MARIA-01
Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds; U.S. Relations with Israel; Trump's Focus
on U.S. Jobs; Amazon Echo to Solve Crime? - Part 1>
>
Policies; John Kerry; Business; Economy; Death; Entertainment; Debbie
Reynolds>
SANDRA SMITH, FBN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, everybody. I 'm Sandra Smith in for Maria Bartiromo this morning. It is Thursday, December 29th. Your top stories at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Rising tensions between the U.S. and Israel this morning, as Secretary of State John Kerry defends the decision to let the U.N. condemn Israel settlements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We cannot properly defend and protect Israel if we allow a viable two-state solution to be destroyed before our own eyes. We also strongly reject the notion that somehow the United States was the driving force behind this resolution.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I wish I could be comforted by the promise that the U.S. says we will not bring any more resolutions to the U.N. We have it on absolute incontestable evidence that the United States organized the draft and brought this resolution to the United Nations Security Council.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Lawmakers from both sides denouncing Kerry's comments this morning. The implications for the two countries moving forward; and retaliation for Russia. The Obama Administration expected to lay out fresh sanctions for the country today over its alleged role in hacking our election. Plus dialing up another deal, why President-Elect Donald Trump is claiming credit for Sprint's decision to bring thousands of jobs to the U.S. And Takata Motors one step closer to settling its deadly defective air bag scandal. How much the company will reportedly pay the Justice Department for the largest recall in U.S. history.
And debit or credit, we'll check out a surprising new study about Americans' spending habits. How often we swipe. DOW 20,000 slipping away after yesterday's sell off as futures showing the markets now, somewhat mixed a few hours ahead of the opening bell. DOW futures down three while S&P futures are up slightly. In Europe, declines across the board there we are seeing some weakness on the FTSE in London, now four points, the CAC count in France off five. And turning to Asia markets, we're mixed overnight; you're looking at the Shanghai meineke down while the Hang seng and the KOSPI posted slight gains.
And remembering a legend from Hollywood's golden age, Debbie Reynolds dies just one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher's tragic death. A look back at her incredible career.
All of that coming up and with me this morning Rhino Trading Partners Chief Strategist, Michael Block, is here. Good to see you sir. And National Review reporter, Kat Timpf, who just whispered to her, I said I can't wait for your New Year's special on Fox News.
KAT TIMPF, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I'm excited, yeah the entire time (ph) we're going to be in Time Square talking to people, - -
SMITH: I love it.
TIMPF: - -hanging out, it's going to be a good time.
SMITH: If you missed her last year it was a lot of fun, she's doing it again this year. All right, we've got a lot coming up this morning. Author of "The Israel Warrior", Ravi Shmuley Boteach; former Connecticut Senator and former Vice President nominee, Joe Lieberman; Texas Congressman and physician, Michael Burgess is here as well. You do not want to miss any of that.
All right, well to our top story; a diplomatic showdown, tensions between the U.S. and Israel are rising following Secretary of State John Kerry's speech yesterday. Now President-Elect Donald Trump is teaming up with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking aim at the Obama Administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY: They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state or they can separate into two states. But here is a fundamental reality, if the choice is one state Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic, it cannot be both. And it won't ever really be at peace.
NETANYAHU: Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders. Israel's hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day one.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I think Israel's been treated very, very unfairly by a lot of different people. If you look at resolutions in the United Nations, you take a look at what's happened, they're up for 20 reprimands and other nations that are horrible places, horrible places that treat people horribly haven't even been reprimanded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: This speech, a 72-minute speech by the way, coming nearly a week after the U.S. allowed the U.N. resolution to pass which criticized Israel settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Joining us is former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, John Bolton, Ambassador, so good to see you this morning.
JOHN BOLTON, SENIOR FELLOW, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Glad to be with you.
SMITH: All right so, that speech, it was lengthy, it was wide ranging and it is causing a lot of reaction both last night and still this morning. What were your thoughts on it?
BOLTON: Well, number one, who cares what John Kerry thinks? His administration is about to become history, thank God. This is a venting I think of frustrations and I think history will soon begin to ignore him (ph). But he exposes a number of fallacies in the worldview that I think has motivated Barak Obama these last eight years when it comes to Israel and the Middle East more broadly. So having it all in one place, having every mistake put together in one 75-minute speech really can be helpful to historians for researching how to ruin a foreign policy.
TIMPF: Yes, Ambassador Bolton, this is Kat, why would John Kerry and Obama go out and you know make this kind of speech when it doesn't, I mean does it really matter to anybody when Trump's going to be in office in less than a month?
BOLTON: Well, I think they're trying to box him in. I think that's resolution 2334 last Friday was all about and that does pose significant problems although they say they're not going to support further security council resolutions, their credibility leaves a lot to be desired. I think they were very disingenuous about their role in 2334 so there's reason for concern between now and the 20th of January. And I think also it's a measure of the kind of harassment we're going to see from Barak Obama when he leaves office on the 20th of January. He's going to leave, but he's not going to go away.
SMITH: Fair point, everybody is wondering how much we will hear from him after his terms are over. Ambassador that being said, you just wonder how much damage has been done at this point when you say that they're trying to box Trump in. I spoke to Alan Dershowitz on The Kelly File last night and he said the peace process in Israel has been set back years. Your thoughts on that?
BOLTON: Well, I think what a lot of people in the United States, particularly Barack Obama and John Kerry don't get is that there's been a massive shift of opinion in Israel over the last four or five years. And I think what it indicates is, they don't really intend to accept a settlement that leaves terror states on their borders. So the fundamental premise of John Kerry's speech is well if you have a one state solution, Israel will be demographically overwhelmed by higher Arab birth rates or the only other alternative is two state solution is just fundamentally wrong, there are other solutions. And I think that's what we need to look for now because the two state solution, the near religious mantra that the Obama Administration has been voicing these last eight years is empirically impossible to achieve. So if you want peace in the region and I think the Israelis do, you'd better look at other alternatives.
MICHAEL BLOCK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, RHINO TRADING PARTNERS: Ambassador Bolton, Mike Block, here you mentioned how this resolution may have been orchestrated by Kerry or other elements of the Obama Administration. We've seen the Obama Administration make these moves and I'm just going to call it sabotage where they're messing around with certain elements of homeland security. He has a few weeks left, is there anything else you're particularly worried about that this administration might do to make things more difficult or just prove some sort of juvenile points here? It looks like that's what we're seeing.
BOLTON: Well I think later today, at least according to the forecast reports, we're going to hear the Obama Administration's proposed sanctions against Russia for its hacking of our election or its efforts to interfere in our election. I guess the one thing I could say that applies kind of across the board, domestic as well as international, is that to the extent these actions are all executive moves by the President, they are all easily reversible after the 20th of January. It's a very ungracious, unpresidential way to depart, but I don't suppose we should be surprised at that.
SMITH: All right, meanwhile the Ambassador to the Obama Administration will reportedly announce these retaliatory actions for Russia's alleged hacking during our elections. Sanctions, indictments, restrictions for Russian diplomats were some ideas that have been tossed around. According to published reports, Trump was asked if government information on Russia should be made public yesterday, here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Do you think any record from Russian intervention should be made public?
TRUMP: I think what they should do is do the best they can, figure it all out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Ambassador Bolton, do you think that retaliation would stop this type of hacking?
BOLTON: Well, I think absolutely, that should be our goal and we'll have to see exactly what the Obama Administration proposes and there may be some things they do that they're not going to make public. I think you can see already, they have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the threat, they're responding with sanctions as if this is some kind of legal violation. If, in fact, the Russians did try and influence our election, this is an attack on the United States, it's an attack on our Constitution by whomever did it and it's just as consequential potentially as destroying dams and bridges and roads. So, if it's an attack, this warrants really a kind of military response, not necessarily in the use of active military force, but understanding we're not talking about somebody who knocked over the local Starbucks on the corner, it's not a law enforcement violation in that way, and what we've obviously failed to do over a sustained period of time is build up structures of deterrents in the cyber world that convince people not to do it. So I think the retaliation has to be much more than sanctions. I understand obviously there's some things you don't disclose before you do them and maybe even some things you don't disclose after you do them. But I think there ought to be a sufficient retaliation against Russia, not a proportional response, a disproportionate response that ultimately we can announce so the whole world knows, you try and affect the United States electoral process, you're going to pay a very steep price, we can impose that cost and you'd better think very long and hard before you do it in the first place.
SMITH: It's been a minute since we've reconvened Ambassador Bolton and looked the Trump transition, how do you think it's going? I mean here we are just a few weeks out from the baton being passed.
BOLTON: Well I think by all the statistics that we can see, they're on track or ahead of most other transitions. It's always a tumultuous period. I've been involved in transitions going in and transitions coming out, it always looks hectic, it is. But I think as January 20th approaches, it tends to concentrate people's attention. The new Congress will come into session next week, confirmation hearings will begin and then we'll see how it goes. The real obviously begins with the inaugural address. Incredibly important for a new President coming in and then we'll go from there.
SMITH: All right, very good Ambassador Bolton, so good to see you. Thanks for being here.
BOLTON: Glad to be with you.
SMITH: All right, well coming up Takata set to pay massive fines over its exploding air bags; the price tag of the settlement just ahead. And mourning the death of actress Debbie Reynolds, who died at the age of 84, a day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher died. We look back on her life and career next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Hollywood's mourning another movie legend. Debbie Reynolds died yesterday, Cheryl Casone has the details and the wonderful stories and look back at her life.
CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Sandra, maybe the heart break was just too much for her losing her daughter. It's hard to believe, but Carrie Fisher's famous mother, a Hollywood legend, Debbie Reynolds died just one day after her daughter. She was rushed to the hospital reportedly after suffering a stroke. She was 84 years old and she really was the stuff of movie legend, she got her start when she was just 18 years old in the 1952 classic, "Singing in the Rain"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: It's morning
DEBBIE REYNOLDS, ACTRESS: Yes and what a lovely morning
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASONE: Well that role turned Reynolds into America's sweetheart. She went on to star in dozens other box office hits in Hollywood's golden age and she continued acting until 2013. Again, reports say that she may have suffered a stroke, her son, Todd Fisher, reportedly was with her at the time. She and daughter, Carrie, we should were neighbors, next door neighbors in Los Angeles, Debbie Reynolds dead at the age of 84.
Well in other headlines this morning, we're looking at Takata, the company reportedly nearing a billion dollar settlement with the Justice Department for its defective air bags, linked to 11 deaths in the United States. The Wall Street Journal reporting the settlement will require Takata to plead guilty to criminal misconduct. The Justice Department has investigated whether the company hid information from safety regulators about dangers of the air bag. Automakers have recalled over 40 million US vehicles in connection to those air bags making it the largest recall in US history. The settlement could come as early as next month.
Well, crews are working to repair a massive sinkhole that forced dozens of families out of their homes in Pennsylvania. This hole opened up yesterday in the town of Bethlehem, it's around 70 miles north of Philadelphia. Also, there was a gas leak at the scene, a utility worker suffered minor injuries after falling into that hole. Police have not said when people can actually get back into their homes.
And when it's time to check out, more Americans are paying with debit instead their credit cards. That's according to a new Federal Reserve study. Americans use debit cards twice as much as credit in 2015. Debit's a go to for small purchases in particular, while shoppers preferred credit cards of course for larger purchases, Sandra, because as we all know, you can get all kinds of points, miles, credits, all kinds of stuff; by using that credit card you can rack up the goodies, back to you.
SMITH: All right, Cheryl, thank you. Michael what do you swipe with credit, debit?
BLOCK: I'm usually a credit guy, but you know the thing - -
SMITH: That's because you're making all those big purchases.
BLOCK: - - Well sure, that's what I'm all about, (LAUGHTER) but you know the thing I'll point out is we're here talking about the economy and the stock market doing better and consumer credit's been ballooning. Some of it's been student loans a lot of it is credit cards. If wages don't start picking up maybe I'm a little worried about that.
SMITH: And it seems like, Kat, the debit cards are used in popularity for purchases like under five bucks to go to Starbucks and get a coffee or
TIMPF: Yes, but why not use a credit card because then you can get a special on an earned point (LAUGHTER) to get more stuff.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: I think people are just worried about those hidden fees and keeping up, you've got to look at it and make sure you're not getting charged for the, anyway,
TIMPF: Interesting.
SMITH: All right, coming up the DOW falling further from the 20,000 mark yesterday. I mean at this time yesterday we were watching thinking it was going to hit 20,000. So any day now, we're still watching it for you, the DOW's 19,833 with the close.
We're going to take a look at whether the Trump rally is stalling out straight ahead. And a supreme mash up; Taco Bell serving up its loaded fries in one U.S. location. That's tough to look at in the morning. It might be tasty; we'll have the details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: All right, take a look at markets this morning. We're on Thursday morning, right? All right, it's been one of those shortened weeks so it's hard to keep track. Look DOW futures off six points right now, S&P a slight gain of one point. Markets searching for direction right now after the DOW fell further away from that 20,000 mark yesterday that everybody's got their eye on. It did shed 111 points in yesterday's trading session; still though the DOW is up more than nine percent since election day; with gains in even the worst performing sectors, particularly energy and financials. Michael, has this rally stalled out or will we eventually see it top 20,000 and move on?
BLOCK: I think we're going to get there. You know don't go to the prom and not kiss the prom queen, we're going to get there sooner or later. Thinking about this technically, - - (LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. I went and didn't kiss her. (LAUGHTER)
BLOCK: - - I'm just going to let that hang there. So, moving back to markets you know and it comes down you look at the DOW Jones. First of all on the institutional investing side, we don't care about the DOW except for one thing, we're here talking about it. Individual investors are focused on it we get through that number psychology, it's going to inspire more buying so we all need to be ready for that. Thinking about the DOW Jones, it's 30 stocks and their price window (ph). What are the biggest stocks in there? It's stocks like Goldman Sachs, 3M, United Health, Travelers', names like that, Home Depot so you get a good day for names like that we're going to get this big rally.
I think we're one financials rally, financials have been strong in this whole move since the beginning of November, we're going to do better. The thing that I'll point out is this little stall out as you called it. Yes, it is a stall and we're kind of going sideways here. Question is, are we basing or are we hitting up against a wall? The one thing I can say is it's actually very healthy that stocks are pulling back and consolidating. A couple of weeks ago when I was looking at the highs, the recent highs in the market, about 30 percent of the large caps in the U.S. were looking technically overbought.
Now that number's down to about seven percent, that's normal, it's healthy. This little stall might be healthy, then again we've come a long way and right now when I look at the risk reward like, is the next five percent up or down. I like the risk reward down better than up here, even if for the next percent or two we may see an up move as we get through these psychological levels, money comes in everyone gets excited about the incoming Trump Administration and how pro-business and pro-markets it's purported to be. So, you know, it's a very interesting time in the markets.
SMITH: Which is what Donald Trump himself has pointed out, that strong consumer confidence we have seen since election day, so we're watching retailers, holiday shopping, U.S. retailers are on pace for the best holiday season in years, the numbers are showing, thanks to the growing popularity of on-line shopping of course and the last minute holiday rush. The research from customer growth partners is forecasting a 4.9 percent holiday sales growth. That's up from 4.1 percent which would be the highest rate since 2005. Michael, what does this say about the economy and the consumer really, quite frankly.
BLOCK: The consumer confidence number was the biggest number since August 2001, which was obviously a watershed moment in the United States' history among other things you know markets and everything else. So what does this tell you, or are we topping out, are we heading for a new high? The one thing I'll say is a strong dollar, we're seeing the dollar pull back a little bit but it's had a nice run if the FED is going to be raising rates, we're going to see strong dollar.
Well that's good for the U.S. consumer, think about it, just do the math, you're going to have more purchasing power. How does that play into some of the protectionist trade policy that Trump is talking about? Will that allow them to buy the goods that they should under perfect competition, that's the issue.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Optimism actually lifts can lift an economy and that's in that in that consumer confidence number from a conference board. It was expectation that lifted it. The - -
BLOCK: Sure.
MCDOWELL: - -consumer expectations like looking down the road at better days ahead and that is, Trump can take some credit for that.
BLOCK: Well, there's some method that - -
MCDOWELL: - - the only thing is that now we need to see fulfillment of that of actual more spending.
BLOCK: - - And we're talking about the stock market here, stock market keeps going you're going to get a wealth effect as well. People are saying my stocks are doing better, my investments are worth more, hey I can go out and buy that car, I can buy that new refrigerator.
MCDOWELL: And I wanted to add something because Liberals and people on the left always dismiss that. Nobody participates in the stock market, it's all rich people and that's not true. It's about 7 trillion dollars in 401K plans alone. A hundred million Americans are invested through defined contribution plans. A hundred million people see that in their statement (ph).
SMITH: So take that. All right, Kat do you shop on-line or go to the stores?
TIMPF: Only on-line.
BLOCK: Amen.
SMITH: So you're part of it
(INAUDIBLE)
SMITH: All right, nothing in a store.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOCK: Actually, memo to tourists in Mid Town, Christmas is over go home.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: All right, coming up, police in Arkansas demanded data from an Amazon Echo device. This was one of the big Christmas presents, do you have one?
The case that's renewing the debate of privacy versus security and President-Elect Trump ramps up his push to bring back jobs to America, we'll have all the very latest and greatest on that just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Welcome back, I'm Sandra Smith. This -- it is Thursday, December 29. Your top stories at 6:30 a.m. on the East Coast -- President-elect Trump claiming another economic victory before he even takes office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I was just called by the head people at Sprint. And they're going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States.
They're taking them from other countries. They're bringing them back to the United States and also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people. So that's very exciting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: This, as the president-elect gives mixed signals over the state of the transition process, reversing course after blasting President Obama for, quote, "road blocks." Plus a deadly helicopter crash off the coast of Galveston Bay in Texas, investigators trying to identify what caused an Army Air National Guard helicopter to plunge into the water.
One Amazon Echo may know more than just its owner's favorite song -- why the online retail giant is resisting authorities' efforts to get data that could help crack a murder case. Brick-and-mortar going bust -- Kmart and Sears store set to face a new round of closures -- the future of the struggling retailers ahead.
And futures markets right now searching for direction -- little movement on any of the major averages. You're looking at Dow futures right now, up eight points, S&P slightly higher.
After march to Dow 20,000 stalled yesterday, we keep watching it. In Europe overnight, we are -- I should say (ph), in early trading.
We're looking at the FTSE, CAC 40, and the DAX all lower, the DAX in Germany leading the way down three-tenths of one percent. Over in Asia, markets mixed there, Shanghai Nikkei down, Hang Seng, Kospi slight gains.
And Taco Bell's menu -- well, it's getting a makeover, where you can get your hands on the fast food giant's loaded fries. I guess this is basically like a taco on some French fries, a little sour cream, a little beef, tomatoes -- I don't know.
MICHAEL BLOCK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, RHINO TRADING PARTNERS: Is that beef?
SMITH: I don't know. We'll talk about it.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FBN CORRESPONDENT: It's chilly cheese fries under another name.
SMITH: Let me just say it, that's not our top story. Here is our top story.
BLOCK: Are you sure?
SMITH: This half hour, we are looking at bringing jobs back to America -- President-elect Trump continuing to focus on U.S. jobs. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have a combination of Sprint for 5,000 jobs. And that's coming from all over the world. And they're coming back into the United States, which is a nice change, and also OneWeb, 3,000 jobs.
That's a new company. And it was done through Masa and a terrific guy. We appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Trump referring there to SoftBank CEO and Sprint's chairman who also agreed to invest in the United States last month. Joining me now is radio talk show host, Larry Elder.
Larry, good to see you this morning, all smiles.
LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, KABC: Good morning.
SMITH: Happy Thursday to you.
ELDER: Good morning.
SMITH: All right, Larry, the president-elect.
ELDER: You, too.
SMITH: .is going straight to companies to create jobs here at home as he promised on the campaign trail. Is this a trend.
ELDER: Right.
SMITH: .that will continue into his presidency? I feel like we have to keep reminding people, he's still the president-elect.
He's not even in office yet.
ELDER: Well, I -- I hope it's a trend that continues. After all, that's what he campaigned on -- going to be a pro-growth guy who's going to get government off the backs of people, going to lower the corporate tax rate, going to stop some of these owners' regulations to fight climate change.
And as you've been talking about it all morning, the consumer confidence index hasn't been this high since 2001. The small business confidence index hasn't been this high since 2009.
And the stock market has reacted with the so-called Trump affect. This is -- this is all good news.