kate kelly is here with the latest. hey, kate. >> hey, scott.he whales last quarter had trouble generating alpha according to symmetric io with only 20% outperforming their individual sectors with great picks on the long side. a number of these big fish actually did stand out. starboard value, matrix capital pershing square outperformed in their selections could be instructive. some of the most profitable bets for the fourth quarter for these guys and others in the top 20 were spirit arrow systems, netflix, forest city enterprises and the williams companies. with other tech names and pharma names like allergen rounding out that list. the media and health care trend played out a bit in the top increased positions among hedge fund out performers this is where they added within the top 20 of successful stock picking. time warner, zoetis, cbs and netflix, says sem metric. energy decidedly out of favor and not just with warren buffet who sold $4 billion stake in exxon as we know, as its shares slipped last year. the best stock pickers of the quarter

kate kelly has been all over that story and you're here bringing us mr. currie and we are grateful for that. >> thanks so much, scott. jeff, thank you so much for joining us today from london. i just want to kick off, i've read your trading note and some of your research on oil and copper. i'm curious we've seen this huge retail in flflow into oil etfs five year or all-time high but you see a selling opportunity here. you think maybe the retail investors have the wrong direction. can you talk about that and why? >> absolutely. there's three key points here. one of them is when you look at commodities, they're what we call spot assets. they have to respond to today's supply and demand which is very weak in terms of supply exceeding demand. this is in contrast to equities what we call ans pes taer to assets. they can anticipate the future. the commodities have to deal with the weak fundamentals. this is my second point when we look at fundamentals right now they are very weak. inventory numbers that came out today showed that u.s. inventories $418 million b

our panel is our own kate kelly and nathan bachrach also kenny polcari and "fast money" trader brian ve to start with michelle caruso-cabrera who has been all over the greece situation that's really unfolded in the last hour. michelle, i know you have been listening to the greek finance minister speaking. what is the latest? >> he's trying to put a positive spin on what's happened today saying it's a very good outcome even though they have really had to basically give in to almost everything. let me give you highlights of what the deal is that they've agreed to with their bailout partners in europe. they're going to get a four-month extension of the current bailout agreement. they will be subject to monitoring by the institutions that have been in their the last couple years to ensure that they're going to be able to that they're sticking to their commitments. you see the greek finance minister in brussels taking questions from reporters. they are not going to get any of the money sitting there waiting for them until they prove that they are sticking with certain reforms reforms. he's

kate kelly has the details. what does that mean exactly, kate?more choice words from dan loeb who is known for his poison pen. right now he's calling it a haunted house market for a vashth of variety of reasons. decline in growth. depegging of the swiss franc. the disconnect between the fed's plans and the market's expectations of those plans when it comes to rates. rising populism in europe and what he calls a surprising lack of leadership in the u.s. in foreign affairs and promoting democracy abroad. he said his strategy is to invest in companies with consistent growth. he's looking for market dislocations to add exposure so perhaps a leg down from time to time is not going to be bad for his portfolio or his strategy. i also want to point out third point added a new position a japanese robotics company and they were up last year a little lets than 6%. not great compared to the s&p, sara, but 23409not a terrible performance. at least in the black. >> thank you very much kate. we have ten minutes to trade until the end of the hour the session, an

kate kelly has the details on that story. , lee cooperman has been a gifted stock picker. he is ranked as one of our best and his compounded annual performance for more than over 20 years of investing is 14% netted of hooez fees. last year was really a tough one. although cooperman's omega advise overs has had worse years in absolute terms, they've never before lost money when the s&p was up. they did in 2014. again, some benchmark that rallied 11%. omega fell 2%. a performance that he described as a recent letter as embarrassing. the culprit? energy first and foremost. it monotized and hurt the omega portfolio too. >> when i called to talk about whether or how he is positioning for this year the january seems to have extended omega's rough patch. it fell 3.5% for the month, and the volatility in energy of course, continues. >> he wasn't fast enough on his feet in terms of changing his portfolio. >> i hope he held to these because hand ridge and others have posted sizable returns over the last couple of weeks. sandridge was up

fund going activist on the company, it's marcotto according to a letter dated today on cained by kate kellyar should split into two publicly traded companies one focused on auto seats the other on auto electrical components. seats makes up 3/4 of total sears at lear and counts the like of gm and ford as biggest customers. koum koum could be 45% more than current prices and wants an immediate share repurchase of abillion. a 4.6% stake in lear. recall that lear reported earnings and revenue last week that exceeded analysts' expectations for kate kelly's story, go to cnbc.com we've got interesting did pits about what marcato has been doing and a storey with lear. >> stock up 3% right now. >>> the broader market is in rally mode, dow up 180. oil is the story of the day, crude prices shooting up wti and brent rising more than 10% for the week. could this mark the end of that record slide? bring in stifel portfolio manager and wells fargo institute scott ren on the u.s. stock market big over hangs lower oil prices and greece. both appear to be in better shape. does that mean the worst is over? >>

. >> let's get to kate kelly with an alert on citadel. how are they doing kate?n griffin the founder of citadel talking about their performance in january. interestingly, they're up nearly 3% in their multistrategy fund in january which was a month when the s&p was down 3% and the average hedge fund per hfr up half a percentage. they say that given their very good per forpformance in 2014, they will have a lot of flexibility doing some hiring with a focus on equities which was a star performer last year. they'll be hiring analysts associates, portfolio managers. a couple word from griffin about the current tone of the markets. he said we approach 2015 with vigilance while market conditions remain uncertain. a half decade of unprecedented government intervention and monetary stimulus continues to impact the global financial market. so always interesting to hear from him brian given how much money they manage and looks like so far they're off to a good start. >> and it's a rare piece of news that does not involve a divorce. >> that has been dominating the headlines

investor harry wilson nominating himself to the board but there is far more juice to that story and kate kellys here with more. kate? lot of people talking about this one. >> this is definitely a big headline today and a big move by a group of four hedge funds to pull their stake in this company to push for change at the board level. ap louisa, ta canna and hg vora with a combine position of 2.1% are backing harry wilson, former leader of the obama administration's task force and restructuring adviser with his own firm as a candidate for gm's board this season. they're pushing for a share buyback of $8 billion which would be in addition to a quarterly dividend raised to 36 cents per share for the second quarter. the news has sent shares of gm already a popular hedge fund name soaring and some are saying the proposal makes a world of sense with the stock relatively cheap now could be a good time to buy back shares goes the thinking. kyle bass one of the fund managers behind the push has been arguing for balance sheet improvements to gm for years now. gm for its part is already defending its tur

our own kate kelly and "fast money" trader guy adami from the nasdaq. this was a choppy day and it turns out we ended with barely a move on the dow and the s&p 500. are you worried about greece? >> i think you have to be. if you're not worried about it i think you're just burying your head in the sand because if things go pear shaped there, you have the trickle down with portugal and italy. so, yeah i think you have to be worried, but, you know, you have to also respect the resilience of the broader market. the s&p had every opportunity to sell off today, didn't do it rallied back to unchanged. it was positive a little portion of the day. what i'm most encouraged by and most impressed with is the continued resilience of the broader market. >> yeah. nathan, the resilience of the broader market. it's a good point, had the opportunity to sell off on lack of headlines or a deal. we stayed in there. is it corporate earnings? >> i think what it is is confidence in america and we look at the rest of the world and we go i'm okay. you i'm not so sure about. we'v

kate kelly on why buffet is doubling down on ibm and what

. >> scott, let's begin with lear, the stock moving higher after cnbc's own kate kelly reported thatear is the target of an activist investor of mar cotto capital urging the company to split car seat and electrical parts businesses into two separate publicly traded companies. lear responded by saying it did receive a letter from mar cotto and it takes all input from shareholders seriously and will evaluate the proposal. lear shares up by 5% hitting a record high. also staples and office depot surging after "the wall street journal" reported that office supply retailers are in advanced merger talks. the two both up very big, scott, on today's trade. i just want to highlight one more for you as well, say lix pharmaceuticals hit a circuit breaker for volatility, those shares towards session highs by 4% on a bloomberg report that the company may be a possible take overtarget about some of the names in the past shar pharmaceuticals, valiant, a stock to watch today on possible takeover news. back to you. >> thanks. watching it. >> both odp and staples incredible amounts of unusual activity

kate kelly, missed two times in a row and the stock got hammered both times. >> absolutely.nticipation over the results after the bell today. this time related to economics and geopolitics perhaps as much as anything else. for starters analysts expecting them to miss on the top and presently bottom line although we didn't get super clear bottom line guidance from the company. the prediction earnings per share for the quarter of 1.22, that's the analyst consensus, the company's own guidance 130 to 140 per share. revenue just over a billion dollars is what analysts say despite company guidance of closer to $1.3 billion look at the net sales predictions. the bearishness has to do with expected slower growth in the u.s., impact of a stronger dollar which may have dees pressed sales overseas and weakness in markets like venezuela. it's symbolic for the company which in its initial decade as a companies missed estimates only one time in 38 quarters. the last two quarters were a different story and the stock has been punished as a result. even today a small group of protesters gath

kate kelly has details. >> thanks so much.e historic auction company sotheby's and this time from marcatto. in a sharply worded letter to sotheby's lead independent director this morning, marcato founder, nick mcguire a sizable shareholder, argues fort immediate purchase of $500 million of shares and argues for more possibly down the road as well as the installment of a new cfo. he also has choice words for the board and its executives accusing them among other things of willful neglect and misguided policies motivated at times by tactical considerations to avoid a proxy contest rather than thoughtful balance sheet management in marcato's view. a spokesperson declined to comment. mcguire's push is notable, regarded as a friendlier activist notably dan lobe known for harsh rhetoric. lobe led a proxy might last year to which mcguire eludes here and is now on the board and made peace with management. but even with that mcguire's saying, he's disappointed in the company's leadership. today mcguire cites embarrassing em mail ex e-m

kate kelly, what now? what happened today?on't think any of us expected aubry to go quietly from chesapeake, the company you know he founded in 189, but it seemed he had, at least until now. in a bleserring new lawsuit filed earlier today in oklahoma city court, chesapeake accuses its former ceo of swiping trade secrets for his own benefit. using chesapeake information to guide his own investments at american energy partners a company he founded after leaving there. according to the suit just 36 hours after announcing the details of his departure from chesapeake mcclendon dusted off what was at that time a year-old geological survey of potential drill sites in the utica shale play in ohio and asked follow-up questions about it of people at chesapeake, e-mailing some of the results to himself or printing out hard copies. later that very we're in one of its very first public announcement aep, the company he then founded, touted raising $1.7 billion in funds to pursue drilling projects in the very same place. the utica region. ch

kate kelly is joining us with herbalife numbers. >> a pretty big beat in terms of earnings per share.me out 1.41 versus an estimate of 1.22. a nice beat there. changing expectations, i guess. on the revenue side they were slightly missing analyst expectations in terms of a $1.16 billion in expected revenue. they came in with about 1.13. forward guidance some weakness there. they expect to see a big hit from currency rates in the coming year in 2015. that relates to the strong dollar. a big chunk of that comes from venezuela, which is an important overseas market for them. 80% of their sales come from venezuela. that is going to be an important thing to watch as we look through the additional details. >> kate thanks very much for now as herbalife shares are up almost 6%. herb greenberg is rejoining us. what do you make of this report? >> well aside from the obvious, which is nothing really matters until we hear from the ftc, which is overriding all of this their active sales leaders actually were up. the company talks about retention. you could say that's a good thing. but if you take

kate kelly reported fund activists are urging the company to split in two. lear responded by saying it's going to evaluate the proposal. shares up by 5%. big oil moving higher on the back of rising oil prices. it surged 7% oil prices. it's highest point of 2015. the year is still young. airlines took a hit on the rising oil prices. that inverse correlation holding true today. and we're going end with aetna shares gaining ground after the company raised its full year outlook. it said it's seeing membership and revenue increasing. up 1.66%. >> thanks very much. joining us to talk about earnings chairman and ceo mark bertolini. i hope the snow is staying away from you. >> hi bill. hi kelly. so far so good. >> so you're raising guidance for the rest of the year. how much of that is obamacare? >> not a lot, but it does provide some tailwind for us. we ended the year last year in the commercial sector and in medicare and medicaid rather strongly, and we start into 2015 with strong growth in medicare advantage again but also we have seen strong growth in the public

kate kelly with more on that. >> carl right, warren buffett made waves yesterday for selling $4 billioniting conoco phillips and cutting a steak in barco. he wasn't the only one souring on energy as crude oil hit rock bottom prices last year. according to the figures, there was a rash of energy selling during the fourth quarter. overall, analyzing the universe of 1,000 larger sizes hedge funds that filinged stock holdings with the s.e.c. symmetric found that anadarko, exxon, halliburton saw the most selling pressure with 90 anadarko, 78 selling exxon, and 77 selling halliburton. eog and chevron also made the list. stock names in favor of technology seems to be dominant. apple, google facebook saw 10% of the universe of hedge funds add positions during the fourth quarter followed by citi and allergan, the pharmaceutical company, soon to be acquired by actavis. among the best stock pickers, the media and technology trend played out as well. best performing hedge funds in terms of long equity load up on time warner cable, cbs, netflix. i should note a tough quarter to generate alpha, with

kate kelly is here to explain what is happening.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 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

hi, kate. >> kelly, that's right.se three oil companies, newfield exploration, cabot oil and gas and range resources. they're three of the top four gainers in the s&p 500 right now. energy also one of the only two s&p sectors positive on the day with both brent and wti crude jumping in trading. brent is above $60 and wti is above $50. and american express, one of today's top dow gainers, up 1.5% or so. the company says it's hiking its interest rate on some of its credit cards by an average of 2.5 percentage points in recent weeks. >> thanks very much. it said that because it did a survey recently and discovered it's competitors were charging more than it was. so they knew they could get away with that. by the way, it may be a top gainer today, but american express is the worst performing dow component so far this year. even so noted investigate mario gobe lli told "the halftime report" he's still buying it. >> i like it more. if i liked it two weeks ago at $95, i have to like it at $78. >> do you add to your position?

said to us that are weathered to our budget and weathered onto the discussion we have with kelly and her boss kate howard about the general fund we took our comments and suggestions to heart and had a very hearty discussion we'll end on that not kelly was many the room she heard our discussion and i appreciate your vicinities of support too. >> very much so i'm sure you're aware of kate is amazing the city is in good hands with kate as the mowers before you get director public comments on the presentation all right. seeing none no speakers public comment is closed. any final comments clirgs all right. thank you thank you, kelly. >> next item is review and approval the department viable for the 2015-2016 that explanatory documents for the 2015-2016 sponsors are deborah reaping yell and accident project sponsor and finance administration this is a discussion and action item. >> oh, joe. >> good evening. i'm joe. >> before you starting i'm going to do a couple of introduceries the way we are going to industry this as 4 of the 5 you sat through a detailed discussion with the operations committee we'll

our friend michael peltz gives us a first peek live at the winners and losers along with our own kate kelly follows this area for us. all right, michael. tell us how you did this survey as you have your -- show the magazine, michael. hold it up there. we need to see it. >> there it is. >> how did you do this, sir? >> we go out to institutional verz, foundation pensions endowments, fund of funds, and we did this stagt after labor day, and we did it right through thanksgiving. we ask them to fill out a pretty detailed survey across eight different metrics, the funds that are invested. the thing is also if you are an investor, you can't actually rate a fund unless you've had money with them in the past 12 months. we're trying to make it fair that they're not going to penalize someone that they had money with in the past and they might have bad feelings. >> the raw performance and how they did. >> what are some of the other metrics metrics? >> there's also a risk management. >> for people that don't know what alpha is. >> better than the market. >> better than -- >> what else? what else are you

kelly. >> thank you director raphael for the for the introduction i'm going to be giving an abbreviated version of what the mayor's budget director kate howard gave in december highlighting the findings of our 5-year financial plan published in december as well as a very cursory look to guide their budget proposals as they work through the budget season and they are in the thick of that right now as i'm sure joe will share with you. >> all right. the clicker is working okay so my agenda for the presentation this evening is just to give you a high level overview of the city's financial planning and policies generally and to dig a little deeper into the into the 5-year financial plan looking at the goals and the general fund base case that we've our findings on that as well as our proposed fiscal strategics and the first time ever did a recession scenario for the for the 5-year plan as a planning tool and i'll dig a little into budget instructions. so broadly the city has worked over the last several years to strengthen the long-term financial management in our budget process. that involves 2-year budging. every year the departments are