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Chokes on Dirty Air; GM Slashes up to 1,300 Jobs - Part 1>
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MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN HOST: -- the incoming plans. Ladies, thank you. Hi, everybody. Good morning to you. Happy Tuesday, I'm Maria Bartiromo. Thanks so much for being with us. It is Tuesday December 20th, your top stories 6:00 A.M. on the East Coast right now.
The global terrorism threat. Authorities searching for details in the deadly truck crash in Germany this morning killing at least 12 people, injuring dozens more. German Chancellor Angela Merkel commenting on the attack in the last hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY: It will be persecuted with all the means possible. We don't have anything for certain so we must assume it was a terrorist attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: The U.S. now ramps up security as well following that attack in Germany. We will have the very latest development and what's being plan here in the U.S.
The electoral results are official. The Electoral College sealing Donald Trump's victory yesterday. There were some surprised votes again to Hillary Clinton yesterday in that Electoral College. We'll tell you all about it.
And a record wave of pardons and commutations. President Obama granting clemency to more than 200 people yesterday alone. The most in a single day. There are more to come as well.
Meanwhile, more layoffs coming for General Motors. The automaker cutting 1,300 jobs, also cutting production at several factories. What the move says at about the broader economy. Coming up this morning.
Christmas is now five days away. But if you order your gifts on Amazon, they may not make it under the tree. Pilots now warning of shipping delays. We'll tell you what you need to know.
And still looking for Christmas gifts at this date? One of the hottest toys of the year, the Nintendo NES finding a new home, find out where you can get the gaming system. A lot of people sold out. We'll tell you the details.
And markets look like this. Future pointing to modest gains at the opening of trading again, that Trump rally rolls on.
Dow Industrials expected to be up about 20 points, it's a fractional move there. S&P and the NASDAQ also in positive territory.
Check out European markets this morning. Stocks up bringing you the flat line, as you'll see. FTSE 100 down, CAC quarante in Paris up as it the DAX Index in Germany up a fraction.
And in Asia overnight, mixed performances. The Japanese Central Bank held interest rates steady at their meeting overnight. That was expected. The Nikkei average was up one half of one percent. The others mixed.
All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning. And joining me to talk all about it, Fox News correspondent Lea Gabrielle is here. The Wall Street Journal's Chief Economics correspondent Jon Hilsenrath. And democratic strategist Harlan Hill. Great to see you.
HARLAN HILL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Great to be with you.
JON HILSENRATH, CHIEF ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT, WALL STREET JOURNAL: So, Maria, I'm wondering if we're going to get Dow 20,000 this week. That's the ultimate Christmas present that Trump can deliver to the U.S. market.
LEA GABRIELLE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people predicting a yes on that one.
BARTIROMO: It really is. Not too far away. Sometimes these round numbers do create some resistance.
HILSENRATH: Absolutely.
BARTIROMO: You're back and fill in for a while.
HILSENRATH: Absolutely. And you could be up and around there for years after you get there. But so this is a big moment.
BARTIROMO: It really is. We will be watching markets.
And coming up this morning, former republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is here. Professor of Strategy, Warfare at the Institute of World Politics, Dr. Sebastian Gorka is with us. Center for politics, director of the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato is here. And my exclusive interview coming up with sitting treasury secretary for the next few weeks, Jack Lew, is joining us. One of his final interviews as treasury secretary.
Plus, big treat for all of us. Chef and host of PBS's Lidia's Kitchen, Lidia Bastianich is with us as well. Giving us some tips ahead of the holidays.
First though our top story right now and that is that deadly truck crash in Germany. At least 12 people are dead. Dozens others are injured. The suspect is now in custody. The attack has not been officially ruled as terrorism at this time although ISIS is claiming responsibility online according to the Washington Times.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the attack earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERKEL: Millions of people including myself, asking ourselves, how can we live celebrating the festive season where we want to celebrate life somebody has come along and took so many lives?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, a gunman fatally shoots Russia's ambassador to Turkey yesterday which Russian officials are calling an act of terrorism.
In Switzerland a man opened fire in a mosque. Injuring at least three people. Trump responded to the attacks on Twitter. Here's what he wrote. "Today, there was terrorist attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany. It is only getting worse. The civilized world must change thinking."
Joining us right now is former Michigan congressman and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Pete, Hoekstra.
Congressman, good to see you, thanks so much for joining us.
PETE HOEKSTRA, FORMER CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Great to be with you. Good morning.
BARTIROMO: Just an incredible 48 hours. What's your reaction to these three separate attacks? They all occurred yesterday.
HOEKSTRA: Well, actually, it's 72 hours. You also had the attack in Jordan on Saturday where 10 people were killed including a Canadian tourist. What this really does show is the breath of reach of ISIS and radical Jihadist groups. They can hit in Jordan, they can hit in Turkey, they can hit in Germany and also shows the depth, you know, they can go and hit a Christmas market.
But at the same time, they've got the resources and they can go out and they can take out a Russian ambassador. From their standpoint, it's a pretty impressive three days, four days of attacking western interest.
BARTIROMO: Incredible.
HOEKSTRA: Yes. You've got that along with what's going continuing in Iraq and Syria. We're not even close to containing this threat from radical Islam. They are still on the march.
BARTIROMO: Yes. What do you want to see Donald Trump do at this point and the incoming administration? A new NBC poll found that 45 percent of people are optimistic about Trump's presidency. That comes after the Electoral College of course voted as expected yesterday officially securing Trump's presidency despite some death threats to republican electors to change their votes.
We told you earlier that Trump tweeted, "We did it." This is what he tweeted after he got the 270 electoral votes last night. "We did it. Thank you to all my great supporters. We just officially won the election despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media."
Congressman, do you think this will end those who were campaigning against the Trump presidency? And what do you want to see from the incoming administration regarding terrorism?
HOEKSTRA: No. The whining tour by Bill Clinton, John Podesta and others in the Democratic Party is going to continue. They're going to continue to viciously attack the nominees that Mr. Trump puts forward.
What I want to see Mr. Trump do is I want him to select the right people and the right position who understand this threat from radical terrorism. And he's doing that. General Flynn, KT McFarland, the other people that he's putting in place, they understand this threat. They are going to go on offense. They are going to build the relationships with people in the region, the Kurds, the Sunni tribes, Egypt, and Jordan and these kind of countries and they're going to go on offense.
You have to eliminate these safe havens where radical jihadist can plan, where they can train and prepare to attack in the west. He's going to do the vetting of people who are coming into the United States.
This is why I think you're seeing the problems in Europe, they have not been doing the kind of vetting that is necessary. So make it a priority. Go on offense, enlist our allies, get NATO involved and we can -- we can contain this threat. It's going to be much more difficult to wipe it out. But we can contain it.
GABRIELLE: Congressman, Lea Gabrielle here. You spoke of the vetting process that's going to be so important in the coming months and as Donald Trump takes over. In the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police in Germany. So of course immigration in Germany, Angela Merkel is going to be facing a lot of criticism. As people look at this attack and what happened.
But I think here in the United States, there's a lot of questions about how we're being protected and how we're protected against a similar type of attack to what happened in Berlin, what we saw over the summer in France. I know from my experience in intelligence, we have bubbles of surveillance in places in New York to help prevent this type of thing.
But what can you tell us from your experience in serving on the intelligence community -- in the intelligence committee?
HOEKSTRA: Yes. One of the things that we have is we have the safety of distance. We're so far away from the threat. The threat is much closer in Europe where people can just go across from Libya, come across from Turkey and those types of things. Plus, we do not have the internal threat at the scale of Europe.
Plus, our law enforcement, the FBI and those types of things, they've become, very good in the United States in coordinating with local law enforcement activities. The place where that we are the weakest right now, is we have lost human intelligence in places like Egypt. We've lost human intelligence in places like Libya, Syria and Iraq so we don't have the insights into the safe havens that we would have even had three, four years ago.
Four years ago. Libya was a wealth of information and intelligence for us. Egypt was a wealth of intelligence for us. But because of what we did with Gaddafi and Mubarak and those types of things, much of that intelligence has dried up and we're going to have to reestablish that.
HILSENRATH: Congressman, just following onto that question, it's holiday seasons, we're a few days away from Christmas Eve. Do you think this makes the United States more likely a target over the next few days? Is the threat level rising here as we've seen all over the rest of the world?
HOEKSTRA: Oh, absolutely. We're not immune from this threat. ISIS has made it very clear. Al-Qaeda has made it very clear that the kind of attacks that we're seeing in Europe are the kinds of attacks that they want to carry out here in the United States.
You've got Christmas, you've New Years, you've got the upcoming inaugural, you know, I'm sure our law enforcement, they are prime, they recognize that the next 30 days are extremely critical here in the United States.
BARTIROMO: Harlan.
HILL: Congressman, Harlan Hill here. In light of all the news about Russia, they've been in the spotlight for really months now in the assassination of their ambassador to Turkey, their response has been very measured.
What do you think we can expect out of the Kremlin in the coming weeks to really respond to the assassination of their ambassador? What can we expect? Because it does feel like that region is on an ice edge and the Russians could really respond violently.
HOEKSTRA: Well, they can respond violently. They've got the capabilities to do it over there. I actually think this is an area where Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, you know, people are in arms about that they may actually discuss these types of things, but I think it's a positive thing.
This is an area where Russia and the United States have common ground, fighting ISIS and radical jihadist, coordinating our activities in parts of the Middle East to wipe out this threat. There's lots of other places where we've got major disagreements with Russia but this may be an area where we can work with them.
BARTIROMO: Real quick, Congressman, before you go. General Motors is announcing that the company will lay off 1,300 factory workers in Detroit, that's according to the Wall Street Journal this morning.
Obviously, you represent Michigan or represented Michigan. What does that mean for your former constituents there?
HOEKSTRA: What that means is I think right now it's not a major issue or concern. This is a rebalancing of inventories, dealer, stocks, car sales are down, SUV sales, truck sales are up. This kind of rebalancing usually happens at the end of the year when they go through their holiday shutdown.
Let's see what happens in the first quarter of 2017. And those are the kinds of numbers that we're looking at. Michigan is very used to these kinds of adjustments at this time of the year.
BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there. Congressman, good to see you. Thanks so much.
HOESKTRA: Great. Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Congressman, Pete Hoekstra joining us there. Coming up next record waive of pardons and commutations out of the White House. Hundreds of prisoners having their sentences cut short and there are many more to come. We've got the details from President Obama coming up.
And then one last chance to get the hottest toy of the year. Find out where you can actually get it, the Nintendo NES gaming system. Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Families of the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting are suing Twitter, Facebook and Google, allegedly for providing "material support to ISIS." Lauren Simonetti with the details now. Lauren, good morning.
LAUREN SIMONETTI, FBN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Maria. The civil lawsuit claims that the websites helped radicalized the shooter Omar Mateen. The families of three of the victims filed in a compliant saying, "Twitter, Facebook and Google, "provided ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds, and attracts new recruits."
29-year-old Mateen open fire inside Orlando's Pulse Nightclub back in June. We all remember that, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more. A SWAT team later killed him during a standoff ending the deadliest mas shooting in modern U.S. history.
And President Obama commuted sentences for 153 federal inmates yesterday. The most ever on a single day by any U.S. leader. He also issued 78 presidential pardons yesterday, which is eight more than he handed throughout his entire tenure as president.
He has now granted clemency to over 1,100 inmates, more than the last 11 presidents combined. The majority has involved drug-related charges.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo NES classic edition, one of the hottest toys of the holiday season, but finding one hasn't been so easy. Now, Maria, I know you talked to Nintendo of America's president about this earlier this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REGGIE FILS-AIME, PRESIDENT, NINTENDO AMERICA: When we can see this, what we saw as the opportunity where consumers who had played Mario and Zelda 30 years ago now to experience it with their kids and we've hit that market. And it's been a strong seller for us. Our biggest challenge is making sure that we're constantly replenishing into the marketplace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMONETTI: OK. So, where do you find one? This is what you need to know. Shoppers still hunting for the retro gaming system get a shot at it today. Best Buy CEO told us about 1,000 Best Buys across the country are getting new shipments of the system today. You can get it in-store only while supplies last.
Despite strong sales of the NES classic -- this is unbelievable, Nintendo stock is down 11 percent in the past week. That due to disappointing reviews of the new Super Mario app for Apple's iPhone. Maria, back to you.
BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you so much, Lauren. You know, it's interesting. This is a great game, people love it, but then they can't get it, Harlan.
HILL: I know. I was actually looking for one and I couldn't find it online or in store. It's very difficult, it's very popular, so.
GABRIELLE: I think it's almost like a supply and demand game that the companies play. The other thing that's out there that's really tough and people are getting right now is Apple products, things like Apple watches, if you want.
BARTIROMO: Really?
GABRIELLE: Yes. If you want to try to get one that's specific to the person, the type of band that they want, the type of face, you can't get those until January 9th.
HILL: Well, I'm surprised because they haven't sold that well.
BARTIROMO: Right. No, they haven't.
BARTIROMO: And yet, retail has been doing all that well.
HILSENRATH: No. There's a lot of promotions going on there. But this time, things are kind of weak right now.
BARTIROMO: There you go, a lot of sales. All right. We'll keep watching that.
Coming up, signs for weakness for Uber. The Silicon Valley darling posting a massive loss for the third quarter. What it means for the company IPO prospects, which we were expecting through 2017.
And then French fry lovers rejoiced, McDonalds expanding their all-you-can- eat promotion to another location. We will tell you where to get the fries. Back in a minute
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Startup darling Uber may be further from an IPO than many expected. Multiple reports suggest that the ride-sharing service lost a staggering $800 million in the third quarter. Jon Hilsenrath with us this morning. How should we be looking at this? I mean, it's a private company. We know it wants to go public. And supposed to be one of the big IPOs for next year. A successful private company. But maybe not that successful. Look at all the money --
HILSENRATH: Well, I think -- I think they're in growth mode. Their revenues went from 1.1 billion to 1.7 billion. They're really trying to grow market share to kind of push lift in the background and a lot of the losses stem from promotions that they're putting on to new drivers and to their fleet.
So I'm not -- in the same way that Amazon piled up losses for many years before it was ready to go public. I think, you have to give Uber the benefit of the doubt on this one.
HILL: But doesn't Uber run the risk of becoming a commoditized product? Because you have so many different competitors from Lyft and now the car manufacturer talking about coming up with their own ride-sharing services. It's a real concern in the long-term like how they stay competitive when there are so many competitors viewing them as potentially an existential threat.
HILSENRATH: As we've seen with Amazon, if you've got a first move or advantage and you've got the name and they acted, everybody turns to, that could be a very powerful force.
So their revenues are growing. Their name recognition is growing. They've got a $68 billion market valuation in the private market. And let's not forget that the Dow is touching 20,000. This could be an IPO market next year. I'm not ready to write them off.
BARTIROMO: Better sentiment next year was not a good IPO market this year?
HILSENRATH: Not at all.
GABRIELLE: How do you view Uber selling its opportunities in China?
HILSENRATH: Well, that's kind of a mixed story. So the Chinese invested in Uber so it's not -- this is a tough market for them to break into. So, you know, I wouldn't write that off either.
I think they have some -- they own 17 percent of the Chinese ride-sharing service so there could be little symbiotic relationship there.
BARTIROMO: So you don't think it's going to be as tough as other American companies getting a foothold in China because China invested?
HILSENRATH: They have a foothold in there. But when you're in China, it's hard to have a control. They got force (INAUDIBLE) into a minority shareholding, but they still have a piece of the pie.
BARTIROMO: What about this GM story, Jon? Obviously another tough situation in the auto sector. General Motors announcing that it's going to be laying off 1,300 workers at a Detroit plant. It's also cutting production at several factories. What does this tell you about where we are in the economy?
HILSENRATH: Well, it looks like it's a temporary adjustment. So inventories have gotten a little high for a lot of the auto makers, sales have hit a bit of a plateau. So they're reigning in production to try to run those inventories down.
You know, the car makers have had a great run for the last few years and it looks like they got a little bit ahead of themselves, but it doesn't look like the start of a downturn to me.
BARTIROMO: That seems to be what Congressman Hoekstra as well that this was sort of a year-end planning. What do you think, Harlan?
HILL: Well, I mean, I wonder if we reach with peak auto. With the rise of these ride-sharing services, I wonder if -- I think at some point, we're going to reach the point where people don't need to necessarily own a car particularly in more urban areas.
BARTIROMO: Certainly in urban areas.
GABRIELLE: People do love their cars. Americans love their cars. And what they also love right now are SUVs. So a lot of these -- a lot of these factories are building things like Chevy Volt. Cars that aren't as popular now, and if you look at, a lot of people buying more SUV's and that's part of the reasons that they're slowing down.
HILSENRATH: I mean, one of the big stories for the automakers was the oil prices fell and Americans went to bigger cars where, of course, you get to bigger profit margins. So I think this looks like a temporary adjustment and they'll be back on their feet earlier in the year.
BARTIROMO: Thoughts on the fed?
HILSENRATH: The fed raised rates last week and I think they're going to go slow as long as we have these inflation numbers under control. I mean, this is one area where Janet Yellen's interest are aligned with Donald Trump's. She's not -- she has no desire to hold this economy back. Especially as long as inflation is running below their two percent goal. She wants to see things revving a little bit high.
BARTIROMO: Yes, it's interesting, because on the one hand, you're seeing a lot of sentiment increasing. People feeling better that the election is over, that uncertainty is gone and you feel like there's an optimistic tone in the air and yet the numbers, we did not have a good retail sales numbers last week. We are still seeing businesses sit on cash. So it's not as revved up as some people thought.
HILSENRATH: Well, the market is certainly expecting things to rev up next year. And this is where so much depends on what Donald Trump can deliver, whether Donald Trump the president can deliver and what Donald Trump, the candidate promised. He promised a massive cut in corporate tax rates. If he can deliver that, then the stock market keeps going, if he can't, then we're lining up for a big selloff.
And again, the fed's behavior is going to depend a lot on what Trump delivers and what he doesn't deliver. If he delivers a massive fiscal stimulus, the fed might have to hold things back a little bit.
BARTIROMO: Yes, that makes sense. By the way, we are going to hear from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew coming up in the program. We're getting his take on where we are in the economy and his take on the incoming new policies coming from the Trump administration. Jack Lew joining us later on in the program.
Coming up. Authorities are searching for details on the deadly truck crash in Germany which left 12 people dead and many others injured. We've got the very latest on the attack coming next.
And then a national red alert in China, choking smog, forcing northern Chinese cities to stop cars, shut down factories, even cancel flights. The details coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Welcome back. Thanks so much for being with us.
I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, December 20. Your top stories right now, 6:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Terrorism across the globe -- a Russian ambassador gunned down in Turkey.
And just hours later, a truck slammed into a crowded Christmas shopping area in Berlin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see very quickly, yes, very quickly, yes, this -- in German, this is a very fast the police (ph) and ambulance come quick. And we have to close the -- all the shop quick.
So quickly (ph), I cannot close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: The attacks causing heightened security across the world, how security officials are responding here at home, especially ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next month, one month from today exactly. With just five days to go until Christmas morning, meanwhile, Amazon is warning your gifts may not make it under the tree in time.
The delays you need to know about coming up. And China is choking on smog literally -- Beijing hit with some of the worst pollution of the year overnight, forcing flight cancellations, road restrictions, all the details coming up.
Futures pointing to modest gains at the open on Wall Street. We're expecting another higher opening for the broader averages.
Take a look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average, expected to be up about 25 points, NASDAQ, S&P 500 also in positive territory. Now, onto European markets right now -- stocks are hovering near the flat line.
That's too far from where they closed yesterday. But the CAC 40 is up a third of a percent. That's the winner of all of the major averages across the Eurozone.
Asia markets overnight look like this -- mixed performances. The Japanese Central Bank held interest rates steady at the Bank of Japan's meeting overnight.
That was expected. The Nikkei average was up another half of a percent. And you will certainly be loving this -- another McDonalds offering, all you can eat fries but you may have to travel to get the deal.
We'll tell where to go for those free fries. First, though, our top story right now, a pre-Christmas attack in Berlin. A driver rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market, killing at least 12 people right away, injuring dozens of others.
The driver's now in custody. German authorities say that it was intentional. The U.S. is stepping up security in the wake of the tragedy.
We want to bring in Buck Sexton right now, a former CIA officer.
Buck, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
BUCK SEXTON, FORMER OFFICER, CIA: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: What do you think the U.S. should be doing right now to protect Americans against an attack when you see something like what has taken place in the last 24 hours? Three attacks in one day.