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tv   Power Lunch  CNBC  February 23, 2015 1:00pm-3:01pm EST

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impact this has. eric, thank. >> let's go around the horn and do final trades. >> look another bidder may come in. you're at $116 cash. >> numont mining. deere is going higher. i think it's going higher again. >> have a great rest of the day. all of you as well. power starts now. >> halftime is over. power lunch and the second half of the trading day starts right now. >> i'm mandy drury with brian sullivan. tyler is out today. >> on your agenda goods flowing at the ports, but the standoff might not be over. >> okay. another major labor problem is popping up. this time at the refiners. >> targeting america's shopping malls. the islamic terror group al shbaab making specific threats. what is being done to protect you, the american shopper? >> after months of disruption, u.s. west coast ports are back at full operations after a tentative labor deal was reached on friday night. jane wells is live at the port of los angeles with the very latest. hey there, jane. >> hashgs mandy.
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they started unloading ships at 8:00 a.m. local here in los angeles. over on the long beach side as well. i have to say since we've been on the water since 6:00 a.m. we have yet to see a new ship come in or leave, and if are you flying into los angeles, well roll the video. you'll see something very similar to this. it looks still like an armada out there. in the morning midwest it looks reminiscent somewhat of d-day. if you lined up all the ships waiting off shore, it would stretch 579 miles. at least the trucks are moving again. it could take until april until all the union locals vote on this tentative deal. also, all the employer members of the pacific maritime association have to approve it. it's a deal which replace the lone arbitrator with an arbitration panel. it raises wages, which the pma say now average $50 an hour. plus it raises the pension and it continues to provide health care completely free to
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dockworkers. >> i have all the confidence in the world that when the rank-and-file take a look at this, they will see that this is a good package for them and that they should move forward. >> well now unions on both coasts have deals, assuming this one is approved which gives some stability through at least 2018, but the damage permanently has been done for some. up in portland its largest customer, no longer called at the port of portland. where they'll go? we don't know. maybe to canada. mandy and brian, canada railway is number one railway is threatening a lock-out of some workers if there's not a deal. that, too, could impact the ports. back to you. >> all right. jane wells on the water up in west coast. thank you very much. >> did you know because i did not that in a life far, far away he was the court reporter for several different publications. it is true. he is a great resource for says.
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alan, is this really a done deal? >> not really. remember this is a negotiating committee that went and brought out this agreement. they got to go back and sell it to the 14,000 members of the union. it's a good deal. this is not like one factory or group of factories. they're all along this coast. you have geographic differences. the gee in the northwest might not deal with everything that the guys in southern california are doing. some of the ports, there's 29 ports. some are teeny tiny. they have 15 guys running the dock. others, like the huge mega complexes we've been talking about, you know long beach, los angeles, seattle, tacoma oakland. they're doing the huge container traffic. ob? they might have different issues in overtime and in pay. >> how much pull with this group negotiating have for the dockworkers of the east coast, for example? >> different union for the east coast. their contract starts coming up due 2017. much different, but the same
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thing. geographic differences determine, you know, if you are working on a gulf coast port maybe you don't mind overtime like you might mind overtime up this way in the snow and ice. >> morgan brennan has the latest on that and also what role automation is playing in all of this? jackie deangeles is looking at whether consumers, i.e. you, should be worrying. morgan, you're first. tell us more. >> just to recap, the largest oil strike since 1908 has expanded to four more shell facilities, including the motiba port arthur refinery in texas. that's the biggest refinery in the country. overall, there's now 15 plants affected by the united steelworkers strike, including 12 refineries that represent
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one-fifth of u.s. capacity. that said only one has actually been taken off line due to the strike. that's a tesoro refinery in california that's already undergoing maintenance. all of the others at least so far, are operating near normal levels and that's really thanks to automation. refiners have been adopting new tech to make the process less dependent on people. it's enabling companies to bring in nonunion skeleton skafs. tesoro says its other facilities can run as-is for a very long time and bp is training additional replacement. analysts say output has been little affected by the strike itself. other factors have pushed gas prices higher including scheduled maintenance, but that maintenance is a worry because even though refineries can stay running thanks to automation firing machines back up is a much more labor intensive process, and right now there is equipment that is down at motiva's port arthur refinery so if this strike is still underway when that is supposed to come back on-line we could
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see supply affected. >> what about the investors? are they concerned at this stage? >> meantime investors don't seem too concerned. if you take a look at the u.s. list of refineries they're hitting all-time highs today, including maritime and tesoro which are two companies affected by the strikes. >> let's get out to the nymex and jackie deangeles, tell us what it means for us the consumer, in all of this? >> sadly, i don't have good news for you. it's interesting because crude oil is trading under $50 today at these retail gas prices continue to creep up and people are really wondering why that happens. it's because we usual will you see these moving tan dem together. if crude goes lower, we see retail gas go lower. a 15% drop in crude cia $1 .11 at the pump over the course of the last year but the reason that we're seeing a little bit of a divergence here, a decoupling if you will is because of a few factors. as morgan mentioned, this is the time that refinies go into maintenance mode, and they also start to switch over from that more expensive -- sorry the
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cheaper winter blend to the more expensive summer blend. that's happening. at the same time many people are waiting for the national average to go under $2 a gallon. a lot of places in the country are seeing their prices under $2 creeping slowly back up. right now we could see those prices by the summer closer to $3. that's the bad news. back to you. >> all right. jackie, thanks much. see you at the close. all right, folks. here's some breaking news. in winter it gets cold but not often this cold in this many parts of the country. the weather channel's tom nizzle has the latest on the frigid conditions nearly everywhere. >> cold air in store for the eastern half of the nation as we go lou the week here. take a look. this cold air is coming out of
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central canada. this is a pattern that's been tough to break for a good part of this entire month of february. as we go through the thursday and friday time frame, it settles across most of the eastern two-thirds of the nation. if we take a look at the weather on a daily basis, tomorrow, daytime highs only 18 degrees in boston. 40 degrees in dallas. much colder than what we normally see this time of year. on wednesday only an 18 degree high in chicago, and 38 in atlanta. as we go into thursday, that cold air really begins to drive southward. a high of only 13 degrees in chicago. if we take a look at boston running through the end of the month temperatures very cold for this time of the year. daytime highs typically around 40 degrees. if we go through these temperatures the rest of the month, we likely are going to have one of the three coldest februarys on record for this year. that's it. we'll send it back to you. >> tom nizzle more bad news. meantime more attacks in ukraine undermining whatever was left of last week's cease-fire, that many considered never
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realistic anyway. dom chew the market flash on the russian market. >> russian stocks are trading here in the u.s. to the down side. they're taking a hit. that's on the heels of a credit ratings agencies moody's downgrading the country's debt. that was friday after the bell. shares of yandex and kiwi a lot of these other ones and then check out what's happening with the market vektors, russia etf. the ticker rsx. it's taking a hit as well. it's up 19% year-to-date from depressed levels last year. it's a strong start, but still down 32% over the last 12 months. brian, back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. let's talk more about this if we can. bring in colonel jack jacobs. colonel jacobs right here. the cease-fire that was not a cease-fire, sir. what exactly does putin want? when does he stop? what is the end for this? >> oh, he doesn't stop. he has an objective, and the objective is to take control of all of ukraine along the border all the way down to crimea where all the russians are.
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he already has got it. if that's happening, and it is starting to look like it will happen, he will have total control over that area along the black sea, which will make ukraine a landlock. >> that was my point. if he does this sounds like what he is trying to do is make sure he has the ports. >> oh yeah. >> which would then suggest strategic goal of just maintaining the black sea. >> well there are two things about that. the first is he wants control of the russian speakers in the area. doesn't want them to be under the leadership of ukraine. and number two, more importantly, it gives him more -- it's the only place he is going to have a warm water port in the black sea, and that will deny it to everybody else. >> near that region. >> right. >> so it's interesting because now at least we may know there's some sort of strategic goal. is in a political or economic means to stop this? sfwroo yes, but i don't think we're willing to do it. >> outside of military action. >> we're not going to get involved in military action there in any case. we don't have any support machining the europeans. we don't even have support among the europeans for economic means
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to really squeeze putin. that includes -- >> why not? colonel, they have more to lose. many would say especially with the natural gas pipeline flow that keeps their homes warm in the winter than we do. >> yeah but they don't want to break any connection. they don't want to be on our side. break any connection economic connection in particular with russia. they got the natural gas coming from there. there are lots of economic ties between western europe on the one hand and russia on the other. you heard angela merkel. she was not particularly interested when we said hey, we really want to squeeze these guys, and the thing that we can really use and that is cutting russia off is they don't even want to hear about it. they want to maintain their economic relationship. >> are they willing to say that europe might be willing to sacrifice parts of the ukraine to save -- >> i think they've already done so. i think they've thrown in the toil already. we're want going to do anything to irritate western europe either quite frankly. s. >> pleasure to see you. mandy. let's go over to sue herrera
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for a news alert. sue. >> we're watching this still developing story, mandy. u.s. jury in manhattan federal court has found the palestinian liberation organization and the palestinian authority liable in a civil lawsuit, and that lawsuit was filed over attacks in israel that occurred about a decade ago. it was a $1 billion lawsuit under the anti-terrorism act. the damages can be tripled, and they have awarded -- the jury has award the palestinian -- the plaintiffs if you will more than $218 million. again, because this was filed under the u.s. anti-terrorism act, those damages can be tripled. now, it's interesting because the palestinians are watching this very closely because they want to appeal to the hague to take israel to court over what they're calling war crimes. this verdict is being very closely watched by both israel and the palestinian authority. once again, the jury has awarded the victims of the attacks more
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than $218 million, but under the u.s. anti-terrorism act, those damages can be tripled. the jury found the palestinian liberation organization and the palestinian authority liable. this is a civil lawsuit for those attacks that occurred about ten years ago in israel. so now let's get more breaking news, and we're going to go down to washington. eamon javers is live for us there. >> i want to highlight for you a little exchange here. a testy exchange that happened a while ago here in washington d.c. this is admiral mike rogers the head of the nsa. he was at the ronald reagan building here in washington giving remarks. they opened it up for a q and a, and alex stamos the chief security exchange officer for yahoo skood whether yahoo and the other companies should build in back doors for any government that asks them including the russians and the chinese. here's a snip et of that exchange. take a listen. >> my name is alex stamos.
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it sounds like you agree with the director that we should be building defects into the encryption in our products so that the u.s. government can decrypt. >> that would be your characterization. >> i think -- i think -- i think bruce snyder and ed felton and all of the best public cryptographers in the world would agree that you can't build back doors. it's like drilling a hole in a windshield. >> i have a lot of world class cryptographers in the -- >> this goes back to whether or not the u.s. companies should be required to allow access to the fbi and intelligence agencies like the nsa into their products. a lot of the tech community in silicon valley is resisting that idea altogether and this exchange really highlights some of the animosity and tension that we've seen between silicon valley and the u.s. government going back last week when president obama was out in silicon valley. a couple of prominent tech company ceos did not participate in the cyber security summit. that raised eyebrows. this exchange today will raise a few eyebrows as well.
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i'm told that alex stamos is a well respected figure in silicon valley and that his views are sort of reflective of a broader sense within silicon valley that the nsa and u.s. intelligence are simply asking too much of u.s. intelligence -- u.s. tech companies. guys. >> it's a lot of raised eyebrows. thank you very much for the latest on that. greece's first test comes later today. will their list of reforms please the european union, or will it be back to square one? when power lunch is back in two minutes with some answers. don't go away. male announcer ] who are we? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're
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the ceo of dish network joseph is retiring at the end of march. the second largest satellite tv company missing street revenue forecasts and reporting a loss of 63,000 pay tv subscribers. apple spending $1.9 billion on two european data centers. the centers in ireland and denmark will power the on-line services in europe. this is apple's biggest project to date in europe and the stock, by the way, currently sitting at $132.14, which i do believe is at a record high. brian. >> okay. over to dominik for a quick market flash. >> sharsz of tech services and solutions company computer sciences at their highest level since december of 2000. that's on the heels of a deal record story that the company is in talks to possibly sell itself to private equity or strategic
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buyers citing sources. it has to do with a strategic buyer for the parts of the business that aren't related to government contracts. you may recall last fall blvl did a story saying the company had contact in possible private equity buyers. brooen, back to you. >> thank you very much. meantime greece's first test comes later on today. it must submit a list of proposed reforms to its lenders to see if they passed muster. this, the first of many many steps that they have to take before they can get $10 billion worth of bail-out money. our chief international correspondent is joining us now with the very latest. what is on that list? what may top that list, michelle? >> we don't know because they haven't submitted it yet. >> and it comes later today? >> supposedly. they may be missing the very first deadline here. already it is about -- it's nighttime in europe. it's 8:15 in athens. it's getting down to crunch time. i just received an e-mail from the minister of state saying they are going to accepted the list soon. a government spokesperson says it won't be until tomorrow. it's quite possible they're
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having discussions behind the scenes to make sure what they submit will be approved. now, in the meantime over the weekend the new prime minister alexis tried to put a positive spin on what was nearly complete capitulation. they still had tough negotiations ahead, but greece emerged with its dignity intact. it must be a huge comedown for him because he has been campaigning for years on the notion that if he came to power, he would get the country a better deal. here's what he said in september. >> if you become the next prime minister of greece what's your first step? >> my first step would be to renegotiate hard the loan agreement and to try to find a common viable solution because this program, the troyka program wasn't work. not just for greece people but for all european people. sdroo why did he have to back down? >> because of that. >> july and august they owe
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roughly almost 7 billion to the european central bank, and they really need the money. they were hemmed in bottom line. they had almost no leverage. >> next time we'll get you to talk about the potential plan. >> it's potential. it's happening right now. extreme left is furious. the question is what is the general population thinking? >> thank you. >> see you later. >> thank you, michelle. >> a sight you do not see every day. the extreme cold transforming niagara falls into a frozen icy spectacle. inspiring one thrill seeker to climb the majestic landmark. guess what folks. we're lucky because it was all caught on camera. we've got it for you. that's straight ahead on "power lunch."
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it's never been done before simply becomes consider it solved. emerson. $770 billion. it makes it worth twice as much as the second biggest publicly traded company. even in today's trade, exon know down by a percent. you can see over the past year real divergence in the terms of the overall performance. interesting development. just from a statistical. sfwroo unbelievable. dom, thank you very much. okay. we know it is cold, and it gets that way in winter but how cold is it? check this video out. it's incredible. it's a bird's eye view of niagara falls. mostly frozen. a drone flying hundreds of feet
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above showing the falls. maybe they should call it the stops because not much is calling right now. it is unlikely to fall while the cold temperatures continue to hit the east coast this week. most niagara falls visitors are perfectly happy admiring the view from afar but one canadian adventurer, will gadd wanted an up close look. that's how close he got. he climbed the 147 foot ice walls near terrapin point. 681, 750 gallons of water per second pouring down next to him. he finished his climb in one hour becoming the first person ever to ice climb the frozen cliffs. >> you know, the canadians, right? it's like, what you call this cold? incredible. okay. well, time for a check on the bond market. the ten-year yields down today on expectations that janet yellin may take a dovish tone this week, but, folks, as of friday benchmark ten-year yield had risen for three weeks. currently we're sitting at
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2.066%. that, folks, is today's bond report. >> nearly 150,000 midsize sedans and station wagons. maybe at risk of engine fires. the cars are a rubber seal that can fall into the exhaust. that increases the risk of an under the hood fire. as well as the e-class sedan, mandy sfwloosh with new data out on the health of the u.s. housing market and, folks, it's not particularly good news. diane wra is live in washington. diana. >> well, mandy, you blame this one on the cold. i will tell you what you can blame it on coming up next. 1250e ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows
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. >> i'm sue herrera, and here's your cnbc news update for this hour. greece will submit a list of reforms to the euro zone tomorrow morning. it's according to a greek official telling reuters. the finance ministers had set a monday deadline as you probably know but agreed the submission could be made tomorrow. there's a new mortgage
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crisis brewing, says analyst richard bove. during the 2008 crisis funds flowed into the mortgage industry. now he says the funds are drying up. for more on that go to cnbc.com. darden restaurants has a permanent ceo. it named interim chief eugene lee to that post. he took over until october replacing clarence otis who stepped down amid pressure from activist investors. how cold has it been in the midwest? operate darn cold. cold enough in fact to freeze lake erie. a coast guard cutter is breaking up the ice on the great lakes. the last time the lake was completely frozen was back in 1996. baby, it is cold out there. that's the cnbc news update this hour. back to you, guys. >> thank you very much sue. okay. dominik is here. a bit of a down day for the nasdaq. inching away from that 5,000 mark. nonetheless, it's up, what, 4.5% year-to-date, and up 16% in a year. >> it's been a stand-out among the large or the major inteks that we follow, but not one of the ones without a record.
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other ones have been. if you look at the nasdaq composite, year-to-date like you said almost 5%. a real standout. there have been large cap companies that have really outweighed other ones. the nasdaq composite is full of 30 million, 40 million biotech companies and smaller technology firms, and the apples of the world, that kind of thing. if you look at the overall picture, we decided to look at which stock in the nasdaq 100 among the large caps the biggest ones in the nasdaq could have the most up side potential if the analysts average price targets are correct. >> good way of looking at it. >> we don't know if they're correct or not. analyst kz get it wrong too. if you look at the consensus, according to fact set, facebook shares, they're up okay. they're up about 2% so far year-to-date. if you look at the average target price, they could go up another 14%. one of the better performers, if you look at what the up side target is. gilead has been a star for a while now. one of the biotech companies that's year-to-date. it's up 10%, far out pacing the market. the average targeted price has another 16% on top of that. a good one there. maybe if the analysts are correct. now, tesla has taken a beating
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as of late. >> yes it really has. >> especially after earnings. >> down 5%. the average target price, nothing is coming down significantly. still says -- >> do we expect it to? >> maybe. again, you never know when these guys adjust their models their targets. for right now the average target price is $23% higher than where it is right now. yahoo is interesting here. it's down 13% year-to-date. >> look at that. >> but analysts have not taken down their price targets yet, and so a 34 3erz up side is priced in for right now. at least what analysts are thinking. the single best nasdaq 100 stock in terms of potential up side performance if the analysts are correct. american airlines, the high flyers from last year. all those airlines on the heels of falling oil prices. still down about 4% year-to-date. it could go up by 40% if the analysts are correct. it really comes down to whether or not you believe the expert thought on some of these companies. we know that nobody is right all the time. >> the experts often get it wrong as well.
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>> that's the cavat. still, some of the up side performers possibly if the nasdaq is to try to climb to that new record high. >> very interesting. thank you so much dominik. back over to you brian. >> thanks, guys. gilead, the second best performing stock in the nasdaq 100 right now behind discovery communications. overall, though, the markets want moving much. we're waiting on janet yellin tomorrow. we'll talk more about that with steve liesman in the 2:00 eastern time. you can see that folks. the nasdaq is down less than one point. that's about 1/100 of 1%. the dow jones industrial average off 38 points. the s&p 50000 is down three. let's take a look at the bond market. one of the themes recently has been the big spike in yields over the last two or three weeks. we're at 1.6% on the ten-year yield. we're now at 2.07%, and the bond market, folks, that's actually a big deal. bob is live at the new york stock exchange with more. is this a we're just waiting on yellin situation? >> well, that's going to be the big catalyst. i'm a little disappointed though. remember, the port issue got resolved, and it looks like greece is going to kick the can, which is what the market
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anticipated. i thought the rally was fairly modest on friday given the fact that europe was closed at that time. we're weak today primarily because a lot of the energy stocks are weak. oil below $50. look at big energy. exxon is a bit of a drag. chevron is a bit of a drag on the dow. not dramatically so i would say. if you look at refining stocks there's the opposite case. valero, tesoro. we have tons of crude out there. we've got expanded much better than expected u.s. gasoline demand going into the spring season.
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>> today they're down on the market mandy. new thank you very much. bob pass auny setting it all up for us. the question is can you still find value in this market? well, chief investment officer, atlantic trust. dan neemen a partner of neemen funds management. gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. dave, you know as bob was noting, we really are only just a hair away from record highs for the s&p and the dow. near 15-year highs for the nasdaq. are you seeing more value in international markets. international is huge. there are million markets internationally. which ones in particular? the u.k. is at a record high. the nikkei is at a 15-year high. where are you seeing value? >> well we look at the international markets on a relative basis to the u.s. and they lag pretty dramatically. not just last year but in 2013 as well. when we look at the european markets now, the trading at several multiple points below the u.s. market. the economic news there, it's certainly not good. the margin has started to get a
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little better. that's one interesting area. then the other area would be particularly in the asian emerging markets, which are beginning to see some green shoots and are substantially less valued than the u.s. >> just hold that thought for two seconds. i want to pin you down on which asian emerging markets in particular ewe talking about. let's bring up what oil is doing. back to you, dave. whereabouts in asia are you seeing? are you looking at china, or which emerging marks in particular? >> the economies benefit from this substantially lower prices. chooun is very interesting situation while the economy is not performing terribly well there. the equity market had under performed for a number of years
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and seems to be acting better. those would be two of the big markets in asia that look interesting. >> okay. thank you very much. dan, okay. energy is interesting. we've got a whole pile of things on our plate. we have janet yellin talking and oil, of course, which is closely correlated with stocks and also -- >> mannedy, can i jump in for just a second? dan and dave i apologize, but i do want to hit this headline which is big for oil as we head down to the close. the financial times reporting that nigeria's opec oil minister is suggesting this tha opec may hold an emergency meeting on the crude oil slide. again, we just got a headline now. dan greenhouse of btig said it to me along with others. i apologize for jumping in, but if energy and oil prices are a part of the thesis nigeria is suggesting that opec is going to hold an emergency meeting to deal with potentially the crude oil slide, guys. right now the price of a west texas intermediate not moving a lot. it's down $40.85 a barrel. that's where it was before the headlines. they literally just crossed. >> can you serm see it coming off its lows there, and the
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intraday, you know, a little bit of a spike as it does come off those lows. what do you think is going to guide the markets this week dan? you know is it going to be oil? is it going to be yellin or greece? what would you put your money on? dan? have you got me? no. maybe not. okay dave, would you like to answer that question? >> i think certainly janet yellin's testimony tomorrow and wednesday will be important, and what we'll be looking for is if she tries toex up and down the fed's flexibility. in other words, get away from the vague time-based measures about when they might raise rates. we heard about a considerable period, and now we're going to be patient. >> they're going to be watching the economic data very closely, and might act more quickly should that data begin to develop a trend either to the up side or down side. >> if had he this he see the
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economy as solid, and we've got almost emergency level interest rates that seems to be a did hes connect, doesn't it? dave, thank you very much. apologies. we'll try to get dan back another day. check out another big pic from dave and dan. go to power lunch.cnbc.com after the show and see what could give you a portfolio a boost. that's power lunch.cnbc. in case you didn't get it first time. >> i want to hit those headlines just very quickly. it's a big deal on oil. brent cruel right now down just 15 cents. about $1.50 off the low of the session. just to reiterate. reporting that nigeria at least is saying that opec may hold an emergency meeting soon to deal with the slide of the price of crude oil. more importantly, this might be some cracks in opec. remember saudi arabia is effectively said it has no problem with the price slide. the other members may have something to say about that. perhaps some cracks coming in opec. i'm sure we'll have a guest on opec breaking for you in just minutes. meantime existing home sales hitting a nine-month low. diana live with those numbers.
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diana. >> well, brian, not a great start to 2015, and whatever you do, do not blame it on the cold because the biggest drop in sales was in the west where temperatures were, dare i say, temperate. still up 3.2% from a year ago, but last january was so sluggish that it's not hard to beat that. realtors calling it a notable speed bump and blaming a lack of homes for sale. take a look. inventory-wise things do look worse out west. california las vegas, denver all seeing big drops in the number of homes for sale compared to last january. even moving east in texas and chicago, not much for buyers to choose from. miami is the out liar, and we talked about over building there. new york is doing better. boston not so much. why aren't people listing their homes for sale? could be that they can't afford to move up. home prices have started to increase more, again, up 6.2% from january -- in january from a year ago.
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that's across most price categories. interest rates are also moving up. add it up and people may just want to stay put. first-time buyers share is falling again. not a good sign. it had been improving. while we can talk all we want about the improving economy and more jobs that doesn't matter to housing if there are not enough affordable homes to buy. brian. >> diana, thank you very much. let's get another market flash and go back to dominik. what are you looking at? >> keep an eye. we're watching all the big health insurance companies here, and that's after the government released its proposed reimbursement rates for 2013. that calls for a nearly 1% cut for payments to health insurers and could be a small gain in total revenues if you factor in other things. among the gainers, humana aetna. well care is one of the best performers in the s&p midcap 400 index. back to you. >> thank you. well the heart of proxy season still months away right, mary, but behind the scenes and also in the headlines the key issues are already being hashed out.
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mary thompson is here to get us hopefully ahead of the game. >> that's right. there are three key things. activism. proxy access and board refreshment. anyone following business news of course, knows that activists not only want to replace board members, but as proxy advisors patrick told cnbc some want firms to merge or purge. that is, look for a buyer, sell assets, or split the companies up. among the battle that is are being watched is proxy season try-ones to get dupont to split up. harry wilson's efforts to get him a board seat and buy back shares and the marcato's request to sotheby's that it buy back its stock. the most popular proposal will be allowing certain shareholders, rather than just a company, to nominate directors. a number of public pension funds including new york city submitting these proposals. comptroller scott stringer finding them at 75 firms asking that a group of shareholders owning 3% of the company's stob
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that they've held for three years, be allowed to nominate up to a quarter of the directors to the board. stringer said the desire for proxy access is being driven by hair shoulder concerns about three issues where are. >> we're concerned about energy companies that are not focussing on climate change. we're very concerned about ceo compensation, excess ceo compensation. we're also very concerned about corporate board diversity. >> now, the last issue that is focused this year is board refreshment. mostly behind the scenes movement by investors to get firms to replace long serving directors who some feel are no longer independent, and this also allows some boards to increase diversity. at least that's a theory among the investors who are pushing that. again, it's behind the scenes. not something you're likely to see play out a lot this year. >> thank you very much. peeling back the curtain for us. mary thompson thank you. >> al shabaab saying they will target american shopping malls. specifically the mall of america in bloomington, minnesota.
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what is the protection plan? we'll talk about that coming up in two minutes. before the break, let's take a look at oil, folks, because this has been a big move. brent crude is now positive on the session. it's $60.39 a barrel. wti not quite, but well off its lows. the headlines, at least from the financial times, nigeria's oil minister apparently telling or being reported on by the ft that there may be an emergency opec meeting to deal with the price slide. wti still down but well off its lows. brent crude now positive. will this turn the tide on oil permanently? we'll talk more about that and much more when "power lunch" returns. financial noise financial noise financial noise
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zimplt welcome back to power lunch. they're coming just a bit now. they're being 4e78 helped along by analysts at citigroup. they're remaining positive but if prices for the products can be raised, it would help profit estimates here. international paper, rock ten,
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packaging corp. of america were mentioned in the note as beneficiaries of the possible higher prices as well as lower input costs. mandy, back to you. >> thank you. over the weekend a disturbing threat from the islamic group al shbaab based in africa. they said they would target american shopping malls, specifically the mall of america, and jewish-owned shopping centers throughout the world. let's go to eamon live with the protection plan. first, let's go to john yang at the mall of america. john. >> it's business as usual here at the mall of america. people are doing their shopping. the store managers i talked to say the crowds are about normal. no change over the weekend. there is some security. it's not overwhelming. message boards telling people if they see something, say something. earlier we talked to a gentleman from kansas who had been here for a shopping weekend, and he says he says americans are getting tired of all these threats. >> i mean it's something to keep in the back of your minds,
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but really it's just a bunch of scared people in the middle east trying to cause something here. didn't work. sfroo one reason for the concern here at the mall of america in minneapolis is the home to a large somali immigrant community, and some of those immigrants have actually gone back according to analysts. maybe as many as a couple of dozen to enlist in al shbaab and even in isis. today the somali community joint leadership issued a statement saying "we condemn all forms of terrorism or threats of terrorism, rupudiate any individual or group that would carry out such attacks or make such threats and remain committed to being at the forefront of defeating religious or political extremism." mandy, so far today business as usual at the mall of america. brian, over to you. >> thanks mandy. just to remind you, folks, we
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are waiting for the president to make a big statement on 401k changes that he is hoping to make. that is coming up at the top of the next hour. plus, the money detail behind one of the most expensive and public divorces ever. more "power lunch" coming up after this.
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now with the xfinity tv go app, you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. >> welcome back to "power lunch."
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following the developing story now about potential terror threats against american shopping malls particularly the mall of america in minnesota. just within the past hour the white house has addressed these theys saying there is no credible specific threat against the mall of america, but also saying that americans should be vigilant watching what's going on at the malls. folks are telling us that they are adding added security, but malls have had security in place for years since 9/11. i have poken with mitchell silver, a former nypd intelligence analyst. k2 intelligence now. he says this is a difficult challenge for american dpz to face dealing with a potential terror threat that's fairly vague. he said that minnesota in particular has a large somali-american population and that's going to be one of the areas of concern there and, of course we just saw a statement from the somali-american community in minnesota condemning any form of terror dark, but silver also telling me that, mandy, when you look to secure a shopping mall you have to do what the israelis have done and use that as a model
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here in protecting american commerce. three layers of security here. one outside the shopping mall to look at people who are coming into the mall and doing behavioral analysis on those folks, whether they are sweaty or anxious or look threatening or menacing. then at the entrance to the mall and security inside the shopping malls. all of that, mandy, is going to cost some money for american shopping malls and the threat being as vague as it is this is very difficult -- >> it's a mammoth task. we talk about this in the past. some people say it's not completely possible to achieve. thank you very much. well this is what we're looking at. this hour's power points. okay. let's move on. there are reports that opec may hold an emergency meeting if crude prices continue to slide. we actually saw a spike in wti and grade coming off the lows on those reports. we also learn that if the nasdaq closes lower today, it will be the first negative close in nine sessions, and we also found out that while a deal may have been
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reached at the ports, there may be more political hurdle that is we have yet to cross as well. a little bit of a damper on things. over to you. >> mandy, thank you very much. next up splitsville with dr. love, aka dr. frank. we're talking about the grip in divorce which is getting increasingly public and nasty. >> given? family guy. >> ken grifen. we're going to talk about what's being requested for their family vacations. what they spend measure month on restaurants and even stationery. you're not going to believe these numbers coming up. with a control pad that can read your handwriting, a wide-screen multimedia center, and a head-up display for enhanced driver focus. all inside a redesigned cabin of unrivaled style and comfort. the 2015 c-class. at the very touchpoint of performance and innovation. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through
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>> got robert frank here. we want to know what the super rich spend. especially when it comes to divorce. >> this divorce really gives us an insight. take a look. new filings from hedge fund billionaire ken griffin detail his family's monthly spend and request from his ex-wife. now, the expenses include $300,000 a month for the private jet, $60,000 a month for professional staff $6,800 a month for groceries, $7,200 for restaurant meals $8,000 a month for gifts, and, get this $2,000 a month for stationery. now, griffin also says diaz
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requested $450,000 to take the kids on a ten-day trip to st. bart's during the winter break. ken turned that down giving her and the kids only $45,000 for the vacation. skrimping there. at issue here is illinois law and child support it says that cheeld support is required in keeping with the couple's expenses during their marriage. diaz says basically this is what the couple spent during their marriage, and that ken has failed to pay adequate child support. she says ken "continues to lie with impunity in an effort to avoid his financial responsibilities." now, he says that she is basically just trying to fund her opulent lifestyle by calling it child support, and he says he has paid virtually all reasonable expenses related to the kids. i guess, mandy, reasonable here like $45,000 vacations is all relative. >> $2,000 on stationery. that's the one that got me. that's a lot of paper clips. >> that's a lot of embossed stationery. yeah. does she not have e-mail? i don't know. it's just a lot of money. >> maybe she needs ink and, i
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don't know maybe a pen. thanks very much. that is it for the first hour of "power lunch." you're in luck because there's a second hour coming your way, and for that brian, i hand it over to you, sir. >> all right. thank you very much, mandy. we do appreciate that. all right. it is nearly 2:00 p.m. on wall street. welcome to the second hour of power lunch. i am brian sullivan. we have melissa joining us from the nasdaq in moments. we are going to begin with the big news on oil. crude oil p popping on headlines that opec might hold an emergency meeting to deal with a recent price collapse. let's get right now to jackie deangeles live at the new york mercantile exchange. jackie, it appears to just be one headline for the financial times, but it looks like traders are buying into it. >> that's right. well, at first they were buying into it, brian. a headline like that of course is going to move the oil market and it did. in fact, though we're watching wti back under $50. $49.72. what happens down here sometimes is a knee jerk reaction to some news, and then when people really think about it and process it we see a different
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reaction. opec hasn't gotten together to discuss it at all. part of the reason for that is that saudi arabia, as you mentioned before, is really sort of the leading members drawing the line in the sand saying look, we are going to watch these oil prices go down and we had the last meeting in december where no changes were made to production. the next meeting was supposed to be in june. it makes sense that they're starting to maybe talk about this now because of what we're seeing happen here in the united states. i think the opec members were hoping that the united states production would stop -- start to drop sooner but what we're hearing, actually is that we're
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at record stops for the iea. they're not seeing that fast enough. it's potential they could call this meeting. we have to hear an official word from opec before we buy into this headline. back to you. >> nigeria, if it's saying it should be an emergency opec meeting, might want to look in the collective mirror because they have been one of the other countries in africa with angola that has been increasing production. >> no doubt, brian. i don't really. they're part of the group within opec that has been pressing really since the end of the year, and even during the opec meeting that jackie just referenced for some kind of production response to the lower prices. this is going to fall on deaf ears in the kingdom of saudi arabia and in kuwait, and as you mentioned, they continue to increase production. as does iraq for that matter and
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even non-opec ammad is looking to put more on the market. this dynamic hasn't changed, and i think the saudis as jackie rightly referenced are waiting for a longer-term play to squeeze out of the u.s. shale producers and as those counts continue to come down they are counting their days to when the price can rebound on that basis and not from them cutting. >> but when you call somebody out in the media like phil jackson, actually, with the new york knicks, what you are trying to do is apply public pressure john. do you believe that nigeria is trying to kind of maybe get saudi arabia to the table by any means necessary because to your point, saudi arabia has said we have no problem with these prices. one wonder what nigeria's ultimate goal is here and whether or not this does signify some of the first cracks that we have seen in opec. >> nigeria has been one of the hardest hit countries in this whole episode. not only are they getting lower prices, but they've been squeezed out of the u.s. market.
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they were one of our bigger suppliers for decades really and that's over with. they've been stuffed with unsold cargos for quite some time during last we're. having trouble getting new buyers in asia. then and in venezuela in particular and in iran for that matter are the hardest hit. it makes sense that they would be calling for the meeting, and i think, yes, at the end of the day, saudi arabia does want to hold the cartel together. you could potentially see them cave in and agree to a march or april meeting, which we can rally prices temporarily, but i think the saudis would have the same message at the emergency meeting as they've had all along here. patience my friends. patience. >> jon thank you very much. melissa. >> how to get through the massive backlogs. retailers not in the clear just yet. the question is 2340u are there ways to invest on this news.
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>> you had trade into the potential port and lock-out. expediters and uti and air freight names like atlas air now coming out of the port crisis. you can buy some of the truck load or surface lever names on my list. it would be the truck load brokers. robinson, lance star and xpo would be the ones i would recommend. >> basically on the trucker side jack these are the asset light models are the ones that don't actually own the truckers. those are the ones you like most? >> that's right. that's right. >> brandon, how about you? >> hey, melissa. thanks for having us on. the port slowdown was really kind of a one-time issue for a lot of our companies. we definitely saw the volume slow in the first quarter for
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the big railroads and even some of the trucking companies. i think on the back of that we're going to go a little bit different than jack. we do like the union based -- the asset based companies here like union pacific. i know it's over owned in industrials right now, but just given the tight capacity we have across rails and trucking markets, i do think it only adds to the urgency. we've heard from gap, ann taylor, lululemon, and everyone's supply chain has been messed up by the port issue. we do think there's urgency to get the boxes out of the the west coast, and we do think it's favorable for the asset owners that can move capacity. it would be with union pacific and even night truck, which is a small cap trucking stock out of phoenix. ? on union pacific, is the bigger driver here going to be the depressed energy prices and depressed activity in the shale region, or is a bigger driver going to be the need to transport these goods away from the ports and into where they need to be? >> you know we just had union pacific cfo, rob knight at our conference in miami last week. obviously there's a lot of challenges with energy.
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they've actually been facing crude oil going down for about the past four quarters in their business. >> they believe a lot of volume is going to move as we get the port decongesteded. >> >>. >> it will act solely in the best interest of the client just like certified financial planners. brokers say this will force some independent advisors our the retirement market. >> daily brown, president and ceo of the financial services
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institute. sharon. what i just read even confused me. please put this in plain english. >> this is a question that your broker, financial advisor does not want you to ask. do you uphold the fiduciary. the doctor needs to write you a prescription for the drug. they write you a prescription that works best for you. that's the standard. you move to another doctor who works for a big pharmaceutical company. they get get a bonus, and they write you a prescription for that drug that even though you tell them another drug works better for you. that's the suitability standard. it's fine but it may not number your best interest. that's what you need to find out from your advisor. whether they uphold the fiduciar yr y or suitability standard. now they want to make sure that the standard is upheld by everyone. sfroo what are, then the correct questions to ask? >> there are three questions you really need to ask your advisor, and the first one, of course is how do you get compensate snd is it fee only or commission only is it a combination of those?
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then are you getting an advisory account or a brokerage account? this will determine whether or not they're going to be perhaps a registered investment advisor and overseen by the security and exchange commission or whether they're operated by over seen by finish are a or both. then also find out exactly what any conflicts of interest may be and how they're going to explain those to you and the best way to make sure that you have someone who upholds this fiduciary standard is to get a certified financial planner like we have on the panel right here and get someone who is bound to uphold that fiduciary standard based on the testing that has been required that they go through. >> i want to go to you. this seems like a great deal for consumers. seems like it would be in their intes interest to have somebody working in their best interest as opposed to what simply is suitable. why is this bad? >> well it's not necessarily bad. the people who need help and guidance and advice the most are
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people with only thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to invest and in most cases the opings and choices available to them are an advisor where they can pay their add vazor by a commission rather than an ongoing asset management fee. our concern is about the potential negative unintended consequences of a broad and sweeping proposal. >> which are what? what are the unintended consequences? >> well if it force drives up the cost to a financial advisor to the point where they can no longer afford to provide those services to a small investor, then investors have fewer and fewer choices of where they can go and get that help and guidance? >> i would imagine this will create more competition in the marketplace. if all of a sudden you have thousands of brokers out there who have to act in the best fi -- if a fiduciary way, then you level the playing field and it increases competition, and therefore, there could be more price competition, and that would, therefore, be beneficial to consumers. >> i think anything like that is
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great for consumers. i think a lot of this came from the fact when the waters got muddied when the brokerage firms started allowing their brokers to be called financial advisors and people really although they expect the fact that their investment person should be acting in their best interest it isn't always the case. i'm a big fan of more disclosure and more transparency and with that it's just very simple. you can act as a broker. that will allow those people to still be serviced. just understand that there are conflicts there. the big difference with the financial advisor is that you can have conflicts, but they must be disclosed. part of the issue here is that when the department of labor is stepping in here saying we want to do a fiduciary standard the definition is there can be no conflicts. this is going to cause some unintended consequences. we would welcome more people in the industry. there are less people in the industry now than there were 15 years ago. there are 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. we need more good qualified people that do work in the best interest of their clients in
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this field. we have a choice as an investment person how you want to work. do i want to work for a big brokerage firm sxb a broker or do i want to be a fiduciary standard following person as an ria or cfp, as we've chosen to be. you can do that. i would welcome that. >> i think people need to understand there are different ways that these brokers and investment advisors are compensated, and that's a key point to understand and when you say to some people -- this is true. many people have $5,000 $10,000 to invest. how can they hire an advisor? hire an advisor on an hourly basis. there are certified financial planners that work that way. i think consumers just need to be educated that there are people there that can help them on a range of topics and just picking out one investment product for someone might not necessarily be in their best interest either. someone who is going to look at your whole financial history and your financial goals is what you want. >> sharon doug, dale, thank you all very much. let us set the menu for the remainder of "power lunch." okay.
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it is cold outside. we mean really cold and it goes beyond the northeast and way behind the plain states. travel plans could be impacted. we'll let you know where and how. plus, words with the fed. what should you watch when janet yellin speaks tomorrow? and it's being called -- well it's being called by some the kiss your sister trade. pucker up. we're back after this. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today.
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>> bull market up more than 30% as a cold snap greps a big part of the nation. the national weather service says temperatures are 20 degrees below average from the great plains to the northeast here. brian. >> that could eat into gas price savings too. we talk about that. >> tomorrow a huge day for the markets. >> her words could move billions. steve liesman has a pun and a game of words with feds. fwloo we do better on this show. this is what we got. what i did is i used one of those word cloud searches, and i put the december press conference into it that yellin gave, and take a look. you can see there on the wall behind us.
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>> we see it moving back towards the objective. you see the word committee coming out a lot there, and that's because a lot of what yellin does and the way she puts things in context of what the committee says not what she says. she's not in the greenspan mold of i am running. she's in the mold more of bernanke and of the committee is coming forward with x, y, sdmr. we have a list of things i'm looking for tomorrow to see if these words show up at all. is the labor market strong or some characterization. probably no brainer to get that. the next one would be inflation. is it too low? again, the notion of is it heading back towards the committee's objective of 2%.
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>> i think oil was 69 times. the word oil, and we got the port strike and security concerns at malls. could we see the word inflation be used even more? >> it could definitely show up even more and the question is the context. is it one of it's too low and it's too low for me to raise rates, or it's too low and it's heading higher to 2% so i'm cool or i'm chill the last time if terms of the most used word. >> i think it's going to be inflation again. i think it's going to be inflation in the same context. >> will oil make it -- will oil make it to the radar? >> think also something we
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haven't talked about, which is this is the first meeting of the senate banking under the new republican leadership. republicans have a political agenda when it comes to the federal reserve on several counts. there's audit the fed, there's the notion of whether or not the fed should follow a policy rule. all of that stuff may come up and i'm very interested to listen to senator shelby and what he thinks about the federal reserve and where he lies on some of the notions about auditing the fed and what the fed regards some as independent. >> to your point, and melissa, to yours as well. if they use the word inflation a lot but it's preceded by there is no, then it changes the dynamic. >> that's the way that the word cloud can lead you astray. >> there is way too much oil. then you see the word cloud. that's inflation really big. >> inflation -- >> use it on the head. the notion of is it inflation used is it's too low. we can still raise rates, or it's too low, and we need to
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hold off. >> thank you. >> cnbc will have live coverage of janet yellin's testimony before congress. that all kicks off tomorrow morning 10:00 eastern time. still ahead, if you have been in this trade, it's been like a long, boring family dinner with your aunt alice and uncle mort. we'll explain coming up. and a bullish sign of the times. what the price of a tooth may say about the economy. before we get a break, let's go check on oil again. reports out there at least one possible emergency opec meeting being called. brent crude back below, though, $60 a barrel. briefly went above that earlier. back below it. $49.38. wti crude. the market ignoring the reports or just doesn't care. we're back after this.
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us. val aero the hottest of them all. it's up 20%. this stock looks like it is breaking out. it's up another $2 to $62.72. melissa. >> check out what's happening in the price of gold. you can see a nice rally in january. reverse this month, though. is gold about to break out again. let's bring in contributor jeff kilburg. jeff, you got an article on cnbc.com/pro calling this the kissing your sister trade. what does that mean? >> well here in chicago kissing your sister trade means, melissa, it's just boring. it's just boring. look at the start of the we're. the first day of trade $11.58. we saw some tumult in the market that came in. took it above 1,300, and now we're right back so you are kissing your sister. >> why is it going to break out now? what's going to be the catalyst?
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>> we stayed above. we have every reason for gold to go higher. from janet yell sxin chinese new year being over and a historic highs in the stock market. we are due for a pullback. >> you know it's going to be hokies 1 and -- we're not going let you forget that comment. let's move to the trade. >> dually noted. >> the matter at hand here sir, which is gold. who are the buyers of gold? used to be those that were you know, i don't want to call them a conspiracy they'rist, but currency instability. it's a safe haven. we talk about india. who are the big buyers of gold right now?
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>> it's really shining to me as an entry -- jeff, be sure to check out jeff's full take. it's entitled don't send your kids to notre dame. it's coming up in street talk. we'll explain. plus, it is the final countdown to the oil close. crude currently lower on the day. the headlines and the ft move the market for about ten minutes. we're going back to the nymex when power lunch returns.
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now with the xfinity tv go app, you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. >> sim sue herrera. the justice department has formally requested an emergency stay to put on hold a judge's decision to temporarily lock president obama's executive abbings on immigration. justice department says he didn't have the authority to issue that injunction. the head of the national security agency refused comment on reports the government
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emplants spyware on computer hard drives for surveillance purposes. u.s. navy admiral michael rogers said "we fully comply with the law." am announced plans to open two new data southwest wrshz the biggest european project to date. they will power the company's on-line services. apple stock hitting a record high today. a massive fire burning on a new jersey highway this morning. a tanker truck carrying nearly 9,000 gallons of fuel overturned and burst into flames on a -- the driver was able to get out thank goodness. nearby homes, though were evacuated. that's the cnbc news update for this hour. brian, back to you. >> all right, sue. thank you very much. we had a brief blip in the price of oil, but we're giving much of that back as we settle into the close. let's if to the floor of the nymex for the final trades. it was a pretty wild final 60 minutes for you.
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it definitely was. we're looking at brent crude under 60 now. just about $59 at the close here. it's interesting, brian, the traders are saying they sort of die just jested that headline. we look at sort of the scope of nigeria here within opec. at the end of the day it does come back to middle eastern countries. ron is a big producer that's being squeezed and even it can't influence saudi arabia which is the leading producers. that's really what this comes back to. saudi is calling the shots here but a lot of people questioning sort of the did hes cord in opec right now. it's under 50 here and the fact that we're under 60 in brent crude certainly sets us up for the down side tomorrow. >> thank you, jackie. as nasa composite tries to get back to 5,000, we want to look at how the biggest stocks are doing right now. take a look at the nasdaq 100. up 5% so far this year.
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>> the nasdaq composite is full of a lot of smaller companies. they are important, but they don't have the same weight as some of the larger companies do. if you take a look at where the year-to-date drivers have been for the nasdaq in terms of its move higher back towards that 5,000 level, look at a company like biogen which is i large biotechnology pharmaceutical type company, and it's up about 20% just so far year-to-date so that's huge. add on to it the fact that it's a $96 billion company. it carries a lot of weight. it adds a lot of points to the overall index. the other big one here is amazon.com. it's up 23% year-to-date and it's almost double the size of biogen. a huge move higher. of course, the one stock that we
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always talk about that's really powering things, and we say this only to put in the context of how much of an impact apple has on the overall market. by far the single biggest driver of the nasdaq 100 and the nasdaq composite indexes year-to-date is apple. it's up 17%. not as much as amazon, but when you are worth three-quarters of a trillion dollars, your moves tend to exacerbate the moves of the overall market. those three stocks account for the bulk and i mean bulk, of all the nasdaq's gains so far this year. back to you. >> fascinating and amazing stats. thank you very much. now it is time for street talk. folks, we do this every day. five analyst calls on stocks. melissa, are you ready? >> always ready. >> are you set? >> always stet. >> let's go. >> let's start by looking at dollar general. jp morgan reinstating coverage with an overweight $58 target. that implies 20% up side. lower gas prices of course part of the story. they factor in 3% same store sales growth. we always talk about the dollar stores and their advantage over
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some of the big box stores. you take a look at dollar general. up 24%. wal-mart up 15%. there could be some moving in terms of where consumers are shopping these days. next up we're watching lab corp. chris swoous. this is a new high on the stock. lab corps announced to buy covan. went from very negative to exteamly positive. fwood for diversifying its space. creationing exposure to the drug development business. >> it's been a money maker. they love that deal. the stock is now 34% off its 52-week low. it's been a rocket ship. symptom three is mohawk. bob says the company is firing on all cylinders. raising his price target on the textile maker. that's a 13% jump on its price target raising estimates, and he called last quarter a tour deforce. >> more interestingly, brian ownering the conference call
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management was talking about things that were benefitting the flooring business. things like stronger home prices, but also gas prices so we did see the stock made very nice gains off of the back of that quarter last week. >> next up we're taking a look at standard pacific. conference point cutting both to a neutral. got existing home sales. we saw it fall more than forecast, and sliding to the lowest seasonally adjusted annualized rate in april. >> this company really midcap housing company. big player in the sand states. california, nevada texas, and florida. five big developments going in southern california alone. if are you worried about texas in particular, they have two there. california. this is a name to watch. last stock always an under the radar name. nimble storage. $2 billion market cap. data storage company. starting with a buy and a $32 target. they see about 20% up side in nimble storage. >> they report earnings on the
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26th of february. >> 5-0% over the past 12 months. need to see if this plays out. >> riding to the rescue so to speak. thank you very much. okay. do lower gas prices really encourage people to buy bigger cars, trucks or suvs? point, counter point is coming up next. disney's latest move will cost you more at the parks, but it could be very good for shareholders who are already doing pretty well. disney up 10%. what they're doing and why it matters. coming up next.
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disney raising ticket prices to its theme parks that now cost $105. the stock only up right now, but it did hit an all-time high earlier this session. other big name stocks also hitting all-time highs today, apple, master card, and starbucks. >> all right melissa. well every morning -- or monday, i should say. every morning would be a lot of work. i'm posting a new column to cnbc pro called new ideas. this morning i talk about the secret stealth rally that is going on. dom gave you great stats. i throw out a few more.
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check it out. cnbc.com pro. i'm going try every morning to put together some of the ideas and things inside the market using facts and all kinds of stock screeners to pluck out something interesting. if it is not interesting, i just urge patience and kindness. >> 53% of vehicle purchases were suvs. that is the highest share in a decade. it is amaze aring brian, how quickly we forget about the era of higher gas prices. >> i think bigger cars breed bigger cars melissa. you're driving on the road in your mini and you look up and there's a giant ford escalade next to you. you don't feel very safe. i say go big or go home.
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everybody should drive an suv. >> it's keeping up with the -- that's crazy. >> i will say this. i drive a jacked up jeep. it's pretty high up in the air. i can confirm this. i look down driving now. 100% of people are texting and driving. literally 100% of everybody is technicaling while driving. >> i hope every single one of them gets a ticket. >> stock two. you know how i know that because i was text and i saw them. microsoft search engine binge correctly predict, get this 84% of the oscar winners last night using a model based off its search engine research. they also did some world cup stats. is microsoft now, melissa, perhaps the king of predictions? they seem to be. >> somehow they can get people to pay for this or advertise this as a feature of bing maybe they can get more people to use bing, and that would be good for their search business. >> we gave them free publicity right there. >> that's true. our last point-kousht point, does bank of america knowates negative note on tesla, and cut the price target from $70 tors dla 65. >> to what? >> to $65 a share.
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>> to $65 on tesla? where is the stock. >> the stock is at $211 and change. >> they cut it to $65? >> yes. >> they have had an under perform rating on this stock since 2013. the stock has gone up sevenfold since then. i asked the question brian. i get the fundamental bear take on tesla. i do get it. why would you -- does it serve anybody any good to have an underperform rating when the stock is going to go up seven-fold and stick with the $65 price target on the stock? >> no i think, listen you know what analysts out there, whatever you think of them they work hard right? a lot of smart math. like everybody else like the media, whatever, they make bad calls, make bad statements. they screw up whatever. you do have a head of the research desk, though. all these big firms do. our viewers may not be aware of how the research process works. at some point some people have to say the $65 target maybe we should suspend coverage at some point. whatever. however, melissa, if this analyst turns out to be right, he or she will be a hero.
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>> yeah. absolutely. they could be holding on for quite some time though. all right. cyber security stocks on our radar today. taking a hit after jp morgan downgraded cyber art. some of the names have done pretty well. let's bring in joel fishbin at vmo capital markets. great to have you with us. >> thank you. good afternoon. >> in some -- it's amazing the discrepancy and the disparity, i should say, between the performances of various stocks. i mean, you have a checkpoint which is one of your top picks. it's up 22% over the past 12 months. qualus up 81% over the last 12 months. then you have name like baur could youeda up 9%, and you take a look even outside your universe, and you take a look at a fire eye, and that's really been a troubled stock. what is a differentiating factor? as we hear more and more about these cyber braechz, you think everything should be coming up roses for all of these companies. >> yeah. well, there is no silver bullet for any of these cyber security
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solutions throughout. it's surpassed -- woef got an evolving situation. some of these newer technologies that are out there, like imperva, impv one of the companies we like are really trying to protect the data wherever it is. even if criminals do get in they can't actually have access to the data. i think that's one of the differentiating factors that you are seeing in some of the outperformance of some of the names versus the others. >> let's take a look at imperva then. it's down about 24% over the last 12 months. you like the product. what does it need to do in order for this stock to follow? >> it's funny because it is down over the -- it's actually more than doubled. it does have a bad quarter. it was a different management team at the time. they did actually miss a quarter. since that time they've executed
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fairly flawlessly. they'll continue to execute extremely well and the stock will outperform from our perspective. >> in terms of any of these names that are your top picks, are they in your coverage universe, are any poised to be take-out targets. sn we're hearing every day about these larger tech companies, like a cisco or ibm might be acquirers and that some of the security companies might be great candidates for take-outs. john chamber from cisco at davos actually said that cisco plans to be one of the largest security companies in the world, and the way they're going to get there is through acquisition. i do think some of the other names, ibm, hp others will have historically done -- >> who do you think are targets? who do you think are targets? >> i would -- out of the names that we cover, i think imperva makes a lot of sense for somebody. i think barracuda, cuda makes a lot of sense, and i do expect
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there to be more consolidation in the space. >> great to speak with you. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> joel fishbin of ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need.
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. >> some amazing video in from a -- the combination of a burst water pipe and days of heavy rain causing a 33 foot in diameter sinkhole to open in suburban naples. 33 people evacuated. no casualties have been reported. yet, you can see that is a big sinkhole right on the edge of an apartment building. mount st. helens wra. >> that is crazy video, brian. goldman saks meantime more potential legal losses raising its estimate to $3 billion. it had been $2.5 billion. that's above what it already has in research. the stocks is in fact trading
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lower along with many of the financials. goldman says the u.s. attorney in california warned that it could face a civil lawsuit over sales of mortgage bonds from before the financial crisis. goldman disclosed this in a regulatory filing toted. >> goldman saks is carefully planning for its financial future, but unless you are a relative of marcus goldman or samuel saks you probably have some of your own planning to do and some new numbers out on the average household savings. we welcome back in sharon eperson. that's a great -- i'm so lucky. >> i really am. >> what are the new numbers out? >> there's a new survey that shows that most americans don't even know their net worth. most also don't have a spending plan to help them meet their savings goals, but it is encouraging that the majority of americans say they're able to put away at least 5% of their income and the percentage of those doing so has increased in the past year. these are the latest findings from the annual america saves week survey commissioned by the consumer fed wrags of america, the american savings education council and it shows some
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progress. in addition to the increase in the percentage of those who say they're saving at least 5% of their income more than half of americans are doing so. 78% say they have no consumer debt or are reducing it. and 2 out of 3 say they have sufficient emergency savings to pay for unexpected expenses like car repairs or a doctor's visit. but are consumers really telling the truth because another report out today shows that for many americans their emergency savings cushion pales in comparison to their credit card debt. about 1 in 4 americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings and that's according to bank rate.com. another 13% don't have credit card debt or an emergency savings safety net so that's leaving them on the brink of financial disaster. so there is some good news out there. the majority of americans, 58% according to bank rate have more emergency savings than credit card debt, and overall americans are feeling less pessimistic about their job security and net worth and overall financial situation.
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in fact, bank rate has a financial security index, brian, that says it's at a record high in february. that's four years they've done in index, and people are feeling pretty good. >> only thing that bothers me about surveys like this that measures dollar values is they don't factor in homes and home equity. almost everybody i know will say, well a big part of my retirement plan is my house. >> is my house. >> i don't have -- now, when your house becomes illiquid and you need the money, that's not good, but those numbers don't factor in that. >> i don't think -- well, they talk a little bit about the home equity and how much people have and some people are now saying they're starting to have a little more equity in their home. many people don't have it and even if they have some equity how are they going to be able to access that quickly? and that's the problem. that emergency savings number, that 5% they're saving that's good -- >> are you a home owner? >> yes, i am. >> see, i'm a homeowner. i have friends and family who
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are real estate agents and you should mute the volume right now. homes cost a blank ton of money. i don't know if i'll ever make money on my house. repairs and taxes and -- >> not buying at the top. >> something breaks every couple months. it's like -- >> they think this is the way to financial freedom, financial security, and, in fact it can be so much of a cost burden for so many people and you never know what's going to happen with the markets. you don't know necessarily if the value will increase. that's why you have to have that cash cushion. >> maybe i just have a crummy house but it eats money. thank you very much. for more on the savings survey, see the story on our website, power lunch .cnbc.com. the tooth fairy left an average of $4.36 for each tooth. one could argue perhaps things are looking up because the tooth
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fairy can afford to give children more parents per tooth. >> or maybe parents' idiot friends give their kids more money and you get effectively bullied by your children. >> i used to get like a half dollar coin and that was amazing. i don't understand this idea of giving out lots of money for simply losing a tooth. a tooth falls out of your skull and you get money. >> i'm putting shares of apple underneath my 5-month-old's pillow. i'm sorry, slices of an apple. sorry. mashed apple he's now starting to eat. thank you very much. coming up none other than mark cuban jumping into a controversial insider trading case. what he has got to say coming up plus a gas tanker truck catching fire today. the government predicting we could be seeing a lot more like that scary accident. we'll tell you why coming up. st in people. but the m-class scans for
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cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. mark cuban is taking a stand on the second circuit's landmark insider trading decision. kate kelly is here to explain what is happening. this case as we talked about a while ago, it's a big deal and it could change insider training law. >> it's a monumental case and it's reversed recent decades of practicing insider trading law with import for the u.s. attorney in new york. anyway, mark cuban lived through an insider trading case and was
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exonerated in 2013 after $20 million in legal fees to oppose a proposed settlement from the s.e.c. of an original $2 million. much less obviously. now, he's weighing in on the contentious insider trading case against todd newman and anthony chaisson whose convictions were overturned by the second circuit who argued prosecutors in this case that overreached. in a proposed friend of the court brief, cuban arguing for congressional involvement in defining the notoriously vague legal prohibitions on insider trading saying no one should be prosecuted for conduct congress is unwilling or unable to define. because of that well-meaning, innocent individuals are left in untenable positions of having to worry that what is and should be a lawful transaction today will suddenly be alleged by the government to violate federal securities laws tomorrow. it's unclear whether cuban's brief will be accepted brian, but either way that and the
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decision as to whether it rehear this case which is currently on the table is in the hands of these appeal judges. >> whether you agree with mark kau ban bu cuban's position or not, he is right most of the law was vague when writen. how do we define duty between two individuals. if i overhear you saying something at a table about dopt know who you are i can probably legally trade on you but if i know you're a ceo and hear the same thing i can't trade on that. you get my point, it's a very vague law in many ways. >> it's a vague set of laws. that's why interpretation and precedent is so key here. the other thing that's been at issue is the personal benefit question. in other words, if you overhear something and then you trade on it, does -- >> did you get anything out of it? >> this doesn't work for the restaurant analogy, but is there some quid pro quo, something you're getting for supplying the profitable information? >> in that analogies, if i went
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over and bought the guy dinner maybe it would be. >> a bottle of champagne. >> phil lebeau is sitting right behind us. take a look at this, a tanker truck engulfed in flames near camden, new jersey. it was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline. lucky nobody was hurt. if you're on the radio, it's a gigantic fire. remember the images from a train explosion in west virginia last week. the federal government predicting trains carrying oil or ethanol will derail an average of ten times a year for the next 20 years. that would be $4 billion in damage if it happens. so there you go. that's going to wrap up this hour of "power lunch." melissa lee, i guess we will see each other tomorrow. >> i will see you tonight on "fast." you heard of the super bug cre claiming lives. we have the ceo that was one of the only drugs out there battle
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cre. >> "the closing bell" starts right now. and welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly evans over here at the new york stock exchange. where are you, bill? >> let's see. i'm where it's a lot colder. i'm at cnbc global headquarters in new jersey. stocks backing off the highs just a bit today. we continue to keep an eye on the nasdaq composite index. already has had an eight session win streak. that's in jeopardy today. that march back to 5,000 may be hitting a bit of a speed burch today. we'll take a close look and see if the nasdaq can make it nine in a row with a late bush late today. >> quite a streak that would be. meanwhile, it was a terror threat so serious that t

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