meanwhile, stocks look like this. Future's indicating another gain at the opening of trading, which would make another record high for the Dow Industrials at the Open. The Trump rally continues. The Dow industrials looking up about 70 points this morning. The Nasdaq up about 18 points and the S&P 500, in record high territory, with a gain of a third of a percent.
In Europe this morning, stocks are also higher. Pretty good market action there with the FTSE 100 up half a percent. The CAC quarante up three- quarters of a percent. Check out the DAX index in Germany, up almost one percent.
And in Asia overnight, slight gains but across the board gains, as you see there. Best performer, the Nikkei average in Japan continues its recent rally up another half of a percent this morning.
Prepare for landing. A Japanese rocket headed to the International Space Station this hour for a resupply mission. We will bring you the pictures live. Pretty fascinating stuff this morning. All those stories coming up.
And joining me to talk about it, Fox Business Network's Dagen McDowell. Former Chrysler CEO and former Home Depot CEO, Bob Nardelli back with us. And "Outnumbered" cohost, Sandra Smith.
SANDRA SMITH, FBN ANCHOR: Hey.
BARTIROMO: Sandra, welcome back.
SMITH: Good to be here.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FBN ANCHOR: Good to see you.
SMITH: Thanks for having me.
BARTIROMO: Bob, good morning to you.
ROBERT NARDELLI, FORMER CEO, HOME DEPOT: Great to be with all of you. Well, I'm surrounded.
BARTIROMO: Hey, Bob.
(LAUGHTER)
SMITH: Are you frightened?
NARDELLI: Yes.
BARTIROMO: Outnumbered.
SMITH: Yes, you are outnumbered.
NARDELLI: Yes, outnumbered this morning.
BARTIROMO: Big, big story, obviously. Rex Tillerson going to be secretary of state as a business person. What's your take on this, real quick?
NARDELLI: Listen, I'm very excited. I know Rex personally. He's a man of integrity. He's got standing around the world. I think he'll be tremendously effective. He is strong. He has convictions. I think he'll be a great secretary of state.
BARTIROMO: You're going to give us a rare glimpse of what he's like as an individual, given that you know him so well. So thank you for that.
NARDELLI: Yes. Yes.
BARTIROMO: Big story this morning.
MCDOWELL: Yes. He does not suffer fools gladly.
NARDELLI: No, no.
MCDOWELL: Shall we say.
NARDELLI: Not at all.
BARTIROMO: Exactly. All right. Coming up this morning, Fox News military analyst, General Jack Keane will weigh in on all of that. He's joining us coming up, live. Former New York Jets and sports commentator, Erik Coleman is with us this morning.
Former Reagan campaign adviser and Republican strategist Ed Rollins here. And president-elect Donald Trump's communications director, Jason Miller, is going to talk about all of the namings and the cabinet names so far. He'll be with us as well.
So stay with us, big show coming up. America will soon know President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary.
And so they were forced a bit. But when they did invest, they invested bit.
SMITH: But he's only been the CEO since 2007, right?
BARTIROMO: That's right.
SMITH: So, I mean, he's been there less than 10 years as the CEO, and those are his views of recent, but I don't know. I mean, you have to also talk about the idea of the president-elect's chemistry with his picks, and I feel like it's just a natural thing for him to bond with these business leaders. And he's got to be comfortable with them in that aspect as well.
BARTIROMO: He said they got along right away.
SMITH: Yes.
MCDOWELL: It was very impressive.
NARDELLI: I'm not surprised. And again, it's encouraging to see we're getting administration that will be supportive of trying to get a GDP that would help the economy, that will create jobs opportunity that we talked about for many, many times on the show.
BARTIROMO: But before we -- before you go, Erin, we got to just tell you that our sources at Fox News are saying that Donald Trump is also set to nominate Rick Perry to be the energy secretary. Real quick on that.
ERIN MCPIKE, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, GLOBAL INCUBATOR: Yes, that's no surprise at all. And obviously, as Governor of Texas, he is very well-aware of the energy industry and all that he can do for the energy industry in this country. So that pick is not surprising at all.
It was in a department that he wanted to eliminate, which he -- when he said when he ran for president in 2012, but I don't think that's big or surprising at all, and I think that Rick Perry will actually have a much easier senate confirmation process.
BARTIROMO: All right, Erin. Good to see you. Thanks so much for weighing in on all of this. Erin McPike there. Be sure to catch a special two-hour edition of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" tonight covering the president-elect's thank you tour. It all kicks off at 7:00 pm Eastern, right here on the Fox Business Network. Join Lou as he takes you through that thank you tour.
Coming up, another snowstorm ahead. More than a dozen states forecast, you see snow and ice falling in a winter blast that caused chaos in northeast and mid-west.
Then an emergency landing. A Lufthansa flight was diverted to JFK after a bomb threat. We will bring you all the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. The gains continue this morning on Wall Street. Check out the stock market. Future's indicating a gain of about 70 points at the open this morning on the Dow Jones Industrial average.
Of course, today, the fed meeting kicks off. The Dow closing at yet another record level yesterday. It is the 24th record close of the year, the 15th record high since election night. Joining us right now is Chief Investment Strategist at Raymond James, Jeff Saut. Jeff, good to see you.
JEFF SAUT, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, RAYMOND JAMES: Pleasure.
BARTIROMO: Would you put your money to work in this market today after the gains we've seen?
SAUT: Yes, yes. Our model telegraphed this before the election and said no matter who won, the markets was staged to go up. And I had lunch with Larry Fink at BlackRock the other day at the CIO Roundtable and he said, "This is the biggest honeymoon I have ever seen in my entire career," but my hunch is you stay with equities into the inauguration and then reality sets in.
BARTIROMO: Yes, but when you say the market would have gone up regardless -- I mean, the market is trading on real expectations of an economic plan that is going to move the needle in economic growth.
SAUT: You bet.
BARTIROMO: Right. So, I mean, do you think earnings are going to go up?
SAUT: I do. The bottom-up operating earnings from S&P are around 131 bucks. Every one percentage point dropped in the corporate tax rate adds $1.31 to those bottom-up earnings. So even if you don't get to a 15 percent corporate tax rate, if you get to a 25 percent tax rate, it still adds $13.10 to that $131. You want to hold the key (inaudible) at 17 times forward earnings. You're talking 24 or 24.50 on the S&P.
NARDELLI: Jeff, it's interesting. Some of your colleagues CIO are saying that it could get up to 20 -- the Dow could reach 25,000. Where do you think?
SAUT: Somebody came out said it was 50,000.
NARDELLI: Yes, well --
BARTIROMO: When? Come on.
NARDELLI: That's a little bit of a stretch, but seriously, you think post- inaugural, it'll take a dip or you think we'll continue this moment?
SAUT: I think you're going to be due for a pullback after the inauguration, but I think we're in a secular bull market and I was on your show in March of `09, saying the market's bottom this week and we're in a secular bull market. They tend to last --
BARTIROMO: And that was the bottom.
SAUT: -- 15 years. It was the bottom.
BARTIROMO: March of `09, yes.
SAUT: Yes.
SMITH: Obviously, the next big theory is rising interest rates. Obviously, that would take a while to play out, but what are you seeing, Jeff, as far as participation in this record run-up in U.S. Stocks?
I mean, pre-election, the record run-up, we didn't see a lot of mainstream media being able to participate in that. Are you seeing that take up here?
SAUT: No. No, the individual investor is AWOL, they think the only reason stocks are up is because the central banks have flooded the system with money. And what they don't get is that the equity markets don't care about the absolutes of good or bad. All the equity markets care about are things getting better or are things getting worse? And things are getting better.
MCDOWELL: But if longer term interest rates keep going up and people start seeing actual losses in their treasury portfolios, does that force money out of bonds and into stocks?
SAUT: It's not just --
MCDOWELL: By individuals?
SAUT: It's not just out of bonds. You saw Norway two months ago, the white paper from Norway, the largest pension fund in the world, $880 billion. They were told to increase their exposure to equities from 60 to 70 percent. Not last weekend, but the weekend before.
The Finnish pension fund said, "We're taking our underweight in U.S. equities to a market weight," which means they got to increase their position by 20 percent.
MCDOWELL: I was talking more about individuals, that individuals kind of went -- if they see losses in what they consider to be the safest of investments.
BARTIROMO: You start getting those statements.
(CROSSTALK)
MCDOWELL: Even in your 401(k) plan, you start reallocating your money.
SAUT: Yes, well, the barcode (inaudible) I think had its worst loss ever of 4 percent in the month of November. And you're seeing -- you're starting to see the great rotation, yes.
BARTIROMO: So quarter point or a half point increase in rates tomorrow?
SAUT: I have been on your show for the past 10 months saying Janet Yellen's not going to increase rates until (inaudible)
BARTIROMO: You don't -- you're not expecting a rate hike tomorrow?
SAUT: I am.
BARTIROMO: Oh.
SAUT: A quarter of a point, but I said not until after the election.
BARTIROMO: OK.
NARDELLI: Hey Jeff, tell me, a quarter point's kind of already baked in, I'm sure, to the market. But if that continues, what does it do to the housing segment, which is really a job-creation engine for us? When does it tip and, you know, interest rates, the banks love it, people buying homes may not like it.
SAUT: I think a quarter of a point is not impactful.
NARDELLI: Yes. How many -- where does it have to go before it does become impactful?
SAUT: 4 percent.
NARDELLI: 4 percent?
SAUT: Yes.
BARTIROMO: So that's, what, four hikes in `17? And I --
SAUT: I don't think you'll see that.
BARTIROMO: You don't think so, right? I mean, that --
SAUT: I have luck with Janet Yellen, I think she's going to be very --
BARTIROMO: So two hikes in `17? Something like that?
NARDELLI: I'm going to go with you on lunch and dinner. You're (inaudible)
(LAUGHTER)
MCDOWELL: Yes, yes. Exactly.
BARTIROMO: You've got everybody at lunch and dinner. Where's our invitation?
SMITH: So what is your thoughts on Rex Tillerson, secretary of state? Pick (inaudible)
SAUT: I think Donald Trump -- and I didn't vote for either one of them. The first time in my adult life, I didn't vote.
BARTIROMO: Did you not vote?
SAUT: I voted all down-ballot.
BARTIROMO: OK.
SAUT: But I couldn't bring myself to vote for either one of them. I think that the selections he has made are spectacular.
MCDOWELL: Wow.
SAUT: Yes.
MCDOWELL: But now you have a president-elect who is -- who -- you have individual stock risk, potentially, from a president-elect because he's tweeting about Boeing and tweeting about Lockheed Martin. So who's next? Who's next? Who do you have to work -- which stocks do you have to worry about Donald Trump tweeting about?
SAUT: I don't think you have to worry about any stocks. We're in a secular bull market. Everything's going higher, but the low-vol stocks, which are way overpriced in utilities.
BARTIROMO: Yes. The low volatility stocks. All right.
NARDELLI: His challenging on the waste in government is a good thing.
SAUT: You got that right.
BARTIROMO: Yes, exactly. So your favorite sector right now -- I mean, financials are up big. You like financials?
SAUT: Raymond James' stock has gone from 40 in February to 75.
BARTIROMO: So you're a happy guy, then?
SAUT: You bet.
(LAUGHTER)
BARTIROMO: Jeff, good to see you.
SAUT: It's always a pleasure.
BARTIROMO: Thank you so much. Jeff Saut, Raymond James there.
Coming up, president-elect Donald Trump met yesterday with Carly Fiorina. They talked about China, they talked about hacking, the details coming up.
And then a scam targets holiday shoppers, fake Amazon emails tricking thousands of people into giving out credit card information. What you need to be on the lookout for coming up. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, December 13.
Your top stories right now at 6:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Breaking news this morning, President-elect Trump choosing Exxon Mobile CEO, Rex Tillerson, as his secretary of state nominee -- this official.
As Trump's cabinet takes shape, Hillary Clinton supporters are on the attack. The former democratic nominee's campaign backing efforts that call for classified briefings for electorate college members on Russian hacking concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was Russia or China or whoever it was who hacked into the DNC and the RNC. It followed years -- years of hacking into the government, private sector with no response effectively by the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So in other words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They thought they could get away with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't need a security clearance to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyber activity. The president-elect didn't call it into question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: The very latest on the hacking ahead. New evidence this morning in the prosecution of South Carolina church shooting suspect, Dylann Roof.
A search of his car turned up a handwritten list of several other predominantly black churches in the area. He had a backup plan apparently, the shocking details coming up.
Be careful before you buy anything this holiday. The new scam that Amazon is warning consumers about coming up. And following your ex from pickup to drop-off -- the creepy accusations levied against some Uber employees.
They're following around their passengers. Oil prices are edging higher this morning. The International Energy Agency says that oil markets will rebalance early next year as long as OPEC members actually do cut production.
The rally continues this morning. We're up to $53.14 a barrel, up two- thirds of one percent this morning on oil. Futures meanwhile -- let's take a look at the stock market.
We're going to look at (ph) that Trump rally continue. We're expecting gains at the opening of trading, which would make another record high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with the industrial average looking up 70 points this morning, a third of a percent, NASDAQ also up a third of a percent.
Check out European markets. Stocks are higher there as well, as you'll see across the board, two-thirds of a percent higher across the board in the Eurozone market.
In Asia overnight, slight gains across the board as well. Japan was the best performer once again. That rally has been holding steady, closing at another new high for the year on the Nikkei average, up one half of one percent.
Well, to infinity and beyond, the Japanese cargo ship set to dock with the international space station. We will head to space coming up.
Then the NFL looks to spice up the Pro Bowl by adding dodge ball -- why the league is betting on the children's game to bring the ratings. First, though, President-elect Donald Trump continues to meet with former rivals yesterday with former presidential candidate and former Hewlett Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina.
And cyber security was on the agenda. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY FIORINA, FORMER CEO, HEWLETT PACKARD: We had a really productive meeting. It was such an honor to meet with the president-elect.
But in any event, we then got down to more serious business and spent a fair amount of time talking about China as probably our most important adversary and a rising adversary. We talked about hacking, whether it's Chinese hacking or a purported Russian hacking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Joining me right now is retired four-star general, former U.S. Army vice chief of staff and Fox News military analyst, Jack Keane.
General Keane, good to see you.
JACK KEANE, FOX NEWS MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: First, we just got the official announcement. Donald Trump is nominating Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil, for the next secretary of state position.
Your take on that?
KEANE: Well, look, the president-elect has got a right to pick the people he wants. None of us have interviewed Mr. Tillerson.
You're the one that knows him the best than anyone I've -- I've encountered so far. And you've got a lot of confidence in him.
I think we've got to give him, you know, a lot of rope here. There'll be plenty of people that can provide him assistance in -- in current (ph) diplomacy, intelligence briefings.
Let's give him the start he deserves. The president-elect has picked a secretary of state who he is comfortable with. And that is absolutely important.
He's going to spend multiple days a week with this person. And he's got to feel that this is the right man for the job.
BARTIROMO: You know, broadly speaking, General, what's your take on so many businesspeople in government jobs? I mean, I know that he's got a lot of generals as well in -- in important roles.
But he's also got a lot of businesspeople. And I guess, as much as I do think that Rex Tillerson is a very savvy and strategic choice, and have interviewed him many times, I know that, you know, not every business person is going to be in alignment with the interest of America.
I mean, you take a look at what we saw yesterday and the official announcement from Boeing that it just did a deal with Iran, right, a $17 billion deal to sell all of those jets to Iran. Just pointing it out because not every business and business CEO is necessarily in -- in alignment with America's interest, you know, I mean, maybe we didn't want that deal with Iran to happen.
What's your take on this, broadly speaking.
KEANE: Oh, I so (ph).
BARTIROMO: .not -- not targeting any one company?
KEANE: No, I understand. I mean, just looking at it conceptually and strategically. Certainly, I mean, business -- business and CEOs are driven by a shareholder value.
And they answer to shareholders. They certainly don't answer to the American people writ large.
But nonetheless, I think in -- in careful selection of business leaders who have proven themselves and -- and I think who can make the transition to public service, I think it's very appropriate. I have advocated that the number two person that the Defense Department should, in fact, be a CEO who has run a large Fortune 500 company, has done a major turnaround in the last five years to take charge, Maria, of the business functions inside DOD, which are actually third rate.
The war-fighting functions are best in class, best in the world. They are first rate. And we need at times, in public service, running these large bureaucracies, people who have had expertise in running large organizations.
After all, the general offices they've selected, they've all run multiple large organizations where incredible bureaucracies in them normally with as many civilians in them as they have -- have military. So Mr. Trump, I think, is attracted to some of these people who have that expertise.
And -- and I have no problem with it.
BARTIROMO: Yes, a really interesting insight. That's -- that's great analysis, General. Let me move onto hacking and cyber security, General Keane.
If Russia or China are behind the hacking, how big of a threat is this to national security?
KEANE: Listen, we've -- we've got to draw back and understand a major principle (ph) that's happening here. The -- the reality is that Russia and China and the United States are in a major power competition.
And it's likely to get worse. And as such, Russia and China want to disrupt and destroy the international order that's been in place post-World War II for 72 years because they fundamentally believe that is not in their interest.
So one of the means to achieve that then (ph) for China is using cyber espionage and cyber attack. And it has been exploding in terms of what they are doing.
Number one, in terms of sequence, they've got our precision-guided munition technology. They've got our stealth technology.
They've got our missile technology. They've got our space-based technology. This is what they've stolen from us.
They've got the entire personal records of the federal government to include mine. And I've been out of government service for some time.
What -- what they have done is absolutely outrageous. And they continue to do it. Why?
Because we have done nothing, Maria, to stop it.
BARTIROMO: Right.
KEANE: We don't even make serious rhetorical comments about it and gather other countries. But we should respond in kind and use other levers.
It is a form of warfare. And we've got to come to grips with that. The common on (ph) in the Marine Corps, Maria, was asked at a caucus.
So we could go Monday in the congressional caucus, what do you perceive as your greatest threat? He said, cyber.
BARTIROMO: Wow. Well, I mean.
KEANE: Ain't that extraordinary?
BARTIROMO: It's extraordinary. And that's the thing, General. I mean, I feel like it is somewhat refreshing to see Donald Trump shake the cage a little on China and shake the cage a little on Russia.
I mean, if this Russia hacking has been going on for 20 years and -- and -- and in the last 10 years, we've done nothing about it, I mean, why?
KEANE: Well, it's just irresponsible that we've not done anything. The Russians are the second best in world.
Listen, we are so good at that. We are first and -- and nobody is actually close to us. I mean, if -- if we got a classified briefing here on -- on Fox Business, it would make your eyes water what capability we truly have here.
BARTIROMO: Right.
KEANE: So there's much that we do. We have no policy driving our responses, Maria.
Isn't that extraordinary, given all the attacks that are taking place? I mean, in the old days, we'd get upset because somebody -- a Russian agent persuaded a mole (ph) inside our intelligence service to sneak out some documents.
Give me a break.
BARTIROMO: Right.
KEANE: These guys are doing this every single day to us.
BARTIROMO: Well, on -- in a -- in a very na‹ve, you know, analysis, and -- and example, is I remember during the Hank Paulson treasury, one of my sources told me that anytime government officials travel to China or they travel to Russia, they are not allowed today bring their Blackberry because as soon as you get into the airspace of China, airspace of Russia, all of our files are wide open.
And they can, in fact, read whatever they want. And so they were told, the staffers, you are not allowed to bring your Blackberry.
Otherwise, we're wide open. I mean, that alone tells you, is there nothing we can do about it?
KEANE: There's plenty we can do about it. We have the greatest offensive capability. So just in kind when they do something to us, we can do something about it.
We can expose them publicly. The Chinese are almost paranoid about adverse publicity.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
KEANE: And we can -- we can scratch that itch and keep scratching it.
BARTIROMO: Yes. So there's some -- some things on a very low level that we can actually do quite easily. General, it's good to see you and get your insights on everything.
Thanks so much.
BARTIROMO: Good talking to you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. General Jack Keane there. Be sure to catch a special two-hour edition tonight of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" covering the president-elect's thank-you tour.
He's going to Wisconsin tonight. It kicks off tonight on Fox Business Network at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Join Lou for live coverage.
Coming up next, the latest scam targets holiday shoppers. Its fake Amazon e-mails, they're tricking thousands of people to giving out credit card information.