final trades zoosh usg. >> chicago merck. >> thanks for joining us. power begins now. "halftime" is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start right now. we've got power. we've got lunch, but what we don't have here in engelwood cliffs is much snow. at least not yet. but they do have it over there in pennsylvania. that's video from the keystone state already getting hit. new york city, right now and that includes wall street of course, is under a blizzard warning. the farther out on long island you live the worse this blizzard may be. the impact of course goes far bewrond the northeast. we're talking mass airline cancellations and the stocks that do well when the weather

goes bad. sue herrera has our top story. the snow. she's right here at hq. >> thank you, ty. right now we're going to go to morning city mayor bill deblasio holding a news conference and a presser. let's listen to what he has to say. >> we have very high winds. we know we'll have low visibility and lots of conditions that make travel unsafe. we will give you constant updates as we get information, but everything we know so far makes clear you can't underestimate this storm. this is not a typical storm. it's going to pack a real punch, and we have to expect heavy accumulation in a very short period of time. wills another crucial point. some storms come in in a measured manner. this is going to come in in a sudden spurt of activity. we saw some flurries this morning, and that has largely dissipated. what you are going to see in the few hours is something that hits very hard and very fast and people cannot be caught off guard. best thing to do stay indoors,

stay off the roads, stay off the sidewalks, and this is something i want people to start acting on as quickly as possible. in the next hours we want people who can get home to get home early, to get out of work as early as you can, get home but as the evening progresses and the snow intensifies, it will not be an optional matter. as part of our emergency declaration i'm ordering that at 11:00 tonight our streets will only be available to emergency vehicles so all non-emergency vehicles need to be off the streets of morning city by 11:00 p.m. tonight. we will continue that emergency declaration until the situation is safe. so from 11:00 p.m. on tonight, no non-emergency vehicles on the streets, and that is going to be the policy until we state otherwise. we need to let sanitation

police, fire do their jobs and this is the way we will guarantee that. on the way home this evening, again, the earlier you can leave, the better. if you can take mass transit, that is a priority to do so. if you are driving, expect tough conditions with each passing hour this evening. go slow. take a lot of precautions. even walking be careful this evening as this storm will intensify very quickly. if you have any evidence if you happen to take for example, for hire vehicles if you have any evidence of people taking advantage of this emergency to unfairly and illegally raise the prices of their rides, it is important to call 311 and report it. price gauging in the context of an emergency is illegal. if you experience it please call 311, and the taxi limousine commission will investigate right away. amplifying what i said

yesterday, i want all new yorkers at the end of this afternoon at -- >> we have been listening to new york city mayor bill de blasio. one of the more interesting points in his statement a few minutes ago which we're checking to see if this has been put in place before. 11:00 p.m. tonight all non-emergency vehicles need to be off the streets of new york city, so sanitation and emergency vehicles can go into action. it's going to be a very quick storm in one sense, but it's going to pack a real punch. let's get more now on winter storm juno which is bearing down on the northeast. millions are bracing for brutal blizzard conditions. lots of snow. very high winds. very cold temperatures. new york and new jersey have already declared states of emergency, and now the weather channel's tom nizzle is tracking the storm. >> we're now using terms like historic for winter storm juno as it moves up the northeast coast over the next 36 hours. let's take a look. over 28 million people now under

blizzard warnings in the northeast. nearly 60 million under some type of winter alert. take a look at how this system is going to move over the next 24 hours. the snow breaks out and really begins to increase this evening. in that stretch from philly to new york and boston winds will increase as well so that by later tonight, we will be in full-blown blizzard conditions from new york to boston with snowfall coming down at an inch an hour. this continues right into the tuesday morning time frame. now by tuesday evening, new york city will begin to see the snowfall wane across your area but in eastern new england, that snow will continue along with the strong winds and blizzard conditions. it's not until during the day on wednesday that the system begins to lose some of the punch as it moves off shore. those are the snowfall totals. two feet plus in the boston wrar. wouldn't be surprised to see some areas to the west of boston get as much as three feet. new york city right now forecasting a foot of snow but just to the east of us as much as two feet. just to the west it drops off to about eight inches or so.

big changes there as we go from west to east. the other part that we're going to look at are the winds, which are going to increase throughout the night tonight and into tuesday, bringing blizzard conditions to this area along coastal new england. that combination of wind and snow will mean that travel by tuesday morning will likely be impossible in some of those areas. stay tuned. we'll keep you updated on winter storm juno the blizzard this week. >> as you might imagine, airlines are cancelling thousands of flights ahead of this blizzard, and kate rogers is live at la guardia with the latest for us. hi kate. >> hey, sue, that's right. flight aware.com has been tracking these cancellations due to winter storm juno between today and tomorrow. more than 5,500 flights have been completely canceled. they're also mapping out the most miserable airports in the country due to these delays and cancellations. in the top spot is newark followed by la guardia, and chicago o'hare is in the third place spot. here at la guardia at nearly 50%

of flights have been completely canceled today. close to 300 of them. the passengers and travellers we're talking to they're not feeling that miserable just yet, but they are looking and hoping to get out ahead of the storm. >> we changed to an earlier flight. we had a 3:00 flight this afternoon. >> i'm a little concerned that, you know if this does live up to the hype that things won't be leer in time and i'll get stuck in columbus for the weekend. >> it does remain to be seen though if other airports will follow boston logan's lead in cancelling all flights to and from the airport beginning tonight at 7:00 p.m. extending through tomorrow. they do hope to have things up and running, though by wednesday. back to you, tyler. >> all right, kate. thank you very much. newark airport always a misery place for many people. airlines mostly down today in the stock market. jetblue, the carrier most impacted by the blizzard because it does so much of its business up and down the eastern seaport seaportseaboard. currently down the most, as you

see there. about 1 3/5%. in case you are interested, folks, hawaiian airlines is up for the day by 3 1/4%. it's currently trading at $27.50. seth is airline weekly's -- he is joining us from sunny fort lauderdale. welcome barb. let's say i'm at the airport either in the new york marketed boston, or even now where you are in fort lauderdale and i find that my flight has been canceled what should i do? >> one thing is to be creative tyler, and let the airline know how flexible you are. these days airlines do a pretty good job of finding you the next seat from the same airport -- to the same airport where are you flying, but if you don't mind using, oh jfk instead of la guardia and the next seat from yfk is wednesday rather than thursday tell the airline that.

if that's the case, tell them that. if you can avoid packing bags -- checking bags, that is. you know, if you're at the airport, it may be too late. hey, what about that flight going to somewhere else? sometimes the gate agent, the first thing they'll ask you is do you have any bags with you? if you don't, it can be simpler to make that very last minute change. >> let's say my flight is leaving from gate 70 and i find that it is canceled but there's another flight that is leaving from gate 42. should i wait in line at the -- at my existing gate or the one where i have been canceled or should i run over to the other one? >> you know it's a matter of getting through to the airline as quickly as possible tyler, so a lot of times these things will say go over to the customer service counter, get in line. do that but call the airline also. if you can reach an agent by phone more quickly than you get to the front of the line and especially, you know if you are an elite traveller and you have a special phone number whatever you can do basically you are,

let's face it competing for those very few remaining seats against all your fellow travellers, and whatever you can do to get yours yourself a leg up is worth trying. >> all right, seth. thank you very much. we appreciate it. dominik, market flash. >> we're watching shares of some biotech and pharmaceutical companies. the stock is moving higher for mylan. the stock is currently trading, you can see, up by 4%. as for gilead shares those shares are also moving as well here to the up side. up by 1.5% so far today, sue. back to you. stocks in general off of their worst levels of the day with the dow falling back about from a triple digit loss earlier this session. the dow and the s&p are negative for the month, but the nasdaq so far, is still up. the russell 2,000 also higher. the your wroe bouncing off an 11-year low against the u.s. dollar following the results of the greek election. and the yield on the ten-year note which had climbed to 1.825% is steadying out a little bit.

oil prices they've been up as the northeast braces for this major blizzard. let's talk more and bring in christina, u.s. investment strategist at alliance global investors, and scott black. both are bullish on this market. welcome to both of you. pleasure to have you here. scott, let me start with you. you're fairly bullish, but, you know, it hasn't been that great an earnings season in many sectors, and that has some analysts and market participants a little worried. it doesn't sound like that's on your radar screen yet, though. >> it's too short-term oriented. the s&p earnings were finished around 116. keep in mind that the component portion of energy stock, 12.2% of earnings is not the small e & p companies. it's the exxons and chevrons. it's realistic to believe the s&p can earn -- that's not a blow-out kind of number. it's up about 6% 7%.

it puts the market about 16.3 times this year earnings. >> let's -- we're going to go to greece and michelle caruso car arabia who has breaking news about greece. >> s&p has cut russia to junk. once again, s&p cutting russia's credit rating to junk. this was entirely unexpected. they had warned they were going to reassess the country's credit worthiness considering the conditions that have been ongoing there as a result of the sanctions by the west against the country in retaliation for what we believe to be the intervention in ukraine militarily, which has heated up in recent days. this isn't necessarily because of what's happened in the last couple of days. s&p has a schedule for sovereign debt ratings, and we knew this was coming but definitely there are issues concerning liquidity because of the decline in the ruble that we've seen going on there as a result. remember ultimately russia doesn't have that much outstanding sovereign debt coming due in the next year or so. it's actually quite small, but

the problem is because of the sanctions and their limited pile of foreign exchange reserves they really don't have enough foreign exchange reserves for the countries -- the state-owned companies that have to borrow again, from the markets or have to pay back debts done in other currencies. let's talk more about our market with christina. i'm going to turn to you. you're with alliance global. you like this market as well, and you say the risk in this market is not being long some risk assets correct? >> yes, that's correct. certainly for the long-term. if investors have a long enough

time horizon, they need to have exposure to risk assets but they need to be well diversified. >> scott, where would you put money to work? you're giving us a couple of picks. why do you like these particular companies? what appeals to you about them? >> well i think in this type of an environment, you have to go with value which we always do. you want companies with sustainable earning power. the first one is one i used on the roundtable this week. it's out in southern california. it's a semiconductor company that heretoforehas been viewed as a dod. they diversified their business. it's legitimate. 10% top line grower are this we're. bottom line will grow 20%. it's selling at about 12.5 times earnings, even if you back out the stock-based. 20% return on equity. you have great visibility. they have about 8% organic growth. 2% from an acquisition that generate says nothing but free cash. there aren't so many top line

double digit growers selling at 12.5 multiples. the other someone a yield conscious play for people who are hungry. aries capital. a business development company. it's well run at the margin. they can put out their debt investments at 9% and fund them at 4%. the stock selling below book with a 9.5% yield, and it's going to grow at least 10% this year, and it's very well managed. there's very little exposure. energy in the portfolio. >> christina, what are your picks at this point? you used to like technology. do you still? what sectors do you like at this point? >> we still like technology very much. you know if you surveyed companies, they've done very well in the last couple of years. they've had very wide profit margins, but they haven't spent very much, and the reason they gave in a lot of surveys was fear of greater regulation, and we know that there is a direct inverse relationship between economic policy uncertainty and corporate spending. we think that's behind us with the midterm elections. we think there's greater

economic policy certainty and companies are poised to spend more. a key beneficiary of cap ex spending should be technology. companies recognize that technology makes their workers more productive and so we could see a nice increase in tech stocks this year. >> thank you both. we appreciate it. christina hooper and scott black. all right. >> scott may be bullish on the market overall, but there is one sector he is bearish on. you can go to power lunch.cnbc.com right now to find out why you should avoid it. once again powerlunch.cnbc.com. ty, over to you. president obama wants some of your kids' college money. he wants to tap it a little bit. a white house proposal to tax the 529 college savings plan withdrawals sparking some outrage. the proposal is supposed to ultimately help the middle class pay for college, but will it? plus the blizzard of 2015. the northeast, of course bracing for up to three feet of snow. 75-mile-per-hour winds. is the u.s. economy going to take a hit too?

we'll take a look at that. as we head out, let's take a look at the biggest snowstorms in new york city. 27 inches of the white stuff back in february of 2006.

welcome back to power lunch. they own hospitals.

it's moving higher on news that it will join the s&p 500 after today's closing bell. of course, it's going to replay safeway as the grocery store han is set to be acquired by capital management. sue, those shares up 6% on the day. back to you. >> hey, dom, take a look at this. you don't usually see this on this tense day on the east coast. take a breather. moment of zen, if you will. a herd of elk walking through someone's backyard in ever green, colorado. fancy that. that's the end of the moment of zen. ty, over to you. >> they're going to the elk convention, sue. >> or the elks lodge. president obama pushing to end certain tax breaks on specified college savings plans. it includes 529 fans that have been tax-exempt. the earnings grow tax-free, and then when you take it out, you don't pay tax on it. the move aimed at simplifying the tax code but could it hurt them instead? this is joe, ceo of saving for

college.com. a 529 planning site. jared bernstein, cnbc contributor and former economist to joe biden and the obama administration. >> do you think this plan is actually a good idea? i'm going to ask you why because as i understand it what would happen here is while the existing accounts would be grandfathered, new accounts you would still have tax deferred accrual. when you start to withdraw money would be taxed. that money that's going to be taxed would go to memorialize or make permanent a tax credit of up to $2,500 a year for certain moderate income families up to $180,000. i've given a big preface here. you know and i know -- >> good job. >> you know and i know jared, that $2,500 a year pays for about a week. >> well first of all, it is important, as you have just done to look at the plan in its

totality. it adds $50,000 in college assistance for their proposal and takes back $1 billion. these are ten-year figures. from the 529. that's the savings generate by a 529 by ten years and it's $1 billion. that has a lot to do with that grandfather. they add in far, far more in terms of helping kids lower and middle income kids with college than they take away. here's what i'll say about the 529. have i two of them and i love them. this is going to hit me. here's the thing. my kids will go to college, the best college they can get into regardless of the 529, and many people in upper income classes can say that. if that's true these tax benefits are wasted. i love the benefit. it's to provide tax relief for people that don't really need them which is to target them --

especially the foels that need them the most. >> joe, how about you? respond to what jared just said and one of the things that occurs to me is that in many cases, joe, the people who benefit the most from financial aid are the very people that jared says would be targeted by this, and that is the folks who have a hard time paying for college at the lower end of the income scale. joe, take it away. >> i was swiz and disappointed because it's been a tremendous success story. these 529 plans, we have millions of american families using these 529 plans now to save for college, and it offers a way for mostly middle income families, they're the participants of these plans, to invest tax deferred and ultimately tax-free to try to keep up with college tuition increases, which you and i both know are gaining much faster than general inflation.

>> jared, let me just drill down on something you said a moment ago, which i had heard, but you said it absolutely perfectly. this proposed tax would raise $1 billion over ten years. that's nothing. i mean, why not go somewhere else and get that money? >> a fair point. i think that's largely because of the grandfathering. if you went out to the second ten years, you would see more savings. look i want to get to some of the points that were just made. 70% of the benefits of these 529s go to families whose incomes are above $200,000. the president is trying to create much more robust for actual middle income families. the typical beneficiary of a 529 has an income of about $140,000 and for people who don't, their income is about $45,000. a lot of it depends on what you call middle class. i'm not saying that a family that has $150,000 doesn't need

help paying for college. it does and it gets it. >> the 529 plans are ways for families to privately pay for college. isn't that what we want most people to do? >> absolutely it's what we want most people to do and the current data shows that 70% of the participants of the accounts now are held by families with less than $150,000 in income. changing this won't pay for any initiative, and it will no longer use 529 plans. you can't raise revenue and you don't have contributions going into these plans. some people the people that we want to pay for college, will stop entirely because we're telling them don't bother saving for college. wait for this tax credit in 15

years, and that will bail you out. >> you're calling for something that will hurt you in your -- in the long run. >> that's right. no kidding. >> of course, the proposals are very unlikely to pass a republican-controlled congress, but if it does there's another tax-free strategy to save for college. you can find out about it at power lunch.cnbc.com. meantime, we're going to go for some breaking news to josh lipton on -- >> well, tyler, if you are living in new york city and you are hoping to use uber the car hailing app during the snowstorm, we have news for you about how much that's going to cost. remember, the mayor of new york just said that gauging during an emergency like this is illegal. here's what uber is saying. due to the state of emergency declared in new york city, prices will not exceed 2.8 times the normal fair. uber is saying this is developed as a policy with the new york

attorney general swren snyderman that balances the goal of reliable transportation, uber is saying, with also what it calls dynamic pricing, surge pricing, and a lot of people talked about it. uber going on to say that any kind of disaster or state of emergency strikes like this, dynamic pricing is capped and all of uber's proceeds have been donated to the american red cross to support relief efforts. guys back to you. >> thank you, swrosh very much. well as you know by now, the northeast getting ready for what could be and is being termed an historic winter storm. blizzard conditions are set to dump up to three feet of snow in many places. last year those winter storms -- it was a long one -- took a big chunk out of economic growth. well, the u.s. economy, will it take another hit? steve liesman is here with weathernomics for us. >> if it's as massive a storm as what's being predicted it's going to have negative impact. measured mostly in hours, not work. hours not completed. lost hours, and pay and productivity, but a lot depends not so much on the amount of

snow, but over how wide an area. how quickly it's cleared. of course, how soon it will get back to work. in theory, if the power lines don't go down a lot of work can be done from home but. if that's all it is it will not rise to the level of last year. cold temperatures and lots of snow that was widespread. that way you can see right there that negative number that's surprising 2.1% decline in growth in the first quarter, it was so big many doubted it could even be weather-related, but growth bounced back as did jobs, and some of the gdp. the next two quarters which averaged a whopping 4.8% was a weather induced snapback. awe big part of last year's decline was the cold and snow in places that don't usually have it, like the south. this storm, although dangerous and massive, is hitting in a place that has come to expect large storms more so than i thought. in fact, it's showed there have

been more big snowstorms of 15 inches or more in the current 25-year period than at any quarter century since 1790. >> it's almost more the rule than the exception. not this big. it's not a storm. new york city, it will take a lot more than a single blizzard to cause growth to -- i was surprised by that data. by the way, i the highest 15-year too. >> thank you, steve. appreciate it. >> we'll go to swraky deangeles. she's in manhattan where they're getting ready for the storm. as you know, a lot of people need to get into the exchanges tomorrow, and, jackie that's led to a real run on hotel rooms. less people are walking around. do not be sdooefed by the shot where i'm standing. i'm being protected by a building. the wind is kicking up down

here. >> the lines pretty much wrapped around the storm, and one of the managers telling me they are going to run out of supplies. people down here are concerned because they're worried about the conditions that came along with hurricane sandy, for example, when they lost power. they are making sure they have been ready. meanwhile, the nyse and the new york merck, they are monitoring the situation, and you have a lot of traders checking into downtown manhattan hotels. the conrad just across from the nymex completely sold out hours ago. traders saying if the markets are open tomorrow they do want to make it easy to be able to get into work and monitor the situation. again, cold down here. very windy. people are really concerned about this. especially as we've been told that this storm is going to pack

a punch, and it's going to pack a punch quickly. we'll tell you why this meeting was different. well one of the reasons is a major breakthrough in a nuclear trade deal. all of that straight ahead.

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can you see we are about $13 on the trading session. silver copper platinum and paladium copper has had tough sledding of it. today it's up almost 2%. silver is down almost 2%. better than 1% decline in platinum, and paladium is modestly higher. this is a war zone stunning video just coming in of destruction in ukraine. this morning the separatist stronghold suffered heavy shelling. footage -- a hospital destroyed. meantime, in crimea russian

security forces raided a television station seizing equipment, shutting down the broadcast operations and watch, they even stopped this segment which, as you can see, was an interview in progress. atr was dedicated to reflecting the view of crimean war -- and was one of the last stations in crimea criticizing the moscow-backed government. let's send it over to dominik for a quick market flash. >> sue we're watching what's happening with universal display. the stock is soaring on news it signed a technology license and supply agreement with korea's lg display. can you see it up on the day here. as for lg shares up as well by about a percent. nice moves on the green side here for a couple of stocks. back to you. >> thank you. president obama continuing his trip in india joined by a number of the world's top ceos over there. seima modi live. >> hi tyler. i just got off the phones with one of the ceos that attended

that roundtable meeting in new delhi with president barack obama and the prime minister. he said most of the discussion was around finding ways to increase bilateral trade with u.s. and i understand wra and brooufg the regulatory environment. for example, around taxes and intellectual property as well as brainstorming ways for corporate america to work more effectively with corporate india. a relationship that has been challenged and stalled over the past couple of years due to tough rules and red tape. now, several business leaders, includingy including pepsi and others were in that meeting to discuss u.s. and india relations with indian business leaders. >> one of the other big shlz

that nuclear civil agreement. we're still getting more clarity out of what this detail entails, but we are expecting more details over the next coming months. as the two leaders discuss ways to work together there is something else the media has been taking notice of, and that's a growing friendship between the two leaders. a romance, if you will several sources of mine say there's a notable chemistry between the two leaders. modi addressing president obama as barack many times during his speech. he is also the first to greet obama showing up on the tarmac and welcoming him with a big bear hug. a picture worth 1,000 words. tyler and sue. >> thank you very much. let's go out to the bond market, shall we? rick santelli tracking the action in balmy chicago. hi, rick. >> it is balmy. sorry about that. two days of tens. we're not going anywhere quickly. as a matter of fact, as you look at the year-to-date chart, a couple of things i want to point out.

first, we made our extreme. our 21 flow on the 16th of january. keep that in mind. many thought we would see extreme moves to coordinate with the ecb on thursday, last thursday, the 22nd. not the case. this will be the seventh session where it looks like somewhere between 138 and 187. we all know the dollar gets strong earning but what we want to pay attention to is how these weak currencies will end up creating growth if their export markets still don't seem to be rallying outside of germany. tyler, back to you. >> rick huh very much. ready or not, here it comes. the blizzard. is manhattan prepared? new yorkers, we never complain

about anything. morgan brennan in times square with the very latest. hi morgan. >> hey, tyler. well, over the next 36 hours we're going to be giving new meaning to the term great white way. we've got what governors, what mayors, what states, local governments, what everybody is doing to prepare. they're all saying about this potentially historic blizzard. we'll have that when we return.

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trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. hard at work during this massive storm. energy stocks outperforming in the five days after four inches of snow or more in the new york city area. eog traded up 60% of the time but the median began is 2.2%. his, meanwhile, traded up 32% of the time. up 1.2%. cabinet and slumberge have been big post-storm bets. much more on big winter weather winners on our home page. go to cnbc. -- power lunch.cnbc.com. power lunch.cnbc.com for winter weather gainers. >> i'm glad you had to say that. >> winter weather winners. netflix, a lot of people were staying home today, the

shares are up. so is streaming. julia with the story from los angeles. julia. >> tyler, millions of people are getting ready to hunker down and binge watch. during hurricane sandy in 2012 netflix saw a 20% spike in streaming in a single day. viewership was up over 100%. it's not just netflix. during the most recent big blizzard back in 2013 total streaming volume increased as much as 15% in areas hit by the storm. a number that would have been higher if not for some power outages. no surprise netflix is the biggest gainer on fixed broadband networks while on mobile devices youtube sees the biggest spike. this year it seems like amazon prime could benefit from those people staying home from the storm as well. tyler, back over to you. >> julia, thanks. think of us out there in sunny 75 degree l.a. let's get back to the storm itself. morgan brennan in times square. the snow is starting to fall morgan.

>> it certainly is starting to fall tyler. we just got word that both new york area nba games that were scheduled are now on hold even postponed because of the weather. as you can see, the snow is really starting to pick up. it's starting to stick. it's gotten dark outside. it's getting colder out here. this, as officials across the northeast are bracing for what's potentially a historic blizzard. we've got state of emergency declared in multiple states multiple cities. new york governor andrew cuomo just holding a press conference to warn about the difficult and dangerous conditions. the new york state thruway and other state patrol highways will be closing at 10:00 p.m. eastern. also new jersey governor chris christie declaring a state of emergency. massachusetts declaring a state of emergency. connecticut imposing a travel ban that goes into effect tonight at 9:00 p.m. as you can see behind me right now here in midtown manhattan it's still business as usual. guys, back to you. >> all right. thanks very much. some would say that cancelling

the knicks and nets game is a public service. dominik for a market flash. >> you did not just go there. >> whoa. >> the new york area for goodness sake guys. the impending blizzard is -- oil prices one of them here. that's sending oil companies higher today's trade as well. you can see a whole slew of them in the energy sector. chevron, exxon, and, of course that stat box you just threw up that has more to that story as well. back to you, guys. >> thank you very much, dom. more weather and more markets after a quick break as you look at new york's times square with the snow starting to come down heavier.

welcome back to power lunch. big day in housing. fha lowering the mortgage insurance premiums. what does that do? it solves two problems for the government insurer of home loans. first, it helps get them more business. potentially 50,000 to 100,000 more borrowers a we're.

at first it could be mostly refinances, but it keeps the fha, which needed a $1.7 trillion bail-out competitive. with the new 3% down payment loan which would have been cheaper for the best borrowers and could have caused them to jump ship. fha needs the high credit dependable borrower ez to fuel its fund. he denied that that was entirely behind the move but he also stressed the need to protect the fha's fund. you want to see that interview, go to it. realty check.cnbc.com. back to you. let's go to dominik for a market flash. >> we're going to carry on with diana's theme here with the home building stocks and focus today all moving hire as dr hortan posted better than expected first quarter results. a 35% jump in new orders. a 29% jump in -- jumping closings here and nearly 7% rise in average sale prices. it's important, sue, because dr

horton is the biggest homebuilder in terms of revenue. back to you. investors piling a ton of money into etf's. bob pasani who has perfect timing is in sunny hollywood, california, with some of the details on that. hey, bob. >> just out at the right moment sue. we're all trying to figure out how we're going to get home again. the bottom line is this is the biggest etf conference in the world. 2,000 investment professionals trying to figure out how to make money for their clients. i'm swroined by dan draper. he runs power shares. this is one of the big four etf's. he knows what he is talking about. smart beta says why should everything be market cap weighted like the s&p 500? you can weight inteks other ways and make more money. what's the argument? is there a real reason i should consider something else other than looking at a market cap weighted index? >>

>>. >> it'sover eighty stuff that might be -- >> the russell 1,000, which has big cap index. the s&p 500 is a market cap weighted and the sim bomb is eqal. why equal weighted? why do we need an equal weight index in can you show that would outperform a market cap weight? >> >>. >> you have an index that weights -- they pay the most di dendz. can you show that that would be better buying stocks by dividend rather than just market cap? >> well, the key is always to

put this in a portfolio context. what is your advisor portfolio manager trying to achieve? many investors today clearly have hire flk. this gives you an ability to weight those high dividend -- >> low volatility. stlo that's a big winner for us. a lot of people have had bull markets for the last couple of years. i still need to be overweight equities, but i want lower volatility, and the s&p will be 100 lowest volatile stocks in the s&p 500. >> the symbol plv. we're going to be here all of the next two days see dee spite the snow talking about all the big etf's that are out there, and how you can make money using those etf's. sue, back to you. >> okay bob. thank you very much. more updating the latest on the blizzard of 15 and just in to our newsroom new jersey transet is going to shut down the train system after 8:00 p.m. tonight. a lot of people who live in new jersey and work in manhattan use the trains to get into the city. they elizabeth be able to do that because the train lines will not be restored until thursday. so that's going to be a very difficult situation for a lot of people who perhaps on wednesday need to get into work ty but

can't. they may have to drive, and, of course governor christie saying earlier that he wants people off of the roads. it's going to be awe very difficult situation for a lot of people. >> indeed sue. a lot of people depend on that njt. stocks, of course, waivering a bit today. let's take a look at the s&p 500 sectors, shall we? energy is the biggest winner there. discretionary health care. tack utilities and telecom. they are the lagards. power lunch will be back after this. of a control... enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. 1

1. in this hour of power standard & poor's down grades russia's credit rating to junk. mayor de blasio has ordered a travel ban. roads will be closed to all vehicles except emergency personnel after 11:00 p.m. just in new jersey transit to shut down its system after 8:00 p.m. the train lines will not be restored until thursday. that's going to make a mess out of things. if you missed any of the big stories in this past hour you can go visit our website at power lunch.cnbc.com. all right. let's see what's coming up on "street signs." mandy. >> or brian. >> brian. >> a little taller and 150 pounds heavier. >> there you go.

>> same hear. all right. on deck sue, more reaction to both the big russia downgrade and the vote in greece that rocked europe. the one major media company that a prominent analyst says could be insolvent in a few years. we're going to get an update as well. the oil shock continues. oh, yes, there's apparently a storm acoming. we're going to have the latest on blizzard 2015. power lunch will return right after the break. grand prix race car made history when it sold for a record price of just under $30 million. and now, another mercedes-benz makes history selling at just over $30,000. and to think this one actually has a surround-sound stereo. the 2015 cla. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

so, how do you feel about cash back? i would not say i'm into it. but let's see where this goes. [ buzzer ] do you like to travel? i'm all about "free" travel, babe. that's

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new york city mayor bill de blasio raise the red flag against price gauging. it's illegal to raise -- just now new york attorney general arab schneiderman fired this warning shot to anyone trying to swrak up prices during the storm. "new york state law prohibits excessive increases in essentials like food water, gas, generators batteries, flashlights, hotels, and transportation." sue. >> that pretty much covers the whole gambit. let's get you up-to-date on the markets before we hand it over to street signs. the dow jones industrial average is fractionally higher on a percentage basis. the s&p is up about a quarter of a percent, and the nasdaq composite is up better than a quarter of a percent. we'll see whether or not they

hold that all going into the afternoon session. kind of thin trading, we expect as the storm progresses. >> be interesting to see whether the new york stock exchange has a delayed opening like a lot of schools. we should see. >> we will. we'll be following all of that for you. >> all right. thanks for watching. stay with us all afternoon. that's it for power lunch. >> street signs starts now. welcome to "street signs." today not one, but three major storms are brewing and only one has to do with the weather. hello. manned where i is on assignment today, and we've got an incredible news day. storm number one, this time over europe with the aftermath of that shocking fwreek vote. can the euro zone stay together as athens' new leadership sends a big message to germany? storm number two, the continued crude collapse. we have an update where confidence is beginning to shake as oil hits another new low. and storm number three, the actual storm. potentially