lot with, to make sure that they can stay here to keep the wide variety of people that we have, the aetna ethnicities the economic levels, the professional pursuits, we are proudly diverse neighborhood. we want to stay that way. affordability also means accessibility and some of you know, i've been involved in transportation efforts to try to make our residences at our jobs more accessible. we supply a lot of jobs in this neighborhood, especially lower and medium skill levels and we want to make sure people can get to work. we want make sure that workers that within our neighborhoods can get to their jobs elsewhere. it's not a good thing to the 30 on not being the emblem of stalled transit across the city. so, we need to work on the infrastructure in our neighborhood. we love our streets. we love their walk ability and their charm and we want to find a way to keep our street safe and fun to be on. a joy for visitors as well as residents. so we need to work on the infrastructure that will allow us to remain mobile in the district. because we are so dense, we don't have a lot of open space

aetna's sew mark bertolini is joining us in an exclusive interview. why they're raising their outlook plus we'll ask him to weigh in on the controversy. >> the vaccine story was a big part of the show yesterday with kelly's interview with senator rand paul. disneyland in california was kind of ground zero for the measles vaccine debate with that scare out there. bob iger will be here after his company's earnings are released tonight. we'll get his take on all of that. i'm sure i'm sure that bob will have something to say about that. >> here is where we stand in the markets with an hour to go. the dow is up 274. the nasdaq look at the s&p first of all. the nasdaq is the laggard on this session today. watching oil here moving higher up almost 10%, $10 let's say in just two trading sessions. >> let's goat to "the closing bell" exchange. a lot to talk about with our guests. jennifer veil from u.s. bank is with us today. david kudlow from mainstay capital management. jeff taylor from digital risk. james lew from jpmorgan funds and our own rick santelli joi

ikea, gap, aetna and other big companies are a step ahead already paying more to keep hourly employees. >> it's likely that walmart and other companies are increasing wages because they have to because the labor market is not as bad as it was a few years ago and now it's becoming a more competition labor market. >> reporter: there is also political pressure. seven states, plus the district of columbia, already have a minimum wage of $9 or more. and new york and minnesota will do the same later this year. for walmart's hourly workers, the boost in pay is a boost in confidence. >> very exciting. everybody's just smiling. it's just really great. >> reporter: after some tough years, finally a reward for the people walmart says are vital to running a good business. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >>> we've got a lot more to tell you about tonight. what to eat, what to avoid in your diet. re-writing the rules for a lot of foods we love. and a surprise about cholesterol. >>> also a rare peek behind the curtain drama at "snl"'s 40th anniversary bash. why eddie murphy refused to be part of a

frs dow aetna, linovo novartis and more. >> jon: with special appearances by montgomery burns. the ghost of john d. rockefeller. the biblical personification of wealth, mammon. but, of course, the get-together is not just a celebration but a chance for the powerful to reflect on how the world has changed since the devastating financial collapse. that many of them caused and are profiting from. j.p. morgan chase c.e.o. jamie dimon. >> you made some provocative comments last week. you said the bank is under assault from regulators. >> i was referring to the fact that there are lots of different regulators. it's hard to deal with. we're going to deal with it. my job is to deal with it not to complain about it. >> jon: complaining about it is just my passion. ( laughter ) while some called for giant banks like morgan to be broken up jamie dimon would just like to let you know how hard something like that would be on us. >> a lot of my directors have mentioned to me that some of their companies were under some pressure to break up and thank god they didn't. the company itself was a

humana and united health were among -- and aetna.ealth care one of the leading sectors today in the stock market in the s&p 500. dominic chu is tracking some of the other movers on this first trading day of the week. what are you finding, dom? >> let's continue with those themes here. first of all, we'll start with investment banking giant goldman sachs which is lower in today's trade here. it said in a regulatory filing it was raising the upper end of the legal cost estimate to 3 million bucks. it was 2.5. government officials told it in december it could face potential legal action involving the sale of mortgage bonds leading up to the financial crisis. and let's talk about the big health insurance companies on the rise. some of the best performers in the s&p humana united health group, aetna, and wellcare. the government's proposal calls for a 1% cut to payments for health insurers but it could lead to a small revenue gain. green arrows across the board. we'll look at target. fractionally lower. the company is cutting the minute y

. -- economist allen's aetna on the recent interest rate debate. >> you run the risk of choking off an early economic expansion. >> the fed should delay a rate increase and raise rates more sharply. the u.s. may cut off more russian banks from the local financial system, because russia said they should ease support from separatist rebels in eastern ukraine. it was relatively calm in the conflict zone. three soldiers were killed in the past day. sales of the iphone and ipad blocked. seven new patent infringement lawsuits against apple in federal court. and they are asking the ftc to block products including iphones. the company sued each other after talks for a new failed. and republican presidential hopefuls are making their case of a political action conference. former texas governor rick perry and donald trump. >> the republicans have to toughen up. they have to toughen up on the irs. if they have to toughen up on benghazi. they have to toughen up on everything and perhaps other than immigration they have to toughen up on obama care, which is a told a lie and a total complete disaste

different story for aetna.ter raising its full-year outlook, posting better than expected quarterly revenue. factory orders did fall for a fifth consecutive month, down 3.4%. >> but the bulk of auto sales numbers are out and pretty good. phil lebeau has the roundup, gm in particular. >> when you look at all of the numbers, we'll throw these up here, all are better than expected wifrtd theth the exception of ford. and even though we're going against easy comparisons from january of last year and remember at that time we had horrific weather which kept people out of showrooms, didn't have consumer confidence at a high, look at numbers this year. strong across the board. what stands out? you guessed it we've been talking about it for several months, truck and suv sales they have popped in last six to seven weeks. gm trucks last month, up 42%. the jeep brand, red hot, up 23%. and we talked about ford coming in a little bit weaker than expected but not a whole lot. f-series doing well. in fact i'm on the ford sales

. >> aetna, stock is a horse. >> i don't think the banks.ellin is going to fly on the star platform and saying we're not raising the rates. that's going to make it hard for the banks to raise money. >> john dancing, that's the worst call. that's it for us. stock market all over the map today. now the dow is negative by 20. power lunch picks up that story. our friends due over there right now. >> halftime is over. power lunch and the second half of the trading day start right now. >> scott, thank you so much. volatility raines as we begin a new trading month. the s&p down 2.5% so far in 2015, but look at europe. look at germany. it is up 10.5% so far this year. is now the time to jump in over there? president obama unveiling his $4 trillion budget pitch? how the defense sector is being impacted. we will tell you the stocks to watch. and, finally, check out these incredible photos. a 100-car pile-up. yes,

this is evidence that an animal other than humans can diskrim aetna other than emotional facial expressions> it's a community still on the comeback and there's something about the future that some are criticizing. >>> bring back fun town the way it was. >> they keep saying this is a family resort and we'd like to keep it that way. >> blueprint for the future? it's already seeing ups and downs before they can even rebuild what was lost to an inferno. >>> and you'll need a lot of extra layers as the coldest air of the entire season gets ready to move into our region. temperatures are really going to plummet and it will feel a lot colder. get my updated first-alert forecast minute away. >>> with the blast and the way things are getting easier for some people in philadelphia. >> that's right. they're getting essential items to help keep them warm. >> they call that the giveback giveaway and they're handing out vouchers for stores in west philadelphia and the northeast. the salvation army helps identifies and former mills say they stock the stores with plenty so no one goes home disappointed. >>

there are reports that private sector actors not the government, but people like aetna, gap, starbucks wages at the lower level because they have to to get quality people. that tells me things are tightening a bit. that's good news. >> did i hear that right? did peter moresi suggest optimism? 3.2 million americans now are earning paychecks, more paychecks, versus a year ago. that's going to lift consumer spending. does that make you confident about the future? >> to some extent, it certainly does. by the way, one of the things you said in your opening was something about how wages are keeping pace with inflation. actually because of these lower energy prices and other factors that are holding inflation down these wage growth numbers we have seen are beating inflation pretty handedly. last we checked, inflation was less than 1%. that means a really wage gain of a pretty significant magnitude compared to recent months. if you look at weekly earnings that's up more. of course that's going to boost consumer spending. in my ways you're seeing a kind of a heating up economy. a recovery that'

aetna, ikea and gap, they're all raising free wages. is this the free market at work or is this time to stop the embarrassment. >> over the past five years, the longest stretch of private sector job creation in american history, businesses adding nearly 12 million new jobs and in perhaps the single most hopeful sign for middle-class families in a very long time wages are beginning to rise again. america is coming back. >> don't you get a feeling the democrats are like the most modest people on the face of the earth. what would republicans, if they had the power, be doing if they were behind these numbers? look at wall street. today the dow closed 154 points up at 18,140. it is the dow's first record close. another record close, but the first record close of 2015. economy is on a roll. rising wages are proof that activism and protests work. we have had a big discussion about income inequality in this country. minimum wage protests have taken ahold. retail stores have been under enormous pressure. hey, let's give these folks a raise. i th

now i had our ed team go through united health group humana, aetna, and cigna over the last six months. we were getting up to the run up of round two in sign up for obamacare. united health care group is up 32%. anthem is up 23%. here are the republicans who are holding a vote to tinker with the private sector where they're making double digit increases over the last six months. since the republicans are complaining so much about this maybe there would be a down tick in profit. if i'm running united health care, i want the republicans to tell me i'm not going to have my 32% increase over the last few months screwed around with because my stockholders are pretty concerned about that. that's where we are. there's no rhyme. there's no reason to what the republicans are doing. it is all anti-obama. jonathan alter you first. your reaction to this latest repeal vote that is going on this hour? >> this is all about the freshmen. they told all their radical right wing constituents they were against this and they had to show they were going to go to washington and vote on what they said they wo

file these masters of the universe, so we've got einhorn, interesting, lowered his position on cigna, aetnawarner. david tenner completely cut out cvs, facebook, halliburton. speaking of where these big guys are putting their money, there's a new report out now that governor scott walker drawing tons of cash from the wall street crowd. it's from "the wall street journal," and they specifically mention anthony scaramucci giving $100,000. all right, anthony, this is your guy. tell us why. >> looks a little bit like joe friday from dragnet. charles: is that what you like, that old school, honest look? >> i like the fact that he's able to take unpopular decisions that are beneficial to the populace, and s sold that in a blue state. so this guy's going to win. he'll take the nomination, and i think he's going to be our next president. charles: we're talking about the two fights he had with the unions. progressivism and unions were born out of wisconsin. he won them, he won them bigtime, he's faced them doubling down, and he's a -- faced them down, and he's a governor. i love governors. >> have y

blizzard conditions in aetna maine triggered had big 40-car pile- up.s along interstate 95 in maine. it injured a dozen people. it's the coldest february on record in many parts of the northeast. >>> well, one woman fed up with the bitter new york cold is catching a rather warm break. kerry is an advertising sales planner and it's been so cold in new york, she recently woke up to find the glass of water beside her bed had frozen. fed up with the freezing temperatures, she talked her bosses into letting her work remotely from the bay area. >> i was getting a picture from my friend on her commute to work. the sun was shining and she wasn't wearing a jacket so i sent mine back to her and it was my parka all the way around my head with snow on it. >> beckerman is working at her company's office in san francisco enjoying the weather here. the company agreed to the move as long as she paid her own way. >> so let's get this right. the water froze on her night stand? >> something wrong with her heating. >> or close your window there, kiddo. >> i was thinking th

or i'm sorry not aetna, i want to say athena -- >> anthem. >> yes, with anthem. and on the heels of sony and on the heels of target on the heels of everything else i think cyber security is kind of getting in fashion right now. if investors want to look at a segment of technology stocks i think cyber security offers a lot. >> meg, what do you like in the stock market? we covered the munis. you say you still like stocks. which part of the market? >> i like the broad market. i really do. i'm always a small cap girl and sometimes i lag behind, but i like the small caps, but techs did not do that well except for apple flying so we're looking at a really good tech rally and they keep knocking things down for interest rates. i don't think this market is being volatile about greece. i think it's all about interest rates. i remember a year and a half ago when we were worried about the taper and everybody was fearful what was going to happen when the fed tapered and it kept everybody off balance. >> right. >> well that's done and now they're saying when are the rates goin

autozone, home depot, darden, monster beverage, united health, aetna, the list goes on and on. all these are at record highs. liz: "after the bell" starts right now, don't move. david: today's action. we have larry rosenthal from rosenthal wealth management. he will tell us to boost profitability. he sighs buy europe. why is now is the time to jump in. larry shover, from sfg alternatives in the pits of cme. larry shover, let me start with you, do traders have any doubts? a lot of this, the word greece and europeans came to some kind of a decision here, did traders have any doubt despite the euphoria over today's decision greece will be right back in the hopper two or three months from now? >> you know, yeah. traders right now are viewing it that wow, the coast is clear, breezes in the backburn -- greece is in the backburner for four months. so we have four months to worry about it. that is what markets tend to do. it is a risk and real risk we should be concerned about, but not front and center. so today, the coast is clear with regards to everything. ukraine, greece, yellen of

the company did respond it comes on the heels of insurance company aetna's major announce.ump their pay raise to $16 an hour. they plan to launch an enhanced medical benefits program, which will lower out of pocket expenses for employees. to the state of wisconsin. members of this menominee tribe continued their march to mad son. they hoped to talk about a proposed hard rock hotel and casino they want. this is something advocates say will bring money to the state, the impoverished tribe, jobs to help the unemployed and tax dollars to the state. governor walker is against the casino and refused to meet with the tribe members after their five-day march to madison. and the state of texas, despite the ban on same-sex marriage allowed a gay couple to marry today. the license was granted for medical reasons to sarah goodfriend and suzanne bryant after goodfriend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. this is not a sweeping change to state legislation as the grant only applies to one couple. texas' statewide ban on gay marriage was declared unconstitutional in federal court last year.

. >> have you had other companies in recent weeks and months start to raise wages a gap, ikea, aetna, were you sensing retention was going to get tougher as the job market moved into this cycle of improvement? >> it's great to see the job market getting better and the market works so we're adjusting to that market, trying to make sure we're appropriately ahead of it and we'll continue to move if we need to. at the end of day we have to have great talent. we have about 75% of our store management in the united states that comes from our hourly ranks so today's cashier is tomorrow's store manager. tomorrow's store manager may have my job. we want to make sure that opportunity is there for people as it has been for so many of us in the past. >> i don't need to tell you, looking at a map of minimum wages in this country, 19 states now have made a move. arkansas had a vote. >> i voted for that increase by the way. >> you voted for that. >> yeah. >> people will say look they saw it coming, they saw it was a political inevidentibility they're trying to get in front of it and look like the go

autozone, home depot, darden, monster beverage, united health, aetna, the list goes on and on.. liz: "after the bell" starts right now, don't move. david: today's action. we have larry rosenthal from rosenthal wealth management. he will tell us to boost

time we had wage growth, more ceos stepped up like aetna recently give people a voluntary raise from an hour to $16 an hour saying it's not fair that you work for one of the biggest 50 companies of the world and you're poor. that would be great for this economy if more companies did that, took their record profits and reinvested them in their people. >> you're probably not the best person to ask about wage pressure in your industry, right, fast-growing media, digital media, you must be feeling it. >> carl, talent is expensive as you well know. it's no question. >> walked into that one. meantime twitter is set to up veil a deal with google in an effort to monetize its service. the stock trading higher ahead of earnings after the bell tonight. we will have dick costolo on "squawk on the street" tomorrow at 9:00 eastern time and talk about all the flurry of news preearnings, the google deal, the memos about how poorly they admit to have handles trolls on the site. >> lots of people are wondering why all this right now? the defenses of costolo, this revenue deal coming out, you know, som

aetna insurance is raising its lowest paid -- i'm not sure of these numbers, i believe, from 12 to 15r $16 an hour, its lowest wage workers, which also means people slightly above that will get raises. and don't forget that on the minimum wage. if we can raise the minimum wage $3 an hour it means people making right above the minimum wage will get pushed up too, and it will mean significant wage increases. we also need to do things like expanding the earned income tax credit, which rewards people for work. if you're making $40,000 a year, you have a couple of children, you can get $2,000 or $3,000 tax credit, real dollars, refundable tax credit, real dollars in a check in the mail in february or march when you file your taxes. so all of those things we should do, in addition to just generally pro-growth policies aimed at the middle. >> i feel -- i feel a little more depressed about the prospect of what can get done. you talking in such specific terms about what not only ought to be done but could be done makes me feel a little better. >> it's why i came tonight. thank you, rachel. >>

aetna is higher by 9/10 of 1%.s natural resources fourth-quarter profit and sales beat estimates the it sold more iron ore to u.s. steel makers than global customers. >> thank you, scarlet. much more ahead. at 9:00 a.m., we will be speaking with joseph stiglitz. his take on greece, the u.s. budget and on tax reform. plus, from super bowl ads to valentine's day, a busy february 4 the torilla secret angels. we would hear from adriana lima. ♪ >> and al jazeera journalist held in prison in cairo must give up his citizenship. the journalist was told to give up his nationality or his freedom. his australian colleague said all held should be released. >> i still feel a sense of concern. if it is appropriate for me to be free, it is right for all of them to be free. >> us trillion a unexpectedly cut its main interest rate overnight. -- australia i expectedly its main interest rate overnight. it follows china, canada and india in loosening monetary policy and an attempt to boost growth. carlos goheen has said the russian ca

tom: very quickly in davos, one of my most important conversations with the ceo of aetna, who just goteople. is that we see in the jolt surveys and other data? ethan: companies raising their minimum wage, it makes sense, you have the tightening of the labor market, so you want to retain those workers, but also there is a big cost and rapid turnover, particularly in walmart for the case, they have got a grocery business, and you want to have effective stop controls. you do not want to merchandise out of date. brendan: this is a painful lesson that home depot went through, which is that they had huge turn over a decade ago and they fixed that. they recognize that turnover was really bad for business. is this a long-term change, a secular change in how businesses look at retention, or is this a function of the economy? ethan: i think it is a little of both. companies recognize that cutting wages to the bone is not the answer to every cost issue and you have to motivate your workers and have some productivity out of them. there is a limit to how much you want to lower their wages, and that

among the gainers, humana aetna.re is one of the best performers in the s&p midcap 400 index. back to you. >> thank you. >>> well the heart of proxy season still months away right, mary, but behind the scenes and also in the headlines the key issues are already being hashed out. mary thompson is here to get us hopefully ahead of the game. >> that's right. there are three key things. activism. proxy access and board refreshment. anyone following business news of course, knows that activists not only want to replace board members, but as proxy advisors patrick told cnbc some want firms to merge or purge. that is, look for a buyer, sell assets, or split the companies up. among the battle that is are being watched is proxy season try-ones to get dupont to split up. harry wilson's efforts to get him a board seat and buy back shares and the marcato's request to sotheby's that it buy back its stock. the most popular proposal will be allowing certain shareholders, rather than just a company, to nominate directors. a number o

we've seen aetna, we've seen disney. ikea that have already voluntarily raised the minimum wage.ts a larger trend it impacts i've said in a lot of ways the biggest way being interest rates. the fed has kept its rate near zero because it's not seeing that wage inflation that it wants to see. should walmart trigger a bigger reaction within the market, monetary policy, kelly, could be back on the road to normalcy. >> sure. jeff, thank you. dave zerbos your thoughts on this one? it goes back to the question of whether walmart is doing this because it feels like it has to and there's finally a moment when all of these private sector companies feel like they have to? >> i think it's a lot more about expectations and sentiment than it is about a significant amount of money being put into the economy. >> very correct. >> that expectation that you highlight is something that could cross a lot of businesses and a lot of areas that get this moving in the direction that the fed has been trying to get it moving for a while. >> when you say they have to you mean competitively in order to retai

cmo at express scripts and as mentioned, when we had that earlier earlier with mark bertolini with aetnaed him about the discounts they borkworked out with gilead. now we know it might be closer to 50%. >> the dow is down 84 points right now. rumblings out of greece the negotiations continue as the clock ticks on that country to get its debt servicing negotiations completed with the european union. the s&p is down 7 and the nasdaq is down 23 points. >> a better week for stocks but we're not finishing that strong. we'll take a quick look at the s&p 500 heat map. we're probably 6 to 4 in terms of red versus green today. we're wearing red for the aha's wear red day for women's heart health awareness. the market correlation is just spurious. >> coincidence. >> when it's good news/bad news for stocks may be when a great jobs report makes an interest hike rate more likely. >> plus we'll talk markets, fund flows and what's hot in the hot etf field coming up. stay tuned. your mom's got your back. your friends have your back. your dog's definitely got your back. but who's got your back when you n

also, how is obamacare impacting aetna's bottom line. mark betolli breaks down the results on "the closing bell." 2550 open a schwab account and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550 300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when a market move affects one of your positions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 schwab can help you decide what to do. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 with tools like free live-streaming cnbc tv tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that give you the latest financial news and trends. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and bubble charts and price charts that let you see exactly tdd# 1-800-345-2550 how market activity is affecting your positions. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when the time comes to decide whether to scale in tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or scale out you can make your move, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 wherever you are. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and start working on your next big idea. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ♪ ♪ open a schwab account and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550 300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-877-729-2379. tdd# 1-800-

also cut his stake in aetna by more than half and it looks like for right now trimmed his stake in appleon shares. also boosting his stake in sun edison by it looks like about 3 million shares and taking a new position in time warner. that's green light, some of the highlights. also want to point out that david tepper's appaloosa management is out with their 13f filings and a whole slew of sales and dissolutions. the highlights here, appaloosa and tepper have gotten out of the position in cvs, sold completely out of their alibaba position, citigroup position and facebook and hallburliburton positions. they have reduced their positions in priceline and american airlines. among the highlights facebook and alibaba, completely gotten out. dissolved citigroup and cvs groups and out of halliburton. we're going to continue going through these but again we got this first wave today. we'll expect a lot more of these by around tuesday this same time kelly. back over to you guys. >> that starts us off. thank you. valentine's day, of course it's tomorrow and this year women might want to think about

aetna also being impacted by rising medical costs.l" reports that staples and office depot are in advanced talks to merge. no word yet on the proposed terms. but the activist called for a merge last month. and rent-a-center taking a hit. late yesterday was down about 14%. as you can see the quarterly results fell short of estimates. also weak guidance was issued for the full year. >>> earlier this morning as we were just talking about, bp ceo bob dudley joined cnbc's worldwide exchange to talk about the company's results and the overall oil market. >> i think it's going to just take time. it could be a long time. there is excess supply. u.s. production is actually still growing. we see about the rate and what it's growing. of course there's great growth in china. so we have stock levels filling up all over the world. tanks are filling up it won't be long before i see i think people putting them in ships. and i think that takes a long time to work its way off. >> john hofmeister joins us now. he's former president of shale oil usa and

et aetna and other companies have done the same thing. >> the walmart was the most interesting as fars the dollar goes because it is a trend set trendsetter, the new union wage. and it means everyone else will have to raise wages. that's positive for the dollar. >> it's still below the average retail -- >> it is below. >> you think i'm a communist but i think we should all be at $15. >> i wish up made $15 an hour. the fact they're moving up means the fed is more likely to consider consider normalization. this is the only thing holding the fed back from normalization. >> june or september now? >> i think it's really stretching it to believe june. in the next week will be the key thing will be yellin and what she says. >> she was onboard with june and then the next thing you know two days later. >> they're back tracking. i think realistically if they say september, if they give a guidance for september that will be enough for the market. >> it's still just february and they say they're data dependent. i think there are a the lot of numbers they're watching. >> the first rate hike timing

ikea gap aetna, and other big companies are a step ahead, already paying more to keep hourly employeeses because they have to because the labor market is not as bad as it was a few years ago. now it's becoming a more competitive labor market. >> reporter: there is also political pressure. seven states, plus the district of columbia, already have a minimum wage of $9 or more. and new york and minnesota will do the same later this year. for walmart's hourly workers the boost in pay is a boost in confidence. >> very exciting. everybody is just smiling. it's just really great. >> reporter: after some tough years, finally a reward for the people walmart says are vital to running a good business. >> so, sarah, not to be the wet blanket here but is this a big raise for the employees? what were they being paid? it seems like there's still a long way to go. >> at the low end now $9 an hour. that's good. that's $1.75 above federal minimum wage. then it goes even higher to $10 an hour by february 2016. you could argue a, what took so long and, b, the writing was on the wall here. yes, our economy