in their daily life, they wouldn't want it on their living room walls but they're buying it up. >> robert, thanks a lot. >> busy day, pussy week. we come to the end, michelle. >> thanks for watching. "closing bell" starts right now. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell" i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffeth. i have my own heart work for the stock market, there it is, that's what the chart looks like, too. >> it's a masterpiece. >> we have a pretty good rally going on to close out a big week. coming off the lows that we hit during the session on wednesday and now we're maybe, maybe we will finish positive for the week for the first time this year, but that remains to be seen this hour, we're up 194 points right now. >> one of the big drivers of this rally, you guessed t it's oil's move higher, we will tell you what's behind that and whether a bottom in crude is officially in this time.

>> i love this story. some mediation, if you will, in the tech world. tim cook and -- that's him on the left and eric schmidt on the right now have both met with pope francis in the last week. maybe both apple and alphabet with their earnings coming up, we are wondering which company is in greater need of divine intervention. >> do you know how many people would love a one on one. >> absolutely. look at that. >> i do think someone joked that it was a confessional kind of meeting. >> each meeting was only 15 minutes. was that enough time? >> take a look, mean while, speaking of needing a divine intervention shares of american express sinking in today's session after yesterday's earnings report we told you about yesterday. it's down 12.5%. >> that's a big decline today. >> let's begin with this rebound in oil and in stocks. grz anthony's anthony gliz anti at the my mention to talk about

crude and bob pisani is here. >> anthony, up 9% on the settlement, was that real buying on short covering? >> it started as short covering, once we got above that 31.5 level it was real buying in the market. a couple things about this week, we held that 27.5 level which i gave to you guys a couple weeks ago, i that i had that was an important support number, we did hold that. the second thing is that when you look at the charts of crude oil, there was a couple things i noticed. that over the last few months you had three weeks down, one week up. three weeks down, one week up. this is the week up right now. it's very positive that we settled above $32, but if equities start heading lower on monday we might start heading lower again. >> did you say we held 27.50, anthony? >> what happened was in the march contract, kelly, we did hold it, 27.56 was the low. if you remember on that same day that's when the fed tanked out

to the bottom and that really lost a lot of its value, but the march did hold and we weren't really looking at the fed because on expiration you can throw support and resistant numbers out the window. as well as that march held that 27.50 area that was very supportive for the market. >> so if this is not the bottom, then, do you sense there is one out there? >> i do, bill. if this isn't the bottom we're pretty close to it. i can't see this really going below $25. what's going to happen in the next couple weeks is you're going to start getting increased demand for crude oil because refineries will start making that summer gasoline. that usually starts the first or second week in february. once you start seeing those broad supply in crude that's going to support the market further and could get some of those shorts. there's a lot of shorts in this market. could get more of those to start covering. >> what a vastly different picture we have of crude and of this market than at those lows that we mentioned there on wednesday. anthony, thank you. >> thanks, anthony. >> thank you.

>> by the way, if you want to learn more about the panic that maybe wasn't on wednesday you can check out kelly's latest piece for the spark on cnbc.com right now. kelly looks more at the significance of this week's oil contract expiration on wednesday. that's at cnbc.com/the spark. >> well, thank you. >> it is required reading. >> thank you. >> your one on volatility was also very good, your column. >> the word we always hear without much explanation behind it. the oil rebound today is helping the stock market rally. bob pisani is on the floor with more on this one. >> i'm in a little better move today in the last hour, i wasn't yesterday because the rally was really crumby. this is a little better. first all ten sectors are up and the volume is pretty good. not as good as wednesday on the down side but still respectable. 9 to 1 advancing declining stocks, 90% upside day, i will take that is correct we haven't seen that in a long time, a 90% upside day. that will go a long way if it

stay there towards getting the technicians worry out of the way. still not out of the woods yet. let me show you some of the energy names that are moving to the upside. eog, they're going a decent day but not amazing day. this is respectable to see a nice up 2% on the day. they are not grabbing them for all they're worth but the stocks are still trading the upside. you want to see evidence of market discipline. this is one of the big drillers out there, still down today, a number of these big drillers are to the down side, roland and noble as well. not everyone is enthusiastically buying energy stocks as well. another group that's turned around is financials. we've noted how poorly the financials have been performing in the last few days. goldman was down blows to 152 at the close, look at the refound, 155 and change, john mccain is up nicely as well, john mccain was 54 yesterday, it's trading right around $56 so you not a

bounce in energy and bounce in financials. much bigger weighing in the s&p 500. nothing has changed in the last 48 hours, this seems entirely technical driven, 10% move on oil and not a move on fundamentals, we're living in very strange times, guys. >> that's for sure. >> thank you, bob. >> glad you are in a better move. see you later at the chose close. >> let's get to our "closing bell" exchange for this friday. coal wilcox from long board asset management is with us, today, jonathan corpina and rick santelli sitting in chicago where it's not snowing, i guess. >> hey, john, i know you're really looking forward to this snow this weekend. we were talk being that earlier. what about this week, though? did we hit a bottom? are you ready to get in? what do you think about this here? >> i'm not really convinced of this rally just yet. i think we're going to need a few more trading sessions with activity that we're seeing today. one of the nel tiffs is that i'm

not seeing as much supportive volume in this rally so far. i would have liked to have seen a little more participation. i am happy that the market has somewhat quieted down and we are starting to see a little bit of a rally here. the market has not sold off at the end of the day. we usually have seen this in other sessions when a strong market has continued to trade around 2, 230 we start to see a selloff. we haven't seeing that just yet which leads me to believe we will continue this rally into the end of the day today. next week pretty light on the economical der, going to focus on the earnings and earnings season. we have apple on tuesday, so i think everyone will be focusing on that, and clearly fomc comments coming out on wednesday. as of now i'm not convinced that this is this rally that we've been waiting for. we will need a few more sessions for that but hopefully we are moving in that right direction. >> coal, what are you buying here? >> we're not buying anything right now, actually, our fund is net short global equity markets.

i know we have had this rally is just the last few days but if we back out to a longer term perspective, we follow longer term trends and this has been a major trend reversal. you have the vast majority of stocks in global markets trading below their 200 day average. this rally we have had over the last few days really only getting us back to a five-day high. look at this as more of an exhaustion rally and nothing that the really seeing a major trend reversal. i'm kind of looking -- >> coal -- >> go ahead. >> i'd love to hear -- is this because you are looking at momentum and trends and saying the market doesn't look good or is there a funt amountel reason why you think it's worth shorting global equities because that's a pretty powerful statement right now? >> it's a combination of the two. our firm is a rules based trend following firm that focuses on long duration price trends. from a fundamental standpoint that's something we are looking at as well. these markets feel sick and if you're looking for a reason from a fundamental standpoint, like

china being probably the most obvious, next shoe to drop potential where we go in the next few months and the news coming out of there, look at the price of deutsch bank trading. they are at new all time lows. there are a lot of things i'm looking at that's signaling the market is leading what the news will be and i think the surprises will be to the down side from a fundamental standpoint as we go further. >> rick, what did you make of this week? we had 193, 194 on the ten year on wednesday, lowest since october, we've come back smartly since then. you know, the currency markets continue to fluctuate wildly. what do you make the market this week? >> i continue to watch the shanghai composite, they have 2927 october lower still he below. if i look at the yields this week, on the weekly basis, 87 lasted two, we are up 2, we are up about three basis points in fives, one basis point in tens, one basis point in 30s, we had only one session from october 14th to right now that settled

under 2% and you talked about the intraday aspects of that, that was wednesday. with all due deference to jonathan, we could -- there is no employment report but boy the week upon us has a lot going on, december preliminary durables, okay, that's a decent number, a lot of housing numbers, but a week from today we have our first look at fourth quarter gdp in my opinion this is big, call it rearview mirror but currently with atlanta fed now number .7 you are arguably going to have 2015 be under 2% so that's big. also the fed meeting. nobody is looking for a tightening or continuation what they started in december. i think we have a window there but it's going to make a difference to the markets of course and i guess my last comment is when it comes to what's going on with the dollar, there is a lot of short covering get y. et to come in the carry currencies like the euro and yen, but if that dollar index gets to close above 100 on a

daily basis, if it gets to close above 100 on a weekly basis that's going to be significant, i would look for follow through should that occur in the next week or so. >> it's up another half a point today. coal, on that note going back to what rick was saying about how nobody is talking about the fed meeting next week, if in the statement they allude to some of the financial conditions or uncertainties that are there, i mean, is this the one, you know, kind of white swan that could come out of nowhere and totally change the underlying dynamics if they sound at all more dovish? >> absolutely. i don't know how they're not going to have to do that. you look at what the bond market is doing, the rally recently, you have draghi talking about more easing and things that's going on. go forward in time. they're trapped where we've started a cycling, that's where they telegraph and now the markets are saying something different. definitely going to be something to watch going forward to see how the markets respond to that. >> before we go, john, levels you're watching? is there something that you have to close above to be encouraged

by this move or what are you looking at here? >> i'm just happy that we will be closing above that 1880 close we had from last friday. that was a good level there. on the upside we're trading above 1900, 1906 is the high of the day, i think this 1900 level if we could stay above here for a short period of time i'd be happy at that. >> thanks, guys. stay safe and dry and warm if you are in blizzard path there. >> please, everybody, tell bill griffeth he needs to go sledding this weekend. >> not happening. >> come on. >> like you are? >> i might. i might join -- >> might. no pictures it didn't happen. >> speaking of pictures my parents in virginia are already getting the snow. we have 45 minutes to go here, a little more than that, the dow is up 152 points, the s&p up 31. if it weren't for the american express the dow would like better. >> coming up, a special report on american express getting

clobbered today and whether the ceo has what it takes to breathe new life into that credit card giant. also aside alphabet could dethrone apple as the world's most valuable company sooner than you think. what that means for investors next. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide.

hang ng on to some gains as we head toward the close with 45 minutes left in the trading session, the dow up 165 points, we look at the sector heat map. is this today or for the week? >> this is today's. energy leads the way with an 8.5, 9% gain in wti crude. over at the my next today the industrials are among the laggards. ge had earnings out this morning, revenue was light and that stock has been one of the minus signs for the dow. that may be one of the reasons we see the industrials on the low end of that curve. >> the nasdaq up better than 2% today. take a look at shares of alphabet and apple. both rallying along with their major averages. apple is up 4.5%. the locker term chart doesn't look so pretty for the company. it's down more than 10% in the past year while alphabet has

rallied more than 40% in that time. >> that has sent apple's market cap lower, it has many noting that alphabet is poised to overtake apple as the world's most valuable company. let's bring in dan ives from fbr capital markets and tim lesko from granted investment advisors who owns apple. what do you think? are we going to get this move here that's going to make alphabet goog the most valuable company? does it matter? >> i think right now it's a white knuckle period for apple going into tuesday. at this point new york city cab driver knows they will lower numbers from march and join but iphone 6 has been soft out of the gates. this is a critical time for cook to restore credibility, but we are starting to see can they be dethroned. you went from a trillion dollar potential market cap now google is right around their shoulders. this is a seminal week for apple to prove investors.

>> tim, you say that you own apple here but not alphabet. so what do you -- i mean, is that because of the moves that we're describing here, because of what a good year alphabet has had relatively speaking? >> well, the price of alphabet stock has had a good year but that doesn't mean necessarily underlying fundamentals have followed. market capitalization is a mass of the shares by the price. we care about valuation. i disagree that it's white knuckle time or does tim cook have anything to prove to investors. iphone 6 is the mid cycle of apple upgrade cycles. if this is a weak quarter for iphone sales certainly that happens, economies are cyclical, products are cyclical but in the long run does it mean anything? in our minds not a whole lot. apple has plenty of cash to reason to invest back in the product cycle and we are

starting to get on the heels of iphone 7. >> apple is far from a one trick pony, you're referring to the iphone, tablet sales have stalled, pc sales have gone down for years, the apple watch still remains to be seen whether tim cook's beloved apple watch will do anything. you have to have other products in the pipeline that are going to make this company go higher, don't you? >> i think that's fair. right. and i think you have to look at it that iphone has really been the one tree that has continued to grow for apple while they planted a lot of other small trees that everybody hopes to grow into a more defensible forest. max sales have led the industry when pc sales continue to decline. at a time when other watches have not really done anything, apple watches the leading market share in smart watches. so the categories certainly are continuing to find their footing but apple leads those categories. >> it's the gold standard of

technology in terms of brand and no one is disputing that. iphone 7 is the key here as we go into that product cycle but what a lot of investors where the street is focused on, does cook use some of that $200 billion, whether it is m&a and you get some of the time warner assets, netflix or some of these other game changer m&a. the focus is next week is a prove me quarter. it's around restoring that feel going into year-end. >> last question, dan, do you think alphabet will surpass apple's market value? >> next week i don't think, we have a bounce in apple with the bad news, but if we go into spring/summer and the iphone 7 build up is less than stellar that's where cook takes the thrown off and gives it to google and alphabet. >> tim, do you think that's ever going to happen? >> i don't think that you're really ever going to see google make more money than apple, i

think apple accounts for the lion's share of all profits within the cellphone business across all products. whether the market gives google is higher price for some period of time isn't all that relevant. i don't see the apple eco sphere, ipad, and watch suddenly becoming unpopular and going the way of a nokia. >> thank you both. >> dan ives, tim lesko, thank you both for joining us today. i wonder if the pope has an opinion on that. >> whose market cap deserves to be higher. >> if you just joined us we were showing video at the top of the hour, i don't know if it's a scheduling whatever coincidence but on the left there tim cook today meeting with pope francis at the vatican, last week wouldn't you know a week ago today was eric schmidt, the former ceo of google, now, you know, part of the executive team at alphabet. >> are either one of them catholic? >> i have no idea. >> i don't think so. >> no idea. tim cook was handing the hope something, i wondered if he was

giving him an apple watch, an iphone. what do you give the pope? president johnson -- lyndon johnson gave pope paul a bust of himself, of lyndon johnson. >> no, he didn't. >> he did. that was his gift to pope paul. it's a priceless photo if you ever google it, the look on pope paul's face when he received this bust of lyndon johnson was priceless. >> i'm not sure i would have gone that route. >> yes. but lyndon johnson would. 40 minutes left in the trading session, still with a gain of 165 points on the industrial average, look at the nasdaq, down hard lagging this market and now leading it higher up 2.25%. >> if it weren't for american express the dow would look better today. there is a storm slamming the east coast and creating a traveling nightmare for millions. we will go right to the state already deep in the thick of it next. also coming up the dreaded r word, that would be recession, that's been cropping up more

often these days and a leading economist says don't blame china. he will tess us what he thinks is really slowing down the u.s. economy when we come back. opportunities aren't always obvious. really slowing down the u.s. economy when we come back. us w really slowing down the u.s. economy when we come back. l us s really slowing down the u.s. economy when we come back. l us is really slowing down the u.s. economy when we come back. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. its intelligent drive is msystems...ng. paradigm-shifting. its technology-filled cabin...jaw-dropping. its performance...breathtaking. its self-parking...and self-braking...show-stopping. the all-new glc. mercedes-benz resets the bar for the luxury suv.

starting at $38,950.

welcome back. a rebound here on a friday. the dow up 165 points, the s&p up 32, the nasdaq up just shy of 100 points. energy rebounding, oil is higher and golar, l & j and schlumberger up as well.

golar shares up 45%,.schlumberger up a little better than 6%. they have a $10 billion stock buy back program we told you about late yesterday. >> we have a news alert on the oscars committee. julia boorstin, what's going on? >> there has been a big move by the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences to make the group that nominates and makes the final votes on those oscar nominees and wins much more diverse. this comes amidst outrage about the nominees for this year's oscars not having any diversity. the 20 nominees for best actor, actress, best supporting actor and actress did not include a single person of color. there has been a hashtag trending #oscars so white and calls for a boycott of the oscars. so now these changes which the academy says are substantial include a global campaign to

recruit new members who represent greater diversity, three new governor seats effective immediately, looking to double the number of diverse members by 2020, also changing the rules about lifetime voting rights. the goal is to make sure academy members who can vote are active in film making rights now. it seems like this is all about bringing the academy into the 21st century and making sure that those voters represent america as a whole. back over to you. >> all right. julia, thank you very much. what is the date of that? >> february -- >> the end of next month. >> february 7th, i think. >> it's coming up, then. okay. >> that's the super bowl. i don't know when it is. i don't know. >> in any case, they don't have a lot of time to kt a. thousands of flights already delayed or canceled thanks to a winter storm blasting the east coast. nbc's jay gray is in roanoke, virginia, braving the elements. jay. >> reporter: kelly, bill, look, it started snowing around 5:30 this morning, it has not stopped

not even for a few minutes. it's going to continue forecastest say through tomorrow evening. we will get huge accumulations here, 30 inches in some areas, all the roads are closed all the schools are closed most of the businesses are closed, the state government shut down. they're dealing with what most here say is a historic storm. this is just the leading edge of a system that's really going to swallow the entire east coast for the next couple of days, affect between 80 and 90 million people. we're going to have according to the national weather service blizzard and whiteout conditions and winds that may peak at 50 to 60 miles an hour. what we've seen today is most people taking heed to officials' warnings to stay indoors, i haven't seen a lot of traffic all day. crews out trying to make things passable for those who must get out but again not a good idea. we've seen power crews staged across the region with all of

this snow and the wind, they do expect power outages. in neighboring north carolina more than 6,000 already without power. we know that according to flight aware more than 3,000 flights have already been canceled today, a number that like the snow totals is expected to go up over the next couple of days. that's the latest live here in snowy roanoke. back to you in that warm studio. >> rubbing in, yes. sorry, we won't tell you how warm. jay, thank you, always great to see you. jay gray in what did you say? >> roanoke. >> spoken like a knew native. >> my parents are 45 miles northeast of there. here is a picture from the backyard, in fact, of what things look like. listen, this part of virginia does not get a lot of snow and this has only been a couple of hours, i can't wait to see what more is brings. >> how much of those trees we will see when all is said and done. >> exactly. >> are they equipped in those areas? i know that the mayor of boston had offered up a couple of snow blowers, you know, ice melters

to the mayor of washington to try and help things out. >> smart. my senior year of high school we had 15 snow days and there was maybe an inch of snow. there was certainly less than 15 inches of snow but it's very rural, that's the problem, very, very rural in that part of the country. even if you had snow blowers throughout the main town roads still most of the people are having to dig themselves out. >> as long as you have enough milk and bread you're fine i'm told. >> the store was a zoo last night. here in manhattan the store was an absolutely zoo. >> you can't get anything more here. >> i dropped a thing of tartar sauce, it went everywhere. time for a consumer news update with sue herrera. >> vice president biden calling on turkey to protect freedom of expression during a two day visit to istanbul. he made the comments at a meeting with civil society representatives, academics and jernl lists. francois hollande plans to propose extending the government's state of emergency powers by another three months. the move would prolong the

government's ability to search and detain people without warrants. this comes in the wake of november terror attacks in paris. the kansas court of appeals refusing to allow the state's pan on a form of abortion to take effect. saying the state's constitution protects abortion rights independent of the u.s. constitution. the 7-7 ruling is allowed to stand, if it is allowed to stand it could upend several other abortion restrictions in that state. safety regulators and major auto makers announcing a new recall of 5 million vehicles for potentially defective takata air bags, it's in the wake of a death of a driver of a ford pickup truck last month. it's the first to occur in a vehicle that was not made by honda. you are up to date. that's the news update. bill, the oscars are sunday, february 28th. >> 28. yes. thank you so much, sue. we meant to mention that again as well. thank you. >> see you in an hour. >> super bowl and all. by the way, if you remember nothing else from today's show it's a helpful hint, you need

milk, bread and far tar sauce when preparing for a blizzard. >> and a shopping cart. >> that helps, too. >> 30 minutes to go into the close. the dow moving up higher now, up 164 points, the s&p up 32, the nasdaq up 101. >> 100 point move on the nasdaq. up next a leading trader will tell us what he's watching as we head into the close and what has been another wild week. racing to the finish line. >> and deutsch bank's international economist says it's not china's fault the u.s. economy is hitting the skids. he will tell you what is at fault. stay tuned.

markets holding its own right now but if anything we are not getting that late sell that jonathan corpina was referring to at the top of the hour here, dow holding on to a gain of about 165 points, now 172, the nasdaq is the stand out right now, up 2.3% as we head toward the close with 25 minutes, and the home building stocks, did you see the new -- the existing home sales figure this morning surged by a record 14.7% last month. some of that was technical in nature because after mortgage disclosure rules changed it caused some closings to delay in

november. they were moved to december, but still an impressive number and home building stocks have been doing well today. look at hovnanian almost up 7% today. >> i'm on the floor with matt cheslock as we head into the close. are you impressed with this rally today? >> it's a bit of a perfect storm to use the weather term. we had good housing data, strength in oil today, 5% surge, we had strength out of europe today. am i happy about it? this is nothing more than a relief rally. i don't think i'm a long-term white of anything yet, i have to see what next week brings, being up 170 points it's deaf a sigh of relief going into the weekend, we have something else to worry about let's not worry about the markets. >> what would it take to be more of a believer? just a move in eek wet, moves up further in oil? >> oil was such a crowded trade on the short i had, the wti has the all time greatest short position, it was a relief rally

waiting to happen, 35 is a number that probably will test, maybe we fail again and maybe we are a auto buy side. >> any particular sectors that look attractive? >> no. some of them that have been beaten down have been a beneficiary today. financials probably got a boost today, we didn't see that out of them yesterday, oil is strong, that's a sector that has some reward to it. if we see a 2 point, 3 point rally on the oil that will be the beneficiary on the short term on that. >> good luck this weekend with the rising waters on the coast. >> there has been a sharp uptick lately in conversations using the word recession. some blame the slowdown in china. i'm talking about recession here in the united states. some blame the slowdown in china but our next guest says something else is driving that slow down. we have the chief international economist at deutsch bank. good to see. >> you thanks for having me. >> you say it's not china that is causing the slow down, it is the rising dollar, yes?

>> absolutely. what's really critical is to remember if this really were china then it should also have hit your area much higher and the japanese dme much harder because those economies have better trade linkages with china. we have seen the manufacturing sectors in europe and japan do better than the manufacturing sector in the u.s. this tells me that it really is the dollar that's the main reason why the u.s. economy is slowing. >> that's interesting. just explain a little more about how much higher the dollar could go and why. >> the very important to remember with the dollar is that for the last several years it's pretty clear that the dollar went up. in the beginning of the cycle emerging markets, but also relative to europe and the currencies, but more recently with the euro dollar has been moving sideways since march of 2015. now it's the dollar going up relative to emerging markets. we have had a mix in the basket of what has been driving the dollar higher. this is important because this suggests that we had the worst behind us in terms of dollar

appreciation and this is critical from this link that the higher dollar has to the u.s. manufacturing sector because the u.s. manufacturing sector loses competitiveness across the board but the u.s. manufacturing sector is now less luzing competitiveness relative to your area because the euro has been moving sideways and that does body well for the u.s. because it looks like therefore we have again the most significant appreciation of the dollar in the months behind us. >> but does it propose something of a catch-22 for our own federal reserve. they want to raise rates believing that the economy has recovered enough but if they continued continue to raise rates doesn't that push the dollar even higher and cause the kind of problems you are talking about? >> absolutely. there are two effects on inflation, the first effect is the more permanent one, the unemployment rate is coming down that's lifting slowly wages and the labor markets getting things better. the effect from the dollar and oil prices, those are temporary

things. if you think about the dollar and oil that 12-month windows holding inflation down, as we get to some stable za igs in oil prices and the dollar those windows will start to forget we had moved too much. that's why those effects from the dollar and oil are temporary or transitory and those transitory effects will probably stay around for a little longer but eventually the tightness of the labor market will be what the fed will be acting on. >> before we let you go what do you think about some of the other economists on wall street who are talking about possible recession here in the united states, bank of america this week said that the possibility is up to 20%, morgan stanley said the same thing. what do you think? >> i think we should be careful not to be fluctuating too much with the markets. the fed are rolling their thumbs and watching markets go up and down, fundamentals continue to be steady. fundamental action still outside

of nerchl, maybe also industrial materials but generally fundamentals in the economy. so far the market is saying we will see things fall apart but it hasn't shown up yet in the economic data. >> all right. good to see you again. thank you. when you say a 20% possibility of a recession, you're saying there is an 80% possibility it's not going to happen. not to worry. we have a news alert on aig right now, mary thompson has details on that. >> ahead of tuesday's update on the strategic plans reuters is reporting that aig is looking to spin off its mortgage insurance unit. the company has been under pressure from activist investor carl icahn who wants the firnl to split into three separate units and get out from under that systemically important financial institution designation which means it has added oversight from the federal reserve. again, this is according to reuters, the company plans to spin off the morpt insurance

unit which accounts for 7% or so of the company's operating income. we will get more details on this likely according to reuters during tuesday's update which begins at 8:00 in the morning. of course, aig has resisted icahn's call to split up the business saying that it is not in the shareholders' best interests, but again he has been very aggressive about that and of course adding fuel to the fire is the news that met life recently decided to spin off its variable life insurance business. met life and aig have very different insurance portfolios. we will see what happens on tuesday, but again, aig getting a brief pop on that news from reuters. back to you. >> mary, thank you very much. we have the best viewers on the planet. one of our viewers tweeted a recipe for homemade tartar sauce for you. you don't have to buy it at the market. >> we have 18 minutes left in the trading session and we are starting to move higher to close out the week a gain of 188 on the dow, the s&p is up 35 and

the nasdaq up 108 right now, looks like we will have our first positive week of the year this week. >> by the way, if they came in plastic bottles i would have grabbed that one, believe me. as we mentioned keeping an eye on these markets, the nasdaq now up almost 2.5% on the day. >> american expression going the other direction, tumbling to levels not seen in several years. is it time for the c suite change. >> forget uber, how about a new app that gets your driveway plowed with that blizzard barreling down the east this may be the high tech solution for the snow bound, details ahead.

♪ ♪ those who define sophistication stand out. those who dare to redefine it stand apart. the all-new lexus rx and rx hybrid. never has luxury been this expressive. this is the pursuit of perfection.

welcome back. mostly green in the dow today, led by apple, which is now up more than 5%. even goldman sachs having a nice rebound today. exxon is up 3%. look at the bottom right, that's where you see ibm nagging, you mentioned general electric down about 1.5% and american express the real lag fwaered. >> american express, he let's talk about that. the shares posting their worst decline since 2009. it's latest earnings report

showed the credit card company still struggling. mary thompson joins us with a closer look at this crucial judge tour for the company and its ceo ken chenault. >> 12% down today, down 34% for the last 12 months. american express put up a fourth quarter beat but cut guidance for this year and next providing little reason for investors to hang around in a very competitive environment. a key part of its response a billion dollars in cost cuts by 2017. on the call the cfo gave no assurances this and other measures would get amex back to the long-term goal of growth of 14%. a long negative impact on billings or customer spend from low gas prices and the stronger dollars, margins that are pressured by retailers pushing back against a bigger cut amex demands on traibs and the lost of costco ceo ken chenault

planning to the amex brand. he's also going to mine their closed loop network to add value for customers and the merchants that take the card. he is also going to be looking for card acquisitions and other opportunities to replace the lost business from costco the difficulties unlike will i to impact chenault's tenure for now. investors ma may have lobbied hard for change sold its position in the stock so for now given his long history with the company over the board would likely keep him there in the interim, but again, i think investors will be looking for some results sometime in the near future, serge the stock market's reaction or the market's reaction today says that isn't happening jaenl time soon. >> those shares down 12%. mary, thank you. 12 minutes to go here. >> 20% decline for the year, too, by the way. >> listen, we're three weeks into it. not a pretty picture, although it's a prettier picture for the

bulls. the dow is now up more than 200 points, a 2% gain for the s&p 500 which is up 38 about and the nasdaq up more than 2.5%, 114 points. >> somewhere out there peter costa is smiling on the floor of the new york stock exchange. our next guest say volatility may reign in 2016 because of an unpredictable election year. that's when we come back.

as we head to the close the dow continues to gain in strength here up 209 points, to cap a pretty good couple of days here since the low we put in on wednesday. >> after a pretty abysmal couple of weeks. >> steve dudash joins us now to talk about that period of time. i mean -- >> what, the last couple days, i like that. >> this year so far what's this market telling you right now? >> i mean, me personally the biggest thing is you have to be buying in the energy sector right now. >> really? >> 99% of the field can't produce oil at $30 or whatever, $32 a barrel and make a profit. that's going to squeeze out some of the lower producing companies out there, the banks have been floating them for a while, that's going to end here pretty soon, at least with some of them. countries that have been

producing at a low level they will start getting squeezed, too, slen zul la, russia, they can't produce at $30 a barrel and hit their budget. >> exxon is up 3% on the day. it's interesting you said you've got to buy energy except for all the names that are going to be eradicated in the scenario you're describing. >> exxon and bp aren't getting eradicated, the smaller companies no doubt about it, you need to watch out for those guys. that's why we're staying in the spectrum within the energy sector. companies that will make moneys not just in the fields but up and down the cycle so they can make it through the next months and years with low energy prices but $30 a barrel there is no chance it can stay a with a i. >> a lot of people feel we will see a volatile year overall. >> yeah. >> you're agreeing with that in part about the he election. we haven't talked about the impact on the market. >> we have two toll par opposite sides of the coin right now that are looking like they are going to be the front runners, a year

ago no one would have dressed that, trump and sanders, that wasn't in the cards a year ago. so as the next few months play out you will see a lot of question marks about what the end game is going to be in the markets and in the political system and anytime you have unknowns, you get volatility and that's why you're going to see the fluctuations over and over again. >> if i hold you i have a crystal ball, oil will be at 35 or five years would you still buy exxon. >> there's no chance. >> how can you say there is no chance. >> economics. >> there is clearly a chance. if everybody would have said it's 50, no way, supply and demand. >> there is a difference. a lot of companies -- fields can produce at the 40s and 50s. you're saying five years at $30 a pa i recall. >> i'm saying 25. >> $25 a barrel, that's fine. unless they come up with a new way of pulling oil out of the ground for $20 a barrel there is no chance. we are right now in the goldilocks period of supply, you have iran coming on, everybody else at full capacity and all the energy producing parts of the world are relatively stable

right now. how long is that going to last? i will make a bet right now. >> i'm not supposed to. >> me, neither. >> thank you for joining us. >> we're going to come back with the closing countdown. i know you will want to stick around anyway but you will definitely want to stick around, the harlem gospel choir will be performing here ringing the bell at the top of the hour. we're also going to talk about the government pushing to develop a vaccine for the zika virus, the more kyoto born disease that causes birth defects, it's moved from latin america to the caribbean to becoming a growing threat right here in the u.s. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide. every day you read headlines about businesses being hacked and intellectual property being stolen. that is cyber-crime

and it affects each and every one of us. microsoft created the digital crimes unit to fight cyber-crime. we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. when it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. we're building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer. perfect driving record. >>perfect. no tickets. no accidents... >>that is until one of you

clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. >>yup... now, you would think your insurance company would cut you some slack, right? >>no. your insurance rates go through the roof. your perfect record doesn't get you anything. >>anything. perfect! for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claim centers are available to assist you 24/7. for a free quote, call liberty mutual at switch to liberty mutual and you could save up to $509 call today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

all right. two minutes left in the trading session here with the dow up 209 points. let's review this week. remember it was a four-day trading week. sure didn't feel like it for a lot of traders. but for the week after we sort of hit that bottom we had a v-shaped bottom that was put in on wednesday and then a pretty good rally after that. a gain for the week of a fraction, .64%, it's our first positive week of the year for these stock markets major averages. for the year the dow still negative obviously, let's see what that chart looks like here. for the year still down 7.66%. wti crude what a rally today and we had a very similar trading pattern. this is the march contract. march got down to the $27 range, the february contract that

expired on wednesday got to $26. for the week, though, a gain of 9.5%, much of that today's gain up 9.1% and the ten year yield, let's look at that for the week, got down to 1.93%, the october lows on wednesday and we come back to 2.05%. we close out with a smiling bob pisani here. >> i was not in a good mood yesterday but all those charts look the same. >> the v bottom. >> looking like that. that wednesday at 12:30 they will be studying that for many years, that's what you call climax selling points. we were standing here slack jaud, 30 to 1 declining to advance in stocks at 12:00 on wednesday. >> the dow was down 566 points. >> 40% of the new york stock exchange was at 52 week lows. you haven't seen these numbers since 2008. if that wasn't a selling time short term i don't know what is. it's nice to put together two days. almost 9 to 1 advance in declining stocks.

the volume wasn't as big as wednesday. you won't see many days like wednesday. >> safe flight off. see you later, bob. >> 200 point gain to close out this week. stay tuned. the harlem gospel choir ringing the closing bell and perg at the big bell. at the nasdaq the boys and girls club of new jersey. stay tuned, second hour of the "closing bell" with kelly evans and company. have a good week, kell. welcome to the "closing bell," ever been, i'm kelly evans. lots of people relieved to hear the sound of that bell today on wall street. here is our fishing up the session, the dow with a gain of 210 points and that actually is the worst performing index today because american express hit hard on the earnings report. look at the nasdaq, adding 119 up nearly 2.7%. quite a session here and what a week and a month it has been. joining today's panel we have our own mike santoli, along with cnbc contributor evan newmark.

with more on today's market action tim see more. welcome one and all. mike, did everybody -- i think you sensed something in the air this morning, it felt like we might finally rally this friday. friday has been a cuff day. >> friday has been tough. all the reasons to be cautious on friday ahead of a weekend, i think we are not there this time because we had so much fear spilling into the market during the week. i do think once you had one day of stability yesterday and we ran out of sellers at much low levels on wednesday the idea was, okay, next week we have a lot of fundamental news, earnings coming, the fed meeting and if we will have a statement and this just general sense that central banks were length to market. it made sense an oversold market would rally and hold that rally. i didn't see oil doing what it did today and you cannot escape exactly how important oil has been day to day to he can withities. >> the correlation with oil and equities has been 96% in the first 20 trading days. >> doesn't always make a lot of sense. if anything the past week points

out really for your viewers out there how hard it is to time the market. i mean, if your one take away should be if you're trying to day trade this market, good luck, day trade oil, good luck. you can't predict when you're going to have a sell off and pie in like wednesday and friday. very hard to figure out when these things are going to happen. i've been overweight oil for some time, i'm happy oil had the big come back but whether or not it really hit the bottom on wednesday or not i don't know. i happen to think we're still closing to a bottom man a top. >> tim, would you agree with that? >> if we look at the sentiment readings everyone was talked about, a place where 95% of the stocks were below the 200 in their 50 day moving average which means you absolutely get a bounce. evan is talking about all the mass hysteria that's been out there and people have been -- a lot of people saying things will get much worse and there's dramatic thing you should do to our portfolio. these markets will continue to be volatile, the fact that

central banks are possibly more back in the picture, there's more sustainability for the past couple days but does not remove the same factors which were overhanging the market. people are concerned about credit, concerned about china and earnings which still so far this earnings season haven't given you enough to say that the earnings recession that we have arguably been in for the last few quarts is something that still doesn't stay with us. tremendously oversold conditions, we had the bounce here, most people are looking to fade this bounce and push it back out there if they're active trade traders. most people hopefully have done nothing in the last two weeks. >> what about the nasdaq up 2.almost 7%. now what? i do think it's a natural place to go if you decide, okay, i want to put money back in here. you had a lot of analysts calls saying look for defensive growth companies. i do think you had a good call on apple driving the nasdaq up. i don't think that's really something you should be concerned about, but on the other hand really beaten up low

quality stocks roared ahead as well because they were left for dead two days ago. >> i think it's really a question if you are an investor picking your scenario for how you see the global economy developing this year. if you think that things are terrible and that the global economy is stuck in some deflationary spiral then you should absolutely buy treasury bonds and forget everything else and just go about your day. >> by the way, some element of that has kind of been true for five years running now. >> absolutely. no. no. absolutely. but if you really think that the ten year is going to trade down to 125 or 15 then frankly you shouldn't be in the stock market. if you take a little more sanguine view of what's going on, the global economy will chug along even though it won't be a lot of fast growth then you probably want to be exposed to either commodity cycle because things may not be as bad as people think they are or to the high growth names because that's where the growth is. >> it seems like one of two possible catalysts on the horizon. people who are trying to think

about how to point this call. the federal reserve might surprise us with rhetoric or something in the statement that indicates we will take a wait and see approach, the other is that, you know, the gdp number comes out and it's gangbusters and all the other indications of growth which have been surprising to the down side move back up. >> i think we need to see a couple things happen. one of them is pmis do need to stabilize in the u.s. and china. to get it to a place where people can start to make estimates on how companies can act in this environment that's part of t i tend to think we are in a very sideways environment. i don't think much can change in the short term. i think china has a lot of policy decisions to make but there's probably very little they can do aggressively and that includes the currency i think in the next three months. even though i think it needs to go weaker. we have a place where we have to play through some of these things. equities look interesting relative to bonds on an earnings yield. there are big institutions that have to own equities because

they need 2 to 4% dividend yields. >> we have the harlem gospel squire who just range the closing bell maybe putting an amen on this week. we will listen in. ♪ ♪ because i'm happy ♪ because i'm happy >> an appropriate theme for the day, guys. >> i wondered what they were going to sing if that was down 200. >> we are reminded last friday the american red cross was tasked with the closing bell, another appropriately picked one for that day. this is, by the way, locked in months ahead of time. no real bearing, evan, on

people's sentiment. >> you know, it is -- it's nice to hear nice music, new york right now has the kind of somewhat gloomy feel before the snow. i was just outside, feels a little bit like, you know, a little -- >> that was really nice. >> a little nice music before the storm sets in this weekend. so you are looking forward to snow ma geden. >> that's what they're calling it. let's get straight to bob pisani on the floor of the stock exchange now looking back at the beak it was. >> hallelujah for the end for the week. selling climax on wednesday, whacky numbers we saw, let's just show the dow jones industrial average, you will see what i'm talking about, 12:00 on wednesday, we started close to 16,000, we went as low as 15,400 and change on wednesday, declining to advancing stocks on wednesday at 12:00, 40% of the new york stock exchange at 52 week lows, and then the selling abated. 600 points higher since that

1230 low on wednesday, ending fractionally positive for the week in the dow. with oil we were at 31 at one point earlier in the week on oil, then we went down to $27 you can see the rally ending at $32, you can imagine what this does to oil stocks, especially the big exploration production names, look at eog, for example, we went from -- eog was, what, $57 or so at the bottom and we rallied all the way back 66, we were up, oh, roughly 4% on the week, believe it or not, doesn't sound like a lot but that was a huge victory given where it was in the middle of the week. financials great relief, this is perhaps more important than energy stocks, all badly beaten up, jpmorgan was way down at $54 at 12 noon and drooped at the close on thursday again. goldman did the same thing but you see the rally back here and ending the week up just about 2 or 3% maybe there. finally big industrials, caterpillar, the whole -- all these charts look exactly the same, this v-shaped bottom.

caterpillar at a high year low wednesday morning, closed near $61 up about 2% for the week. the bottom line, are we at a bottom? nobody knows yet. but with oil rallying and a lot of central bankers talking dovish it's like to get a two-day rally. it's been a long time since we have had that. have a good weekend. >> are you still flying out tonight? >> i'm trying. i'm leaving now. >> good luck to you. godspeed. our bob pisani. tim seymour, he mentioned a lot of names there that have been whip sawed. where would you be putting your money to work? >> i think first of all what i'm encouraged about next week is we will start to trade on ultimately some real earnings data. people really need to know what apple is seeing not only in terms of what's going on with their hand set business but china specifically, freeport mac, halliburton reports on monday. i think it's people are approaching the next two to three months in in market i

don't see how they can't stay offensive. the consumer product areas, especially those places with international growth and that seems almost kousht intuitive, kimberly clark, procter & gamble, pepsi, i think these are the names in a make the most sense to me in an environment that i think you have to be defensive. >> mike, how good can we feel when freeport mcmoran closed down 3%. >> i do think you have to keep some kind of perspective on the scale of these moves. on wednesday all we really did is the world collectively said are things 13% worse than december 29th. >> this is the first day of 2016 we were up from the close. we were here eight days ago so it's knocking around the lower end of this range and i do think to tim's point what companies say is finally going to matter because we have released our fefls hope fly a little bit from

that macro trade that was dominating everything. >> exactly. we will see what happens come next week, thank you guys for now. be sure to check out "fast money" at 5:00 if you're worried about apple heading into earnings they have a way to protect your shares no matter how the stock reacts. now, crude staging that huge come back today but saudi arabia says prices at this level are still irrational. we will discuss whether geopolitical risks could overweigh the oil supply gut. plus will central banks save this market from a potential melt down. that's later on the "closing bell." you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide.

freeport mcmoran. mcmoran. . welcome back. oil may have rallied sharply today but energy companies keep feeling the pain from the crude crash. morgan brennan has the latest score card at post 9. >> that's right. so fourth quarter earnings for the sector are expected to be down.2% that's according to s&p capital iq. schlumberger beating on results, they have laid off 34,000 workers in 2015. on the call today they said oil

field services won't recover until next year but clum did maintain the dividend. can't say the same for chesapeake energy, they just suspended dividends on preferred stock to help pay down debt. and pipeline giant kinder morgan swung to a loss this week slashing cap ex 20%, potentially buy back shares or up its dividend after reducing it by 75% last month. we saw that stock rally today. also this week royal dutch shell warns q4 profit likely fell 54%. the big theme so far we've got big profit drops, more spending cuts, more focus on spag down debt and shareholder returns be a top priority. next week on deck we have results from halliburton on monday, chevron, valero and phillips 66 to name a few. >> it's going to be a busy one.

rest up, morgan, thank you. the price of oil a top topic at this week's forum in switzerla switzerland. the price itself is irrational if you ask me prices are supposed to be set by the marginal barrel. the marginal barrel is way higher than $30. joining us now for more brenda shaffer, an adjunct professor at georgetown university. welcome back. it's good to see you again. >> thank you. and let's just begin with these comments from aramco. are they right that the marginal barrel of oil is 30 bucks? >> not only is his statement that the oil prices irrational incorrect but the oil prices are exceptional right now. if we look at the oil price over the past 45 years it averaged $30 a barrel. so actually what was exceptional in recent years is the high oil price between 2012 and 2014. what we have now is actually a quite normal price if we look

over the past decades in current dollars. >> brenda, i wonder what you might interpret out of the saudi comments, though, calling $30 a barrel oil irrational. is that a signal saudi arabia might be changing its posture and want to talk up this market or put the word out maybe it's not so committed to heavy supply consta constantly. >> my view is a little different on this. i don't think saudi arabia has had a strategy to cut back to flood the market but it's a strategy -- i think saudi arabia had no choice with the current production that opec is only about 30% of the global oil supplies and with maybe a 2 million barrel gap between supply and demand saudi arabia really can't cut back enough oil to make a dent without it really just basically hurting itself and benefiting others. so i don't think there is really a saudi strategy to flood and i don't think there would be a saudi strategy to cut back certainly right now with iranian oil reentering the market there

is not a chance that saudi would see any benefit in cutting back in production. >> brenda, do you not think that if russia and saudi arabia or opec had an emergency meeting and got the russias in on it that that would have no impact on the price of oil whatsoever? >> i agree with you if there was an agreement between the major non-opec producers with the major opec producer being saudi arabia, something like a russia, saudi arabia agreement to cut back that would be a game changer. that's certainly something to continue to watch the meetings between, but it would have to have opec and non-opec together. >> i wonder, too, as we look back at the u.s., we had this discussion last hour where the guest said there is no way oil is going to be below $30, there is no way it doesn't make sense, it's not the cost of production. is that true? i mean, in the u.s. at least could we see that price lower for longer, brenda? >> well, the thing is that we always think that whatever is happening now that's going to continue and it doesn't matter how many times we've lived through these oil cycles or how

many times we've studied these oil cycles we think cheap oil is here to stay. when it's $100 a barrel we think higher is here to stay. oil works in cycles where the lower point of a cycle and aramco chief was correct the oil price will go back up and we need to plan for a period exactly not for now continuing but the present won't continue in oil. the future will be very different, oil price will be higher. >> as you said we know it moves up and down. the question is whether we're finally put that bottom in just yet. for now brenda, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> talking through a couple forces pushing oil prices around there. the plunge is oil prices may be hurting some energy companies but other pisses are getting a boone. we will get that story coming up. plus tech earnings will take center stage next week, find out whether results from apple, facebook and amazon can help turn this market around when we come back. there's a lot of places you never want to see "$7.95."

[ beep ] but you'll be glad to see it here. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be. if only the signs were as obvious when you trade. fidelity's active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be. performance... ...reimagined. style... ...reinvented. sophistication... ...redefined. introducing the all-new lexus rx and rx hybrid. agile handling. available 12.3-inch navigation screen and panorama glass roof. never has luxury been this expressive. this is the pursuit of perfection. may not always be clear... but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings.

for over 75 years, investors have relied on our disciplined approach to find long term value. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call a t. rowe price retirement specialist or your advisor ...to see how we can help make the most of your retirement savings. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. this bale of hay cannot be controlled. when a wildfire raged through elkhorn ranch, the sudden loss of pasture

became a serious problem for a family business. faced with horses that needed feeding and a texas drought that sent hay prices soaring, the owners had to act fast. thankfully, mary miller banks with chase for business. and with greater financial clarity and a relationship built for the unexpected, she could control her cash flow, and keep the ranch running. chase for business. so you can own it. american express general electric hit on earnings today in the slue of reports for next week eye lighted by tech names like apple, amazon and facebook. jon fortt joins us with what we should be watching for. >> a number of things. on apple of course there is the obvious iphone number but i think you also want to watch china, tim cook's commentary around china and whether the

consumer is continuing to buy, and also inventory. a couple years back apple expanded its target inventory range from four to six weeks to five to seven weeks. if iphone sales grew, but they also reached their target inventory level which they typically don't during the holiday season it could mean that the phones didn't sell through as well as they sold in. on facebook you want to watch expense guidance, they will probably give a broad range but investors tend to react especially in an environment like this to how much after company plans to send. on amazon a lot of focus is going to go to cloud growth. yes, it's the holiday season, gentlemen, you want to see electronics and general merchandise do well, particularly in north america, but you want to see the cloud grow especially because this is the first time we are getting a good look at that spike that we expect amazon to get activitiwise in the holiday season on cloud. for microsoft i think you want to watch that enterprise crunch. we saw it with intel, they said

enterprise spending was a little weaker. with microsoft we know windows sales overall at the consumer level weren't very strong but was office 365 able to make up on it, make it up with it on azure and customers using the cloud in the holiday season. >> i'm wondering how much of a selloff we saw in some of these big testimony names was discounting an earnings miss. >> certainly, i mean, dimming of the earnings picture especially if anybody is exposed to china that seemed to be the trade. i think more, though, it was very overowned, stocks coming in, it was somewhere you had profits to take. definitely there was pent up selling coming into this year, people sitting on huge gains there. so i don't know that it was really a matter of the market telling us there's earnings issues here as much as it was easy stuff -- >> the real issue you have with these stocks is, a, they were up huge last year, all of them except apple, and then b, the in

built expectations are so high that any miss in these high growth names, any revenue miss, it goes straight through in the valuation. you can have -- you could have easy 10% points swing. >> these are very different companies in a way. who do you think is the real tell? if apple is able to come out with strong numbers is that going to squash the whole market or is it important to see an amazon doing particularly well. >> i'm of the view that apple is not particularly much of a bellwether for anything but apple eights business and its suppliers. the stock has outperformed huge is flat years and vice versa. to me it's probably -- i think in terms of market sentiment i think it might be amazon. people want to say $80 something has been taken off the stock price, is this an opportunity or do we get this thing out of hand on the upside last year. >> it does seem like every time there is a miss by dissing kregs naer retailers or some bump,

everybody says it's amazon, they are the one company that has to show in that holiday quarter especially that they did quite well. >> i would throw a.m. gallon in there and maybe facebook. amazon especially because they have already said they intend to spend aggressively in 2016 expanding their data center, their cloud rollout essentially to new jeeg fwraefs. you want to see the growth to back that up and hear confidence out of these stocks that are getting a multiple because you expect them to grow. facebook also falls into that koot dpoer. we know they have plans to grow but i think investors will look at the costs along with that and say, well, you know, are you at least watching the bottom line at the same time. >> i think it's worth asking as well we will see how facebook does but about the bubble in social media. i don't necessarily even mean in terms of the share price i mean in terms of usage. is it possible -- >> are you using it less? you're using this less? >> i think so. a lot less. >> it's easier for me to pick on twitter than it is to pick on facebook because facebook has demonstrable -- >> and i would go the other way.

>> -- proven its growth. people need to understand facebook is walking around with a 280, $290 billion market cap. i mean, those are huge numbers. i mean, it's plus or minus the size of exxon right now. >> jon. >> i hate to say it but you are not a kid anymore so your usage is not necessarily -- i mean, the kids are on snap chat. >> moms and stuff anyway, right? >> maybe not instagram. and i do think, you know, part of the issue with facebook is implicit in this valuation it's going to take a tremendous amount of advertising market share from everywhere else in the world. it's not so much about intensity of usage, it's a second u particular shift. >> all right. we will see, jon fortt, we will see. >> you're going to get a call from sheryl sandberg. >> there's still a facebook page. all right. forget it. time for a cnbc news update. let's get to sue herrera. >> here is what's happening this hour. more than 70 collisions were

reported today as snow and ice hit central north carolina. a section of $85 was shut down after an suv lost control in front of a fedex tractor-trailer. a fatal crash reported on i-95 involving three tractor-trailers and two passenger vehicles. in davos the mexican president confirming that mexico will seek to expedite drug lord joaquin "el chapo" guzman to the united states as soon as possible. he said the mexican attorney general's office is pushing to speed up the expedition. bernie sanders campaigning in new hampshire again, highlighting differences with rival hillary clinton on issues such as wall street reform. recent polls show sanders with a steady lead in that state. after missing more than half of the season due to complications from off-season back surgery, golden state head coach steve kerr will return to the bench tonight. apparently the team didn't miss him all that much because they're going 39-4 in his

absence. that is the cnbc news update this hour. kelly, back to you. we still wish him well and well welcome back him. >> he was basically present anyway, luke walton has been doing an incredible job. the cleveland coach is out, so big moves there. they got clobbered by golden state. >> they did. that's true. >> you've been spending a lot of time with bill griffeth, you two basketball efficient nad dose. >> i'm fortunate to do so. >> absolutely. >> have a great weekend. >> you, too. we have a news alert on morgan stanley's ceo, seema mody has the details. >> morgan stanley ceos james gore man being awarded $4.6 million stock poens for 2015 rising 5% from a year before, that's according to a filing, however, a morguel stanley spokesperson telling reuters gore man's overall compensation is likely to be down modestly from last year's pay. dow jones reporting the pay dropping 7%. back to you. >> thank you, seema. surprising? >> not so much.

morgan stanley had obviously a tough year, big layoffs, they're talking tough about holding the line on compensation for traders and bankers. it seems like in tune with what they need to do. >> wall street is one of the openly places where you can have a lousy year, your share prices down o 40% and you're only getting paid 21 million bucks. michael weinstein was getting 24 or 25. >> every last place team in baseball has people making more than that. >> james gore man is being compared to baseball players. okay. i see the standard for you. i'm going to put you on my board next time i run a company. you will be easy. you will be easy on the comp committee. >> is the possibility of more economic stimulus from central banks around the world the only thing keeping in market at float. >> we have the details on a new devastating virus spreading throughout the americas and how drug companies are responding to it. enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees.

and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go straight to my car. and i don't have to talk to any humans, unless i want to. and i don't. and national lets me choose any car in the aisle. control. it's so, what's the word?... sexy. go national. go like a pro.

t...to help sense danger before7 was engiyou do. . because when you live to innovate, you innovate to live. the all-new audi q7. a higher form of intelligence has arrived.

welcome back. here is a look at how we finished the day on wall street. it was a rally all day as mike pointed out and especially at the end of the day. the dow ended higher by about 1.3%, it was the s&p up more than 2% and the nasdaq up 2.7%. crude having an incredibly strong session as it continued to snap back from wednesday's

lows as well. mario draghi signaling more stimulus could be on the way as early as march. larry fink and scott minerd spoke to the squauks box crew in switzerland. here is what they think about central bank action. >> i think what mario said was great. mario said with his inflation rate and the issues around his economy he has more ammunition and he is going to use it. >> i don't see the fed raising rates in march and i think the probability of a return to zero is dramatically increased, but i wouldn't want to be making that call until we got into the second quarter. >> this is a good process. actually, this market correction weeds out the weak. >> this is a very interesting time for people to be putting money to work. this is not 2008 or 2009. >> well, the larger question here is are central banks coming to the rescue of the markets.

joining us is anthony chan. first of all, you know, now that the european central bank doing it, is it too much, just enough or not enough? >> i don't think it's too much, kelly. i think that central banks realize even though they don't want to target equity markets if they get weak enough there is going to be an impact on consumer spending and eventually the overall economy. right now what you see, kelly, is not just the european central bank with mario draghi telling us he can do more and basically telling us there is no limit so how much he can do as long as it's within the mandate but you're also hearing that same voice from many other central banks. you're hearing numerous rumors that the bank of japan when they meet next week might consider doing a little more. in china you are sees the peoples bank of china doing more, you have heard the vice president lee also talking about having the chinese intervene more until the equity markets. that sends a strong signal to the people bank of china to do

more and the market continues to which haddel down the number of tight things they have expected this year despite the fact the fed has told us four. it's my expectation it will be a lot less than four and that will be supportive to the market and eventually the economy. >> anthony, clearly the markets have tried to bring these central banks closer together. we came into this year saying it's almost an experiment, the fed trying to tighten, almost everybody else getting looser. now based on what the markets have done maybe there is going to be a little less of a conflict in how the different central banks are acting. >>el well, i don't mind having all central banks working in tandem, that's the best of all possible world but sometimes some parts of the world are growing faster, last year the expectation was the u.s. economy would do better so the federal reserve thought it could jump ahead but we know the contagion effects has impacted u.s. markets and the economy wasn't all that strong in the united states in the fourth quarter.

we will get growth significantly blown 1% in the fourth quarter. it may be time for the federal reserve to consider a pause and not be as aggressive as they wanted to be. they have told us they are data dependent, if the data starts coming in weaker or conditions suggest otherwise there's nothing wrong with them taking a little bit of a break. >> anthony, it's evan. is it possible that in my lifetime we're going to live in a world where what the markets do does not directly day to day impact the central banks? i mean, we seem to be in this mode where the markets almost want to, quote/unquote, scare the central banks into doing things. does that seem right? it seems like we have been living like that for the last eight or nine years. >> evan, if the u.s. economy was growing at 4 or 5% the federal reserve would not care if the dow jones industrial average or the s&p 500 lost 2 or 3%. but we are hovering near 2% and in fact in the fourth quarter of

last year when we get that number we may grow very close to the 0 point. so when you're growing at that slow pace the central bank has to pay attention to everything. give me 4 or 5% growth and i have give you a that central bank that doesn't really pay that much attention to what happens in global financial markets or even the u.s. equity market. >> could you give me 4% growth in a stock market -- they are all tied together. we would have to reach back a lot longer to find a period when the economy was doing well and the market wasn't, anthony. >> if you go back to march of 2009 the equity market has essentially almost tripled despite the recent correction of close to 11% we had recently. over the last couple years this equity market has been strong but the u.s. economy has continued to be sluggish. we've been averaging close to 2% growth, one of the weakest postwar period economic recoveries even though the equity market believe it or not has actually been performing well.

>> that's a point. anthony, thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> making the case for what we're seeing right now. plus alert on alphabet. seema mody, what's happening? >> dow jones reporting that google alphabet has struck a tax deal with the u.k. google will pay $185 million in taxes and interest back to the u.k., google is also expected to change its tax structure in the u.k. to boot future taxes. we are looking at shares of alphabet moving slightly lower in after around by around .2%. >> what did you say that number is that they're paying back? >> roughly $185 million or 130 million pounds. >> this has been ongoing. obviously they are coming back after a lot of these companies. the amounts themselves aren't that large, the shares don't look like they're move too much. >> it seems like there is a general scrutiny on this. the eu has been fighting this battle with a bunch of companies. it's about how these companies decide to route their profits

and characterize them. that might have to change. >> to me it's, you know, they create -- the eu creates vehicles, countries, tax jurisdictions just so large corp., large multi-nationals can optimize their tax situation and when the companies actually take advantage of it the eu gets -- >> i'm not sure they created it in the first place but countries were certainly doing it and then they turn around did sh. >> the eu is also looking at it. >> also happening for some of the other countries in europe, continental europe as well. wall stocks have been falling in tandem with oil. we will hear from two businesses benefitting from crude's collapse. first it's the virus that has some countries warning women against getting pregnant to avoid potentially devastating birth defects. key information about this virus and what drug makers are doing next. ♪ they may want the latest products and services,

but they demand the best shopping experiences. they're your customers, and as you strive to meet their digital expectations, they're enjoying more choice and greater power than ever before. at cognizant, we're helping the world's top global retail companies face the demands of today's digital economy by blending physical with digital to create more responsive, more rewarding retail models... ones that transcend channels and locations, anticipate expectations, and create new ways to engage consumers at every imaginable touch-point. it's a new day in retail, where a company's ability to influence a purchase decision is only as good as its digital model. together, we're reimagining the store of the future, and building customer loyalty. digital works for retail. let's talk about how digital works for your business. ♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

welcome back. zeke karks it's the virus that has leaders in somalia tin american countries like brazil urging women to delay getting pregnant. meg tirrell joins us with facts and figures. >> this is a virus that none of us had heard of until the last couple months, it's sweeping through south and central america and there is a concern it could come to the united states, already some travelers have brought the virus in but it hasn't transmitted here. you can see there it is confirmed in those countries.

to actually have transmitted locally. it's in 20 countries in south and central america and puerto ri rico. the way this is transmitted is through mosquitoes, it's the same one that transmit dengy and chikungunya. it is in united states but doesn't transmit so much here. people are concerned it will come. the symptoms usually are very mild to zika. in 80% of cases of people who get infected they don't even see any symptoms. people who do see symptoms it's usually things like fever, rash and these things last less than a week n in the people who its very concerning more is pregnant women. they have seen a link to this birth defect which causes shrunken smaller leads and less developed brains in babies. they haven't proven this link, the cdc and other public health agencies are trying to make sure it's proven now but the incidence of this disorder it's

basically up 20 times in brazil now with what you would expect. they have seen a tremendous increase in cases of zeke can a, about a million cases last year. >> we haven't gotten into the summer and fall when there might be the mosquitoes more common across the south and that kind of thing, it's an open question as too what happens. does that give us time for the drug companies to try to do something? >> it's unlikely we could do anything in the next couple months in terms of drug companies making something happen here to have a drug. if we look back to ebola we have made progress in having vaccines and treatments for ebola, still nothing is on the market. the height of that was at the end of 2014. the other concern we have of course is that the olympics are coming to brazil. >> right. >> and that's a lot of people coming into the country. efforts have been going on for years to try to figure out how to eradicate this mosquito and control these diseases. >> these mosquito borne diseases are tougher to figure out than something like ebola, right? i'm speculating. it seems like chikungunya has been around for years, malaria

has never been eradicated so the mosquito borne parasite it seems to me they have a tough time getting rid of them. >> malaria is a parasite, these are viruses, and i have been talking with folks who think that there could be a potential efforts against zika. i got off the phone with regeneron who are doing interesting work in ebola. they are developing antibodies for ebola, they have a grant from the government and have been able to move pretty quickly and they hope they could potentially do something similar in zika if public health officials call for it. >> i know the test isn't an easy test to figure out if you have it. >> there are no commercially available test. the problem is these look similar to other things like dengy. >> meg, thank you. up next, the benefits of crude oil's collapse, keep it right here, you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. so what else is new? how's your mother?

umm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. first, let's take a look at your financial plan and see what we can do. ok, so we've got... we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

welcome back. in case you missed it, some oil field supply is a small mom-and-pop shop selling oil equipment in texas and getting hammered by low oil prices. jill post joined us to tell us how much the drop is affecting

her business. >> people walk in our store and it's like there has been a death in the family. there's just a black cloud, every single person that walks in we want to have something good to look forward to, but we are at a we're at a breaking point. >> if you want to know some true numbers, my sales are down 90%. it's catastrophic, if i could use that word. >> so a huge response to that interview. but not everybody is feeling pain from low oil prices. rate rodgers joins us with some businesses that are benefited. >> low gas prices, great for entrepreneurs like josh york whose business is on wheels. he's founder of gym guys, a fitness company that brings equipment and services to clients for on-site training. he saved about 20% in total in nearly a year amid the oil fall in his four corporate owned location. nearly $14,000 in total which he plans to reinvest back into his business.

>> with the future savings of a gas expense as far as gas dropping, we are going to put that into supporting our franchisees. >> owners, owner of three smoothie king locations are seeing dual benefits. the fuel charges for deliveries have come down. a savings of 30%. and consumers are spending more at his shop. thanks in part to a warm season, he has had his best winter in six years. >> i've definitely seen a more willing to spend, whether it be adding something extra to their smoothy or grabbing a protein bar. in past years i didn't see that as often. so i definitely see that these lower gas prices could definitely attribute to people having more disposable income. >> reporter: more broadly, energy costs are a top issue for smaller businesses with close to a third are concerned over the cost of fuel. kelly. >> you love this, evan? >> you see, the money goes -- the money, it doesn't disappear.

we've had this debate so many times on the show, which is all of the people are negative on the tell of the oil price. it is not doing any good. of course, it is doing good. people are getting extra wheat grass on their smoothy or whatever. >> all wheat butter. >> whatever you put on your smoothy. >> and kate, did he give you any more detail. i know you mentioned they were buying snack bars as well. >> he just said consumers are spending more. and a lot of the kids he has coming into his shop are high school and college-age kids so those are the ones immediately feeling the impact of lower gas because that is what they are spending money on and so they are taking extra cash and going to a place like smoothie king. and his staff is younger too, so moral in the store is better because they have more spending money. >> mike? >> and it is the kind of spending you could expect to see get a boost. you find yourself with a few more dollars in a day or week. you don't say now i could save up for a big purchase, it is just a little bit extra liquidity over day-to-day.

>> the problem that the store owner in texas has, the oil supply store, is that boom and bust. that is the story of the oil field. and nobody is going to have a lot of sympathy for people down in houston or down in texas who made a ton of money off the shale or the natural gas explosion over the past decades. they're not going to -- >> i asked her about that, even during the boom times, people must have said this won't last and we've been through this before. squirrelling away, acorn and she said they squirrelled away and that is the only way they stay afloat right now. >> that is the tale of texas. but it is interesting. my sense is that texas is better prepared. maybe that woman's individual store is not. but texas as whole -- >> well they will say look at health care services, people come here from around the world. but still, kate. i love it. it is a good reminder of the debate we're having. >> and in covering main street they don't pay attention to the volatile swings that we focus on in the stock market. this is something tangible they

could tack their future sales outlooks on so oil and gas prices falling, that matters more to them in the short-term. >> so true. thank you so much, kate. >> thank you. >> kate rogers. well don't have a snow blowing for this weekend's winter storm. fear not. there is an app for that. we'll tell you how to get your driveway clears on-demand, next. those who define sophistication stand out. those who dare to redefine it stand apart. the all-new lexus rx and rx hybrid. never has luxury been this expressive. this is the pursuit of perfection. herthey work hard.ade, wow, that was random. random? no. it's all about understanding patterns. like the mail guy at 3:12pm every day or jerry getting dumped every third tuesday.

jerry: every third tuesday. we have pattern recognition technology on any chart plus over 300 customizable studies to help you anticipate potential price movement. there's no way to predict that. td ameritrade. sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. 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. there's a lot of places you never want to see "$7.95." [ beep ] but you'll be glad to see it here. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be.

if only the signs were as obvious when you trade. fidelity's active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be. iall across the state belthe economy is growing,day. with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in the hudson valley, with world class biotech. and on long island, where great universities are creating next generation technologies. let us help grow your company's tomorrow, today at business.ny.gov

welcome back. people from the carolinas to new england are stocking up on food and water in the wake of the snowstorm. some may still be needing snowplows. that is why the app comes in. diana olick has more. >> hi. there is an app for everything. so why not plows. they are plowing in the profits after barely three years in business. some have deemed it the uber or gl grub hub of snowplows. you decide. >> we offer snowplowing, across the country in over 30 markets. you download our app plow z and now z and it gets dispatched out to our providers. >> mahoney came up with the idea when his mom got stuck in her

syracuse driveway watching plows go by. now he has angel funding and is raising more. he gives drivers extra revenue paid to them almost immediately through the app. last winter when boston was getting pummelled but syracuse was dry, they had drivers road trip east and pick up boston jobs immediately. critics say it takes the personalized customer service but you could upload pictures and special instructions for orders. unfortunately the app does not exist here in d.c. yet. mahoney said he hasn't signed up enough drivers to ensure quick service. but we call the local plow company, due to this incredible storm bearing down on us and we called them yesterday to inquire. and kelly, they said they could not guarantee any plow service until at least monday. >> nows and plows is going to put them out of business. a beautiful shot. thank you, diana.

this might be my favorite story of the year. >> this is what makes america great. >> it really is. >> and the frankenstein pumpkins. >> i dealt with someone for the whole season, whenever it snows, plow my driveway and you pay them. >> a tough business in the northeast this year. >> and certainly when there is no snow. but again, i'm thinking about virginia and we could show again what happened in the last couple of hours where my parents are. you don't have to live in a snowy place if enough people get the app. there are plenty of people -- could you imagine how people in a rural place are willing to take the $70 or $100 to plow your driveway. >> if there are number plows on trucks. >> this is a game-changer. i totally love it. >> if your dad likes shoveling driveways, he could set up the app for himself and have shovel will travel. >> exactly. this is the 2016 version of that. thank you both. good luck in the snow this weekend. mike santoli, evan.

that does it for us on "closing bell." we just went out with a rally and stocks positive for this session the whole day, the first time this year so with gains of better than 2% for the s&p 500 and nasdaq and the dow having a nice session too. "fast money" begins right now. and "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking times square, i'm scott wapner in tonight for melissa lee. our traders on the desk, tim, steve, brian and guy adami. tonight on "fast," the best week of the year for stocks is in the books and there is something in the charts that could lead to more gains. and we'll tell you what it is. and plus apple is back above $100. if you are worried about earnings next week and a we have a way to protect your shares for free. and later, a blizzard bearing down on the east coast which means you could be stuck inside this weekend. the four stocks you might want to chill with. but first we start with the market. stocks c