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CNBC's Jim Cramer takes a look at the week ahead in stock market news as Wall Street prepares for a short week of trading with Thanksgiving on Thursday. The "Mad Money" host sits down for interviews with Clorox CEO Benno Dorer and SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. Noto says he expects to see consolidation in the financial services industry as emerging fintech companies offer commission-free trading and other services.

Wall Street is counting on a breakthrough in U.S.-China trade negotiations, but CNBC's Jim Cramer isn't banking on it.

President Donald Trump, again, on Friday teased that the U.S. was nearing a trade agreement with China, while Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that Beijing also wants to land a deal but would "fight back" if necessary.

"I don't think it's the end of the world if there's no breakthrough in the trade talks, but I recognize that people are getting a little too confident we're going to get a deal," the "Mad Money" host said. "Of course, a deal is always possible, but the longer the stock market stays up, the less likely it is that we'll get one. A strong market means President Trump has more leverage to hold out for better terms."

The major averages all broke multi-day losing streaks in Friday's session — posting gains of as much as 0.39% — and snapped multi-weekly win streaks amid trade uncertainty. With a holiday around the corner, Wall Street will have a shortened week of trading. The stock market will be closed on Thanksgiving Day Thursday and will close at 1 p.m. on Friday.

There will, however, be a full slate of earnings reports coming out in the days prior. Cramer gave viewers an overview of what he has circled on his calendar.

"After Wednesday we eat turkey and on Friday we eat leftovers knowing there's an unwritten rule that nothing important is supposed to occur on Wall Street," the host said. "Will the president slaughter a turkey this year, or slaughter the market? I bet he goes for the former."

Clorox has "bold" plans for the next decade to reduce its negative environmental impact, CEO Benno Dorer told CNBC.

"We think doing something good for the planet is also good for business," Dorer said in a "Mad Money" interview. "With our new strategy, which leads us through 2025, we're going to make a double-down effort on sustainability."

So far, one manifestation of Clorox's environmental commitment is its compostable cleaning wipes, which launched in the late second quarter, Dorer said.

Big changes in the stock brokerage industry were expected as financial technology firms introduce new ways for people to handle their money, SoFi CEO Anthony Noto told Cramer.

The comment comes in the wake of multiple broker companies making moves to ditch commission trading and after news of a probable merger between Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.

"We assumed there's going to be a fair amount of consolidation" in the industry, Noto said in a "Mad Money" interview. "The financial services industry really hasn't had the type of innovation that you've seen in e-commerce, as you've seen in online travel, and just in this year we launched products that have never been brought to the market before."

In Cramer's lightning round, the "Mad Money" host zips through his thoughts about viewers' favorite stock picks of the day.

: "I think if you really do want to buy it — I'm not going to necessarily recommend buying it — you wait it out about another maybe 10, 15 points down, and then maybe take a look."

Dunkin' Brands Group: "Actually, I prefer Starbucks to Dunkin' Donuts. Starbucks is way down from its high and I think it's got more momentum and has gotten too cheap, so that's why I prefer it."

Lam Research: "Oh, it's been crazy, but you know what we're up about 80 points for the charitable trust. We did trim back a lot because we didn't want to be pigs. Bulls make money, bears make money and pigs they get slaughtered. I would wait a little bit before I would buy more."

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Lam Research.

Disclaimer

DETROIT — Tesla's Cybertruck pickup made its global debut Thursday night to roaring cheers, some criticism and sighs of relief from Detroit automakers.

The futuristic-looking pickup, resembling a large metallic trapezoid, was far from what many were anticipating. The vehicle has a polarizing design unlike anything ever produced outside of sci-fi movies, and its production process, as detailed during the unveiling by CEO Elon Musk, is expected to be more similar to that of a traditional car than a truck.

"Trucks have been the same for a very long time," Musk said during the unveiling at the company's design center outside Los Angeles. "Like a hundred years, trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different."

Ahead of the truck driving onto the stage, Musk poked fun at the lack of design changes of pickups over the last century — specifically singling out pickups from Chevrolet, Ford and Ram brands, which account for the vast majority of pickup sales.

As Tesla's stock dropping 6% Friday indicates, major questions remain about the truck ahead of its expected production in late 2021, according to Wall Street and industry analysts. Here are some of them:

A hologram of a woman at the beginning of the unveiling called the truck "the greatest evolution in vehicular fashion and function," however, some are questioning both those assertions.

"Polarizing" has been the most common term for the vehicle's design, which was inspired by the movie "Blade Runner."

"Elon Musk has been enthusiastic about his Blade Runner inspired design for months, but we were still surprised how futuristic he went with this one and believe it may shatter his dreams," wrote Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne in a note to investors on Friday.

Tesla, according to Osborne, appears to have "rushed its launch of the Cybertruck," as many features such as side mirrors and windshield wipers were missing. The lack of those features and build quality of the vehicle have led some to believe the vehicle is a concept and not an actual production model.

As expected, the performance specifications of the truck are impressive, including a 0-to-60 mph time of as low as 2.9 seconds, towing capacity of more than 14,000 pounds and a top speed of 130 miles per hour. Cybertruck's EV range, depending on the model, is expected to vary from about 250 miles to 500 miles, according to Tesla.

"While the Cybertruck seems plenty capable, we don't believe that Tesla is going after the heart of the market and the work/utility crowd here," wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak in a note to investors on Friday.

Musk showed the Cybertruck beating the industry-leading Ford F-150 in a "tug of war" and outracing a Porsche 911.

The Cybertruck is not expected to appeal to millions of traditional truck buyers, who last year accounted for nearly one in five vehicles sold in the U.S.

Cybertruck, according to analysts, is essentially in a segment of its own that may appeal to current Tesla customers and "the influencer crowd (celebrities and pop culture)," however, it will not be a mass-market vehicle.

"It will be a niche product at best and poses no threat in the pickup market as we know it today," said Matt DeLorenzo, senior executive editor at Kelley Blue Book.

RBC's Spak called the Cybertruck a "Hummer for the green millennial generation, really the ultimate virtue and vice signaling machine."

Tesla unveiled three models: A single-motor rear-wheel drive for $39,900, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive for $49,900 and a tri-motor all-wheel-drive for $69,900.

Tesla started taking reservations for Cybertruck on its website following the vehicle's unveiling. A $100 deposit is required.

Trucks are supposed to be tough, but Tesla appears to be taking it to another level.

During the unveiling last night, the truck's "ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel" body held up to what Musk described as a sledgehammer, and he said it can withstand a 9 mm bullet from a handgun. But things got a little awkward when it came time to show off the durability of the company's new "armored glass."

To demonstrate the toughness of the glass, Tesla Chief Designer Franz Von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at two windows. They shattered, to Musk's surprise, but the metal ball did not go through the glass.

"Oh my f------ God!" Musk said. "Well, maybe that was a little too hard."

Cowen's Osborne said in "a night to be remembered for the Armored Glass fail, Tesla's Cybertruck reveal will likely disappoint current pickup truck owners and we see the vehicle remaining a niche and not a mainstream product."

Musk also said the truck features an exoskeleton design that will use a production process more similar to a traditional "unibody" car than to a production process known as "body-on-frame" that's traditionally used for trucks.

Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said the exoskeleton, which is made of a stainless steel alloy that Musk is using with Space X on its Starship rocket, is "the most impressive and eye popping part of the design."

It's unclear where Tesla plans to produce the truck. The company announced production is slated to begin in late 2021 but has not offered any details about where it will be produced.

Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on production and other plans for the vehicle.

Automakers typically have dedicated truck plants, and the company's sole U.S. plant in Fremont, California, is not expected to have any additional capacity without an expansion to the facility.

Given Tesla's history of missed deadlines, the complexity of trucks and the fact that the company has never produced such a vehicle, production will be important.

"We remind investors Tesla does have a habit of being late on expected timelines," RBC's Spak wrote, citing a number of announced products that have yet to begin production for Tesla. "So while we don't doubt that Tesla will try to get the product to market, a large part of this event appears to be hype."

While Cybertruck is not expected to appeal to traditional pickup buyers, several all-electric pickups are expected to make their way into the U.S. market to compete against Tesla's product.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Thursday confirmed the automaker plans to release an all-electric pickup in late 2021. That's around the same time Ford Motor is expected to release an all-electric version of its F-150 pickup.

Start-up automakers such as Rivian and Lordstown Motors, which recently purchased a large assembly plant from GM, also are expected to release EV pickups in the coming years.

Rivian, which is backed by Amazon and Ford, plans to launch EV pickup and SUV models beginning in late 2020, followed by four additional products through 2025. The vehicles are expected to offer up to 400 miles of range and an "unmatched combination of off-road utility and high performance," according to the company.

Lordstown Motors on Thursday said it has started accepting preorders for its Endurance pickup, which is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of next year starting at $52,500.

— CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak.

Don't give up on the entire technology sector of the market, according to CNBC's Jim Cramer.

The "Mad Money" host advised that selling off would be a poor miscalculation, urging investors to "ask yourself what you're selling."

"If you're dumping an ETF, be my guest — those are just moronic amalgamations of stocks slapped together by people who make a living by convincing you that the tech sector is still a real, cohesive thing," he said. "But if you're dumping the kind of tech stocks that are working here — especially the better run software-as-a-service names — I think you're making a big mistake."

Cramer sought to dispel thoughts that it's time to get cautious about the tech stocks that have powered the market to new highs or because of potential escalations in the U.S.-China trade war.

Software stocks like ServiceNow, Salesforce.com and Adobe may still face pressure from the trade front, as President Donald Trump continues to pressure Chinese trade negotiators with more tariffs to agree to a trade deal, but Cramer continues to put his faith in the group.

"In fact, these stocks will probably be the first to go down again because the algorithms ... sell them on any trade worries," he said. "But after that, their stocks tend to come bouncing back with alacrity because these companies are forces of nature."

Pointing to Kohl's, whose shares deflated nearly 20% to almost $42 per share in Tuesday's session on a disappointing earnings report and forecast cuts, Cramer noted that retailers have to equip themselves with the right software to stay competitive.

Management blamed its quarterly earnings and sales declines, along with its reduced profit outlook, in part on an "increasingly competitive promotional environment."

"The lesson here is simple: If you want to stay competitive in retail, you need to pay these software-as-a-service companies a fortune," Cramer said. "That's why I rebel against this idea that you need to lighten up on tech [stocks]."

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Salesforce.com and Kohl's.

Disclaimer

The CEO of FedEx challenged the publisher of The New York Times to a public debate on tax policy after an article in the paper detailed how the shipping giant effectively owed no taxes in fiscal 2018. The windfall came as a result of the Trump Administration's tax overhaul.

The Times story also noted that FedEx did not increase capital spending in fiscal 2018, after company chief Frederick Smith claimed that the corporate tax cut would spark additional investment.

The Times report spotlights FedEx as a case study of the effects of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2018, the first year that the law took effect.

FedEx's financial filings show that the law has so far saved it at least $1.6 billion, the Times article states.

Promises from President Donald Trump and corporate chieftains that the cut would lead to more capital investment and greater economic growth have largely fallen flat, the article argues.

In a statement posted on the FedEx website, Smith fumed that the Times article was a "factually incorrect story," and an "outrageous distortion of the truth" without pointing to specific inaccuracies. 

Smith also took the Times to task for its own federal income tax payments, saying that that "unlike FedEx, the New York Times paid zero federal income tax in 2017 on earnings of $111 million, and only $30 million in 2018 — 18% of their pretax book income."

"Also in 2018 the New York Times cut their capital investments nearly in half to $57 million, which equates to a rounding error when compared to the $6 billion of capital that FedEx invested in the U.S. economy during that same year," Smith added.

Smith then threw down a gauntlet.

"I hereby challenge A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times and the business section editor to a public debate in Washington, DC with me and the FedEx corporate vice president of tax," Smith said. "The focus of the debate should be federal tax policy and the relative societal benefits of business investments and the enormous intended benefits to the United States economy, especially lower and middle class wage earners."

A Times spokeswoman told CNBC, "FedEx's invitation is clearly a stunt."

She also called it "an effort to distract from the findings of our story."

Smith had repeatedly claimed that the tax cut would lead to "a renaissance of capital investment" right after the cut took effect.

But The Times' analysis concluded that after getting roughly $1.6 billion in accumulated tax savings, FedEx used most of that cash for stock buybacks and dividend increases.

FedEx reportedly spent more than $2 billion in buybacks and dividend hikes in fiscal year 2019. That was more than double the amount the company spent on buybacks and dividends in fiscal year 2017.

Meanwhile, FedEx's capital investments have declined over the past two fiscal years. This year, the company also cut employee bonuses.

FedEx is not unique in how it used the tax cut windfall.

Across corporate America, stock buybacks hit a record $806 billion in 2018. Buybacks this year are trending not far behind that tally. Economic growth, however, rose at a slightly reduced rate of 1.9% last quarter.

SONOMA, Calif. — As ash settles from the recent wildfires in one of the world's most recognizable wine regions, the battle-tested vintners now face another problem – discouraged tourists.

The wildfires in California's Sonoma County are among the largest and most intense in the state's history. Fortunately for the wineries, the fires came at the close of the harvest this year and most of the grapes were saved. But that might not matter so much.

"The real damage from the fires isn't on the harvest, it's on the economy," said Rob McMillan, executive vice president and founder of Silicon Valley Bank's wine division. "From a tourism standpoint, people will choose not to come to the vineyards."

The Kincade Fire, which ignited on October 23, scorched nearly 78,000 acres within Sonoma and raged for two weeks. Sonoma, the relaxed and straightforward sister to Napa, is home to more than 400 wineries with nearly 65,000 sun-kissed acres of grape vines.

Though the majority of Sonoma's tangled vines went unscathed by the flames, winemakers are questioning how tourists will react to an increasingly fire-prone region. The overall damage from the Kincade Fire could end up costing $10.6 billion, according to an estimate last month. However, it's not clear what kind of impact it might yet have on the wine tourism industry.

In 2018, California's 4,700 wineries drew nearly 24 million visitors, employed 325,000 people locally and generated nearly $58 billion for the state, according to figures from the Wine Institute. The Golden State also makes 81% of all U.S. wine, and is the world's fourth-biggest wine producer.

But for vintners, dealing with wildfires is becoming an unfortunate reality. Fires erupting in California will grow worse as climate change drives more extreme weather events across the country.

"The main impact is consumer perception of visiting California wine country and how it might not be the same," Gladys Horiuchi, director of media relations at the Wine Institute, wrote in an email. "The vast majority of California wine country is normal and open for business."

Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California, a nonprofit organization focused on tourism, said that only one winery burned out of the 825 wineries between Napa and Sonoma.

"It's hard for communities to go through this and certainly, there is a disruption but afterward, they're like, 'Okay we are open for business and we are back,'" Beteta said.

Global warming will lead to more wildfires across the country as hotter temperatures dangerously dry vegetation and set them on fire. After three straight record-breaking fires, winemakers are wondering how to adapt in a state primed to burn.

"Of course we have lost some revenue here, no one is coming out to visit the tasting rooms," said Michael Haney, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners. He added that the 2017 wildfires had a "definite impact" on wine tourism. The insurance industry expected to pay out $11.8 billion in claims to northern California fire victims for 2017 blazes.

"But one of the big things that we want to reiterate to everybody is that this most recent fire was a small section of Sonoma County," he said.

Stacked against the 17 separate fires in 2017, the Kincade Fire burned less than 380 structures and killed no one. But two years prior, the wildfires decimated the area, killing 22 people and destroying more than 5,600 structures.

Industry experts say that the real damage will be to tourism, and wineries must prepare for more wildfire events.

"When we're going through fire evacuations, the workers are impacted," said Silicon Valley Bank's McMillan. "They aren't there at the wineries to take care of hospitality, they're not at the hotels, restaurants or grocery stores."

Some wineries are purchasing more back-up generators and prioritizing disaster planning for their employees.

Pacific Gas & Electric, which has been blamed for in the last several years for some of California's most destructive fires, is implementing rolling blackouts over the next 10 years to protect dry landscapes from power lines that could overheat and spark the fires. This could pose a significant challenge to wineries and other businesses.

"When you have these fire events, it's a loss of tourism money, a loss of hotel money — it's substantial," McMillan said.

"From a PR standpoint, there's a fear over what it means when you have a wine country name in the media, and all you see is flames."

Emma Newburger contributed to this report from CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson shares climbed about 3% Friday after an Oklahoma judge reduced the penalty the company must pay over the state's opioid lawsuit from $572 million to $465 million.

Immediately after the reduction, the company said it would appeal the decision.

Oklahoma Judge Thad Balkman originally ordered a $572 million penalty in late August, ruling that a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary "caused an opioid crisis that's evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome."

The subsidiary, Janssen, repeatedly downplayed the risks of its drugs and trained sales representatives to tell doctors that the risk of addiction was 2.6% or less, the court said.

Johnson & Johnson also appealed that decision, arguing that there was not a proper legal basis for Oklahoma to file a "public nuisance" claim against the company.

Johnson & Johnson, along with other pharmaceutical companies, face thousands of lawsuits stemming from the nationwide opioid epidemic.

Shares of drugmakers Mallinckrodt, Teva Pharmaceutical and Endo International also rose after news of the latest ruling, jumping more than 4%, 7% and 9%, respectively.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson closed at $134.94, up 3% from where they opened Friday.

The other pharmaceutical companies also rallied into the close: Mallinckrodt finished at $2.91 per share, up 4% for the day; shares of Teva Pharmaceutical closed at $10.20, up nearly 9%, and shares of Endo International closed at $4.53, also up nearly 9%.

— CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

Nike — Shares of the athletic retailer gained more than 2% after the company raised its dividend to 24.5 cents per share. This is an 11% increase from the prior yield of 22 cents, and it's the eighteenth straight year that the company has hiked its dividend.

RH — Shares of RH surged nearly 8% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new stake in furniture retailer. Berkshire owned 1.2 million shares of RH at the end of the third quarter, a regulatory filing showed. The new stake in RH is worth $206.3 million as of Sept. 30, making it the fourth biggest stakeholder in RH.

Lyft — Shares of the ride hailing company rose 4% after J.P. Morgan added Lyft to its top picks list, alongside Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. The firm said Lyft's strong third-quarter earnings and ability to take increasing share of the ride hailing market is accelerating the company's path to profitability.

J. C. Penney — Shares of the embattled department store retailer surged 7.4% after the company posted a smaller-than-forecast loss for the previous quarter. J.C. Penney reported a loss of 30 cents per share. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a loss of 55 cents per share. CEO Jill Soltau said the company made "significant progress on our efforts to return JCPenney to sustainable, profitable growth."

Applied Materials — Shares of semiconductor company soared more than 9% to a new 52-week high after reporting strong fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Applied Materials reported earnings of 80 cents per share on revenue of $3.75 billion. Wall Street expected earnings of 76 cents per share on revenue of $3.68 billion, according to Refinitiv. The company also gave strong next quarter revenue and earnings guidance.

Nvidia — Shares of Nvidia dropped more than 2% after the graphics chipmaker signaled a weaker season for its gaming chip business in the current quarter. New Street Research downgraded Nvidia to neutral from buy, saying it was waiting for a better entry point. Nvidia reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue however. Its third-quarter earnings came in at $1.78 per share, topping Wall Street estimates of $1.57 per share, according to Refinitiv.

PG&E — Shares of PG&E surged more than 9% after U.S. activist investor ValueAct revealed a 1.4 million stake in the California utility company. PG&E is embroiled in controversy amid accusations that its equipment is responsible for some of the most destructive wildfires in California's history. ValueAct, led by founder-CEO Jeffrey Ubben, is known for advocating for changes at the companies in which it's invested by working with management.

– CNBC's Maggie Fitzgerald, Yun Li, Pippa Stevens and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.

Cigarette smoking in the U.S. hit another record low last year as more people attempted to quit, according to an annual study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Thursday.

Some 13.7% of U.S. adults, or 34.2 million people, said they smoked last year, according to the CDC's study analyzing data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey. That's down slightly from 2017, though the change is not statistically significant. Use of tobacco products overall remained largely the same.

The findings present both good news and bad news, said Brian King, deputy director for research translation in the CDC's office on smoking and health. On one hand, cigarette smoking is at the lowest level since the CDC started measuring it in the 1960s, he said.

"On balance, over 34 million adults are smoking cigarettes, and we also have 50 million adults using some tobacco product," he said, noting that cigarette smoking disproportionately affects people with lower income and education levels, as well as minority groups and people with mental illnesses.

Cigarette smoking has plummeted more than two-thirds since officials started tracking it in 1965. Yet smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing about 480,000 Americans every year, according to the CDC. More smokers are attempting to quit and are quitting successfully, according to this year's study.

Use of e-cigarettes among adults increased to 3.2% in 2018 from 2.8% in 2017. These products are billed as a less harmful alternative for people to consume nicotine. The data does not reveal whether e-cigarette users are former smokers who have switched.

King cautioned that young adults drove the increase. Use of e-cigarettes was the highest among adults between the ages of 18 and 24, with 7.6% of respondents in this age group saying they vape.

"What we don't want to be doing is playing a game of public health whack-a-mole where we let the use of some products go up while others go down, particularly among the young adult population," King said.

The RealReal is constantly updating its operations in an effort to prevent and remove counterfeit products from its website, founder and CEO Julie Wainwright told CNBC Tuesday.

"What we did even in August of this year doesn't look like what we do now," Wainwright said in a "Mad Money" interview with Jim Cramer. "We have to keep iterating and we get smarter all the time."

Last month, the authentication team processed more than 490,000 units, averting about 4,000 fake items from being listed on the digital consignment shop. Roughly another 140 products that made it through the certification were prevented from listing to the site by the quality control team, according to the company.

Wainwright's interview comes on the heels of a CNBC investigation into the online luxury consignment store's claim that all products listed on the site are real. The RealReal has built its brand on the premise that its authentication procedures keep fake products off the platform, and that every product is authenticated.

Interviews with nearly three dozen former employees and internal documents revealed not all goods are authenticated by experts and that employees must meet strict quotas. A review of nearly 1,400 customer comments by CNBC, found that fake products, damaged merchandise and mistakes are the top gripes from customers.

The industry does not have a standard for authentication of luxury goods and determining the authenticity of a product is increasingly difficult as counterfeiters get better at producing knockoffs.

The RealReal declined an interview in the original report, but Wainwright defended the company's processes in the Tuesday interview on "Mad Money," saying their process is constantly being updated.

"We use a combination of data, technology and humans to drive the authentication process and it is hard," she said. "There's no doubt about it. It is hard. It is hard."

The RealReal expects authentication to look vastly different in the first quarter 2020 as the company adds artificial intelligence and machine learning. Management is doing away with copywriters, who were trained to help weed out fake products and write content for goods marketed on the site, she said.

"Now and what we're moving to is things are authenticated, a photo is taken, [AI] extracts all the attributes" and writes product descriptions for the website, Wainwright said.

"So [copywriters] won't even be writing things, they'll be checking it," she continued, adding: "I think the key is nothing's static."

Shares of The RealReal are down nearly 20% since the Nov. 5 report. The stock is more than $5 off its late-October closing high.

After CNBC's report, The RealReal sent a note to customers, conceding that its claim of not having any fakes on its website may not be correct.

"We strive for perfection, but may not be perfect every single time," Wainwright wrote in the email.

Personal computer pioneer Michael Dell on Tuesday defended free market capitalism as the most effective system to drive entrepreneurship and jobs.

"If you look at the number of jobs that have been created by the free enterprise system, this is the best thing going," the Dell Technologies founder said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

"We believe it's important to preserve the entrepreneurship and risk-taking that has allowed the creation of all these incredible businesses advancing the world," added Dell, who has given to Republicans and Democrats over the years.

Dell, who started his eponymous company in his college dorm room more than three decades ago, now employs about 157,000 people.

The company originally went public in 1988 under the name Dell Computer at $8.50 per share and a stock market value of $85 million. By 2001, Dell had overtaken Compaq as the world's largest PC maker.

Just over a decade later, though, Dell was falling on tough times as PC sales stalled due to the rise of tables and smartphones. In 2013, Dell took his company private.

In 2015, Dell acquired data storage giant EMC — and three years later, the company returned to the public markets as Dell Technologies, with interests in storage, servers, data protection and networking, along with its traditional hardware.

"We need more entrepreneurship and we need more business creation," said Dell, whose net-worth is estimated at nearly $33 billion. "We've always been a proponent of a fair and free and open market and we recognize that's got to be balanced by the public interest."

Dell's comments come as billionaire-bashing from far-left Democratic presidential candidates such as Elizabeth Warren has become commonplace.

When asked broadly about the prospect of Warren's candidacy and her signature wealth tax, Dell said he did not want to talk about any presidential candidates or proposals from candidates.

But he did reiterate, "I'm a big believer in the entrepreneurial spirit that helped create lots of great businesses around the world, the free enterprise system, fair, free and open markets."

"I'll work with anyone and everyone who wants to advance those goals," he concluded.

Keke Palmer took to the big stage in Paris' AccorHotels Arena over the weekend, performing for millions of League of Legends fans in a grand opening ceremony that rivaled any of the grandest events seen in traditional sports.

But this time, she did so as part of a music group created entirely by the league's operator, Riot Games, specifically for one of the most dedicated gaming fanbases, which was gathered to see FunPlus Phoenix and G2 Esports duke it out in this year's world finals.

True Damage, as the hip-hop group is known, featured Palmer alongside artists Becky G, Soyeon, Duckwrth and Thutmose, who impersonated some of League of Legend's most popular characters. It was put together not only to promote a set of new in-game skins and a partnership with Louis Vuitton, but to also represent the Tencent-owned game developer's ever-expanding foothold in the wider entertainment landscape.

And given the continued growth of the gaming industry – projected to hit over $150 billion in revenue this year, according to Newzoo – the 26-year-old singer-actress wasn't the least bit surprised that she was asked to be part of a music group dedicated to a fanbase of gamers.

"I know that the gaming world is major," said Palmer. "From when I was a kid to now, seeing how it's grown and evolved, I know what this world is. So when [Riot] came to me, I didn't know about League of Legends, but I knew this was the real deal."

"Just the level of production value and how they're transforming these characters and giving them this new face and vibe with this music, I fell in love with the universe," she added.

True Damage was actually a follow-up to last year's finals when Riot Games unveiled a Korean pop group they created called K/DA to a crowd of over 23,000 in Incheon's Munhak Stadium in South Korea. It's also just the latest in a long line of projects Riot Games has put out in an attempt to establish itself as more than just a game developer.

Riot has created its own original cinematics, music and other original content for years, but more recently the company has kicked up its efforts to expand beyond gaming. This year, Riot released the first set of comics based on its League of Legends characters, the result of a partnership with Marvel Comics signed last November.

In October, Riot also revealed that it was creating its first animated show series titled "Arcane," also based on some of its most popular in-game characters.

Founder Marc Merrill said it's all a result of meeting the demands of a fanbase of consumers that impresses not just on sheer scale (the game sees about 8 million peak concurrent players a day), but also one that has become extremely dedicated to the League of Legends intellectual property over time.

"We built an organization from the ground up, meant to hyper-serve a particular niche audience, all the elements are designed to laser focus on that," he said. "We do things in what we perceive to be player demand, so there's no corporate goal that's alluding to a specific revenue growth target and no public investor that's saying improve by [a certain percentage] next quarter."

"That's short-term, and we're about long-term value delivery to our players," Merrill continued. "That's how we get a lot of engagement."

That's not to say that other publishers haven't adapted their IPs from gaming into other popular media before. Japanese publishers Square Enix and Capcom, for example – who created the well-known Final Fantasy and Resident Evil franchises, respectively – have leveraged their games' popularity to create movies and animated shows as well. Western publishers, like Angry Birds' creator Rovio, have also done the same.

But Doug Clinton, managing partner and co-founder of venture capital firm Loup Ventures, said that the ability to tap into the devoted consumer base that Merrill outlined is exactly the reason why Riot has been able to successfully branch out to other mediums.

He said the game developer's commitment in building its esports scene is one big factor that has distinguished it from other publishers — many of whom don't have big esports aspirations. It also supports their goals to become a wider entertainment entity.

"Gaming and entertainment in general is a battle for attention," he said. "You're competing against Facebook and Netflix for eyeballs."

"That's what the gaming world has become, and I think bootstrapping content on worlds that have [hugely dedicated fanbases] is the best way to compete in this attention economy we're moving into," Clinton said.

Clinton predicts that other publishers – Fortnite creators Epic, for instance – will also continue to tap into their own fanbases and expand into other areas. Back in February, Epic hosted its own in-game virtual concert in Fortnite featuring a performance by popular DJ Marshmello, with the virtual show drawing in over 10 million players as attendees.

Palmer expects that in Riot's case, original music groups like K/DA and True Damage will ultimately elevate the music industry.

"I think it just creates a bigger opportunity and world especially for music and how people relate to music and how they're able to receive music," she said.

Riot Games confirmed on Sunday that next year's League of Legends World Finals will be held in Shanghai's 56,000-capacity Shanghai Stadium.

As he prepared for jaw surgery a few years back, Josh Elizetxe, 26, got to be friends with his oral surgeon and orthodontist. When they told him how big the tooth-whitening space had become, the Arizona State University graduate, who'd been starting businesses since age 13, got excited.

With the two professionals advising him as informal consultants, he launched his business, Snow, in 2016 using Instagram to promote the affordably priced tooth-whitening kit he sells.

Consumers responded quickly, sending in posts with pictures of themselves using the product — which Snow shared on its own page. "The selfie helped us explode around the world," says Elizetxe. "When people are posting selfies, the smile becomes a focal point."

Today the Phoenix-based company has 15 employees, and Elizetxe says online sales totaled $30 million in revenue for the last 12 months. "We've been profitable since day one," he says. The product also sells on HSN and through dental offices.

Elizetxe, the majority owner, says he has grown the business with the help of two partners — Rob Gronkowski, who just retired as tight end of the New England Patriots, and retired Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell.

Elizetxe is part of a fast-growing trend — entrepreneurs who are building businesses with mulitmillion-dollar revenue through Instagram marketing.

Ten years ago it wasn't even possible to use Instagram to raise the profile of an unknown brand. The social media site didn't launch until October 2010.

Today Instagram — owned by Facebook — is one of the most powerful marketing platforms on social media. Well-known "influencers" who endorse brands on the site can make or break them.

And this trend keeps accelerating. The size of the Instagram influencer market is expected to grow from $1.3 billion in 2018 to nearly twice that number by 2020, according to Statista, a provider of market and consumer data. Celebrity Kylie Jenner now gets $1.27 million for a sponsored post on the site, according to the Instagram Rich List 2019, compiled by Hopper, an Instagram planning and scheduling tool.

"Influencers are partnering up with a clothing brand, a supplement or a retail brand or creating their own products," says Zach Benson, founder of the agency Assistagram, in Des Moines, Iowa, which helps clients manage their Instagram presence. "When you have that much influence and power, you can pretty much sell anything."

That spells opportunity for entrepreneurs who are savvy about using the platform to put their brands on the map. It might have been hard for a new brand like Snow to get space on drugstore shelves years ago, but with nearly 250,000 followers on Instagram — thanks to a strategy the combines both organic and paid posts — Elizetxe has found that big merchants, looking to outrun the retail apocalypse, are reaching out to carry the brand.

"Because of our online traffic, there's an opportunity to unseat the incumbents that there never was before," says Elizetxe. "When retailers are struggling, they are willing to take risks."

Instagram marketing isn't right for every entrepreneur. It works best for entrepreneurs who know their target customers very well. "You have to be able to speak to the people who will most likely be interested in your product," says Miami-based Alex Quin, chief marketing officer at UADV Media & Advertising. "You can't just be a general brand, like in the '90s. You're hitting different interest groups."

But for those who figure out how to own a particular niche, Instagram can be a very profitable marketing engine.

Just ask Jenna Kutcher. Working as an executive district health-and-wellness leader at Target, the Minnesota resident was offered a promotion in her early 20s. It was a pivotal moment that made her realize she didn't want to spend her future in corporate America. "I didn't want a promotion," she says. "I'd be working more hours. I'd be trading my life away for this job."

So Kutcher, 31, decided to change her career. Buying a camera on Craigslist for $300, she taught herself photography and started a business shooting weddings as a side hustle in 2011. It turned out she was really good at it, and she built a thriving business that let her leave her job behind in 2012.

But she was ready for another pivot after enduring two miscarriages. Kutcher found it emotionally difficult to shoot weddings and decided to make a change. She shifted most of her attention to creating online courses, teaching students how to set up a photography business, market a small business via email and on social media and create a podcast. She runs her own podcast, called Goal Digger.

Along the way, Kutcher built a big following on Instagram. She was at about 100,000 followers when an online mean gal sent her a nasty, body-shaming message — shortly after Kutcher had lost a pregnancy. When Kutcher's heartfelt response went viral, her following shot up to 500,000 almost overnight — and her troll inadvertently propelled her business to a new level of visibility and sales. Now she has 856,000 followers and gets paid almost $10,000 for a sponsored post, in addition to revenue from her courses.

"One of the things I teach is the difference between a brand and a business," says Kutcher. "On Instagram you want to make sure you have a personality and a voice. The know/like/trust factor is so important."

Kutcher's business, Jenna Kutcher LLC, broke $1 million in annual revenue by 2016, and last year it hit $3.5 million in revenue and was profitable, she says. She now has four employees and projects $5.5 million in revenue for 2019.

Jordann Weingartner, founder and CEO of I Love Jewelry, also keeps it personal in her business. She was looking for a way to work from home after having the second of her three children. "I was looking for something a little more to do while my children were napping," she recalls. Based in West Palm Beach, Florida, Weingartner took business courses online at Babson College, known for its focus on entrepreneurship, and by February 2012 had put up a Facebook page to sell fashion jewelry she designed.

Holding weekly scheduled sales that proved to be very popular, she quickly built a Facebook following of 100,000. As she expanded her offerings to personalized jewelry and clothing personalized with monograms, along with monthly subscription boxes, the brand took off.

As Instagram picked up steam, Weingartner gradually built a presence there, too, under "shopilovejewelry," and now has 153,000 followers there. A daily live show called "Coffee Talk" that she runs on Facebook and Instagram — where she and a Gen Z assistant appear in the clothes they're selling — has helped her connect with her followers.

Today Weingartner has 55 employees who work from a 25,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. "I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I didn't see it growing to this," she says. "I'm thankful that it has."

If your child wants to start picking stocks, Disney and Nvidia are the two places to start, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Friday.

The "Mad Money" host, as he always does, reminded viewers that an index fund should serve as your "bedrock" investment. Specifically, your first $10,000 should go into an index fund or an exchange-traded fund that mirrors the S&P 500, Cramer has advised.

"When you're just starting to build a portfolio, your first step should never be to buy individual stocks, even great ones like Disney and Nvidia," Cramer said. "Instead, you should put some money in an index fund as a bedrock retirement investment."

But Cramer, who was broadcasting from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado as part of a Veterans Day tribute, said he knows people can multitask.

There are different underlying reasons for why Cramer recommended both companies, but he said they share an overarching characteristic: They boast safe, long-term growth potential.

Cramer said Disney has that due in large part to its CEO, Bob Iger.

"If you want a long-term investment, you need a company with a leader and a culture that embraces change and triumphs over adversity," he said.

Disney's basically universal brand recognition also makes it an attractive option for kids, said Cramer, who said his advice was inspired by a 10-year-old who called into the show earlier in the week to ask if Dave & Buster's was worth buying.

"We need that personal knowledge. Why? ... Because stocks go down. Disney's something tangible," Cramer said. "You can see it, you can figure out if something is really wrong or not. You can go to the theme parks, you can watch the movies ... You can get it."

But ultimately, Cramer said the stocks for your kid's portfolio should be those that will not be rendered "obsolete" as technology and society evolves.

With Iger's leadership and the launch of 21st century offerings such as Disney+, which debuts next week, Cramer said, he believes Disney is positioned to continuing thriving now — its stock rose around 3% Friday after a top- and bottom-line earnings beat — and into the future.

Nvidia, by contrast, might not be as well known among the 10-year-old investor class as Disney or Dave & Buster's. But the Santa Clara, California-based tech company is an attractive long-term play for its own reasons, Cramer said.

As a chipmaker, Nvidia is positioned in the thick of the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Cramer said, calling A.I. and machine learning two of the most "incredible things" he's seen in recent years.

"You know what powers the best machine learning? It's Nvidia," Cramer said. "I think they are the future."

And like Disney, Nvidia has great leadership at the top, Cramer said.

Jensen Huang is "one of the most brilliant CEOs in our country," Cramer said.

The most exciting aspect of picking stocks for your kids is the chance to find companies with "tremendous long-term prospects and then wait for them to pay off," Cramer said.

"Just like the people at the U.S. Air Force Academy represent our future protection and our defense, your portfolio needs some protection and some defense, too," Cramer said. "And that's what those stocks are for."

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Disney and Nvidia.

Forget "best eyes" and "class clown." What about "most likely to succeed?'"

When Melanie Perkins decided she wanted to keep yearbooks alive in the digital era, she didn't just write it on the back page and forget about it. She started her own company.

But how did Canva go from a small start-up in Australia to challenging the likes of Adobe, and reeling in significant cash from Silicon Valley legend Mary Meeker along the way?

She sits down with Jon Fortt at the NYSE to explain.

Fortt Knox is a weekly podcast from CNBC anchor Jon Fortt. Previous episodes of the program can be found here.

Nike has been hit with another damning op-ed, highlighting the obstacles female athletes have faced through training with the company.

This one targets Nike's Oregon Project, coached by Alberto Salazar, previously the best track team in the world.

"I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever. Instead I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto [Salazar] and endorsed by Nike," Mary Cain said in an op-ed in The New York Times.

Cain said she was met with an all-male staff when she arrived at Nike to train, who told her that in order "to get better" she had to be "thinner and thinner and thinner." She said there was no certified nutritionist helping her and her teammates. She said Salazar told her she needed to weigh 114 pounds. Cain said she broke five bones after she lost her menstrual cycle. She said she developed suicidal thoughts and started cutting herself under all of the pressure to perform.

"[Nike] is not acknowledging the fact that there is a systemic crisis in women's sports and at Nike, in which young girls' bodies are being ruined," Cain said.

Nike did not respond to requests for comment from the Times and CNBC. In an email to the Times, Salazar said he denied many of Cain's claims.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency banned Salazar for four years, on counts of three doping code violations, though the coach has denied any wrongdoing. It was also reported in early October that Nike CEO Mark Parker had been briefed, multiple times, by Salazar on his experiments with performance-enhancing drugs. Parker responded to those allegations by calling the accounts "highly misleading." He said Nike "looked into these allegations [about Salazar] and did not find that he violated any rules."

Then Nike announced, later last month, that it was shutting down the Oregon Project entirely.

But Cain said she isn't sure that will fix the underlying issues.

"You can't just fire a coach and eliminate a program and pretend the problem is solved," the runner said. "My worry is that Nike is merely going to rebrand the old program and put Alberto's old assistant coaches in charge. ... We need more women in power."

Cain's op-ed follows a slew of other Nike female athletes speaking out this year.

A Times piece published in May included the voices of two former Nike runners, Kara Goucher and Alysia Montano, who said their contracts were cut during their pregnancies. Olympic champion Allyson Felix later that month wrote an op-ed telling a similar story.

"We've recognized Nike can do more, and there is an important opportunity for the sports industry collectively to evolve to better support female athletes," a company spokeswoman said at the time. Nike also responded by revising its contracts to include more protections for pregnant athletes, extending the period during which women's pay can't be slashed postpartum.

All of the public scrutiny makes the timing of Parker last month abruptly announcing his resignation as CEO somewhat obscure. He's set to step down in 2020. Parker also has told CNBC the decision wasn't prompted by the recent doping allegations.

Nike shares were up less than 1% on Thursday morning. The stock has rallied more than 21% this year.

Watch the full video op-ed from The New York Times here.

Mattel stock slumped more than 3% Wednesday after a report surfaced purporting that the toy company and its auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers obscured an accounting error.

The toymaker was forced to shelve the sale of senior notes in August when a whistleblower letter was made public, claiming the company had made accounting errors in historical periods. In late October, Mattel said auditors had completed their investigation and had determined that income tax expense was understated by $109 million in the third quarter of 2017 and overstated by $109 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, with no impact for the full year.

However, it appears that the "honest mistake" may have been buried by PwC and senior finance executives in an effort to save face, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The accounting error had to do with Mattel's ownership of "Thomas & Friends," an animated children's show. The error was tied to a $562 million valuation allowance that Mattel created against its deferred tax assets in September 2017. Ultimately, the allowance was reduced by $109 million, which came from deferred tax liabilities related to Mattel's acquisition of HIT Entertainment in 2011. Reducing this allowance lowered Mattel's loss during the quarter.

The finance team, according to the Journal, had discussed fixing the error and then restating its earnings, but Mattel would need to admit that there were shortcomings in its accounting and reporting procedures.

Brett Whitaker, who was Mattel's director of tax reporting at that time, told the Journal that the finance execs and PwC decided to change the accounting treatment of the Thomas asset and not tell Mattel's then-chief executive or its board.

They reclassified the Thomas asset to make its treatment in the third quarter correct and recorded a tax expense in the fourth quarter to offset the earlier error, Whitaker said.

Notably, the Journal pointed out that PwC earned more than $9 million in fees from Mattel last year, including $1.2 million for tax services.

"As our press release last week makes clear, the error in the 2017 third quarter was not properly assessed when it was discovered, nor were the findings and conclusions documented as they should have been at that time," Mattel said in a statement to CNBC Wednesday. "Importantly, we noted that 'the errors were non-cash, did not affect operating income or EBITDA, and had no impact on Mattel's full year financial results for 2017 or subsequent periods.' As we also announced last week, we will amend our 2018 Form 10-K to restate the last two quarters of 2017."

In October, Mattel admitted there had been an accounting error and that the internal investigation had found weaknesses in its accounting procedures. The company's chief financial officer, Joe Euteneuer, also announced his departure from the company. No reason was given for his departure.

Whitaker told the Journal that Euteneur would have been aware of the decisions not to disclose the error.

"I thought it was a bit odd that the CFO would be stepping down," Linda Bolton Weiser, analyst at D.A. Davidson, said in an email to CNBC. "The out-of-period adjustments they also cited in 2019 were called 'immaterial.' Now, seeing the whole story about the 2017 restatement, it is more apparent why Joe will be leaving the company."

Additionally, a Los Angeles-based PwC partner named Joshua Abrahams, who led the Mattel audit team, has been placed on administrative leave, according to the Journal. He is expected to leave the firm as a result of his conduct during the investigation into the whistleblower letter.

"At PwC, integrity is at the heart of who we are and how we operate as a firm," the company said in a statement to CNBC. "We will always strive to do the right thing and we will continue to take the appropriate actions in response to any allegations of misconduct."

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday that candid remarks from Boeing's chairman earlier on "Squawk Box" eased some of his concerns about the embattled aircraft maker.

"A lot of my worries were put to rest," said the "Mad Money" host, shortly after Boeing's David Calhoun was interviewed. "I did feel better."

Boeing has been under intense scrutiny after two of its 737 Max jets fatally crashed within five months of one another, leading to the mid-March grounding of the planes. The ongoing global grounding has driven up costs, dented airlines' profits, rippled throughout Boeing's supply chain and even the broader economy.

The company is also facing a criminal investigation and several other probes over the Federal Aviation Administration's certification of the plane and its design. The victims' relatives and pilots have also sued Boeing.

However, Calhoun's statements helped revive Cramer's faith. "I am completely rooting for them and I believe they're going to get past this."

Shares of Boeing were up more than 2% in afternoon trading Tuesday.

Calhoun, a longtime Boeing board member and Blackstone executive, assured investors that a comprehensive overhaul of the company's safety and transparency procedures would take place. He also defended CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who faced tough questions on Capitol Hill last week. Calhoun, who succeeded Muilenburg as chairman last month, said, "From the vantage point of our board, Dennis has done everything right."

Boeing in the second quarter took a $4.9 billion after-tax charge to compensate airlines over the forced grounding, but final amounts are unknown because regulators haven't allowed the planes to resume flying. Even so, Calhoun said Boeing can handle the "fair number of settlements" that it's likely to pay.

"Every box was checked," Cramer said. "If you don't feel better about Boeing after this interview, I guess you just have it in for Boeing."

Cramer was recently critical of the jet maker, ripping into Boeing last month after the leak of messages from a former test pilot expressing concern about the 737 Max, two years before the first deadly crash in October 2018.

"Wall Street got had," Cramer said at the time.

— CNBC's Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.

Less shopping is happening on Amazon, and consumers are favoring Walmart, according to a new survey.

The frequency of people buying items on Amazon six times or more per month has dropped to 40% this year from 80% in 2017, according to surveys by First Insight, a retail analytics firm that collects data to help retailers such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Crocs and Kohl's make product decisions.

First Insight conducted three consumer surveys of about 1,000 people each in December 2017, September 2018 and last September to compile the results. They included shoppers with and without a Prime membership.

A majority this year, 55%, said they prefer to shop at Walmart versus Amazon, up from about 47% a year earlier. The percentage of people who favor Amazon has dropped to 45% from about 53% in 2018.

"The excitement of the Amazon box coming to your house is kind of dwindling off," First Insight CEO Greg Petro said in an interview. "I think the novelty of Amazon is wearing off."

Source: First Insight

Amazon has disclosed it has more than 100 million Prime members worldwide. But according to First Insight, signups are dropping. The firm said it found 52% of survey respondents were members in 2019, down from 59% a year earlier.

The survey's findings could be a sign that Walmart's e-commerce investments are paying off, and Amazon still has its work cut out for it. Both companies have been in a battle over delivery.

Amazon announced plans last month to start delivering grocery products for free within a two-hour window to all Prime members living in the 2,000 regions eligible for the service. Until then, Prime members had to pay an additional $14.99 per month to get access to Amazon Fresh, a separate program that offered two-hour grocery delivery.

With the company spending billions of dollars to expand its free one-day delivery program, Amazon's third-quarter earnings report last month fell short of analysts' expectations.

Walmart, meanwhile, has begun testing delivering groceries directly to customers' refrigerators in three cities. Its InHome grocery delivery membership program costs $19.95 a month. And making the most of its bricks-and-mortar stores, it has more than 2,700 grocery pickup locations for online orders across the U.S.

Walmart's profits in the latest quarter topped Wall Street estimates, and the company said e-commerce sales surged 37%.

"[Walmart's] speed is allowing them to leapfrog and get hyper-competitive with Amazon in a short period of time," First Insight's Petro said.

The true test could come this holiday season, which has six fewer days than last year, putting more pressure on companies to pull shoppers into stores and to their websites sooner. Walmart and Amazon have already started offering deals.

Representatives from Amazon and Walmart didn't immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment.

Amazon shares are up about 19% this year. Walmart shares have rallied more than 26%. Amazon has a market value of roughly $888 billion, compared with Walmart's $334 billion valuation.