joining us is carter leake, senior equity research analyst with bb&t capital markets. you very much for being with us. we have had a laundry list of problems with the dreamliner. and of course, i see that you've downgraded the stock as a result. i mean how serious are these setbacks for boeing? >> well, ashley, thanks for having me. the issues aren't, first of all, there is no safety of flight issues, i have concur with boeing, that the aircraft is itself safe. the issue is more of a pr issue and certainly a string of bad luck. i got off with boeing just a little bit ago, we found out the fuel issue, the second issue that arose yesterday turned out to be an error of the ground crew who failed to put back a fueling valve. so certainly a lot of bad luck as media attention was focused on them. that said our downgrade speaks more to, we just think that these issues in the aggregate, present enough risk for us that the bull case was predicated on the fact that all of the 878 -- 787 issues were behind us. i'm not comfortable making that call right now. long term boeing will w

joining us now is carter leak. carter, you cake out with a downgrade of the stock, i believe, yesterday? >> i did. >> yeah. so, why not buy the weakness here? so many of your, you know, counterparts at other firms are saying? >> that's been the bull case for quite some time and we just felt it was -- it's a gut feel where, you know, we had an incident where no one really knows the answer of what's going on and we feel it's far more concerning, given it was the electrical components of this airplane. we don't have the answers. sure enough, a few hours later, we had the fuel incident. our thesis is that boeing has really run out of mulligans, if you will, because of the frequency of the incidents. we feel like it's safer to sit and watch this out for a couple of months and make sure they have this under control. >> wings are pretty important, and for airbus, a cracked wing on the a-380 a year ago that were found on singapore airlines and, you know, airbus came out of that okay. >> oh, i'm not saying -- listen, we've b

. >> all right, carter leake on boeing, cart certificate with bb & t capital markets. >> susie: still ahead, from the "gimmies," to "i-need-it-now," teaching your kids better money habits. it's tonight's "kids and cash." two dynamic readings on the u.s. economy energized the stock market today. the dow jumped 85 points, the nasdaq added 18, and the s&p gained ght pots. here's what inspired investors to buy stocks: housing starts surged more than 12% last month, hitting the highest level since june 2008. permits for future home construction were also the strongest in more than four years. the upbeat december performance echoes other recent measures on housing. and, there was also good news on the labor front: jobless claims fell last week to the lowest level in five years. >> susie: so is the slow growth environment coming to an end, or is the u.s. economy still stuck in neutral? suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: ann lenane has sold real estate in up and down markets, what she says about today's market might surprise you. >> the real estate market is hot. it is on fire. >> reporter:

. >> all right carter leake on boeing, cart certificate with bb & t capital markets. >> susie: still ahead, from the "gimmies," to "i-need-it-now," teaching your kids better money habits. it's tonight's "kids and cash." two dynamic readings on the u.s. economy energized the stock market today. the dow jumped 85 points, the nasdaq added 18, and the s&p gained eight points. here's what inspired investors to buy stocks: housing starts surged more than 12% last month, hitting the highest level since june 2008. permits for future home construction were also the strongest in more than four years. the upbeat december performance echoes other recent measures on housing. and, there was also good news on the labor front: jobless claims fell last week to the lowest level in five years. >> susie: so is the slow growth environment coming to an end, or is the u.s. economy still stuck in neutral? suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: ann lenane has sold real estate in up and down markets, what she says about today's market might surprise you. >> the real estate market is hot. it is on fire. >> report

joining us on the phone is phil leak with bbt capital markets. carter, you cut your rating on boeing from hold to underweight and did it just today. explain. >> well, the faa's grounding, we felt that the underpinnings of our bhul case that the 787 was well on its way to cash breakout was knocked out. the lack of any clarity of any timing of any eventual fix was too much for us. suh we felt it better to step to the sideline. there is a long list of things that can sort of -- possibilities that can happen and we find a short list of those that become a catalyst for boeing right here. >> how much liability might the company face as airlines come back to them and try and recoup some of the lost revenue that they're going to suffer, some of the costs that they may have to incur? >> well, the good news from boeing is contractually the answer is none. boeing -- aircraft manufacturers will not contract for consequential damages. contractually i would argue there is probably zero risk. now as far as good will from the airlines and your customers, that's a diffe

profile glitches including a battery fire and fuel leak and oil leak, and so let's go to the charts with the original aviator and talking about carter braxton with worth. >> well, that was a long list there. this is a five-year chart of the boeing and what is important is 75 level and 75 4re 75 level an three years this has been stuck. but it shows equilibrium and is the dreamliner going to work or not? and everybody knows it is going to work and it will take over the market, and what sets up the tension is this breakout here and 95 or higher and looking at the same chart over 20 years and the same tension, and basically a stock has gone sideways for three years, 10, 11, 12, and the stock market has been ripping and that is equilibrium and equilibrium always ends, and you can now say that maybe it is going to breakdown and we would bet against it, because we believe it is going to break up. >> carter sees it on a technical basis higher, boeing that is, and mike i turn to you, because a lot of times we look at the headline risk events and look back and see that when the headlines were the greatest and the most profile, that is the bi

carter, let me start with you. because, this is um, not only a fire, not only was there a fuel leak, but i read in the wall street journaly had a problem with the engine and had to have the faa take a look at it. what is your take? >> that was the reason for our downgrade this morning. is that we do understand having been a commercial pie liglot my these issues do happen. it is that the one that is are happening to woulding are issuing that could have catastrophic questions and while we are completely comfortable with the plane being safe, and this issue gets resolved. there is reason enough for us to look at the situation and say do we want to be in front of this given the fact that we are for sure to have incidences and that is the nature of the beast. it could be a problem. >> all right. i want to ask you how serious you think this is. to an amateur who flies a lot. it sounds serious. and especially when it is splashed all over the paper and the media. the battery fire is a serious issue that occurred at the dpga. so it wouldn't be a problem air bourn but it is a problem on the ground. who knows. boeing has identified

leaking fuel. yesterday, an apparent electrical fire sent smoke through a different dream liner. boeing analyst cartere tells "outfront" that electrical problems are to be expected on new planes. monday's fire appeared unrelated to problems it had before. the company didn't have an immediate comment on today's fuel spill and this follows the fact the dream liner has been delayed again and again and again. many airlines are already angry it's taken this long to get delivery. >>> the irs will begin processing tax returns for most filers on january 30th. that's actually eight days later than you usually could do it. the reason the irs moved the date is because, oh, yeah, congress, it took you too long to pass the new tax provisions. we asked our tax strike team member martin sullivan of tax analyst what part of the tax legislation will have the biggest effect on the average 2012 return. most of these laws are 2013. he said the amt patch, that 30 million people, 30 million of you out there, are going to be saved from the amt and that is why the irs had to cause the delay. >>> white house officials say the

leaks with no water. [laughter] on i could go on. many of these expos ase took place during the griffin administration which president carter can attest notoriously corrupt. they had never stolen so much. but ronald griffin was kind of day for giving sort of croak. quite a few years later she and jack and other reporters were drinking and marvin griffin said to jack you know how use to think every time i would see him walking into a press conference was a notebook, and jack said what? he said i used to think with that beady eye son of a bitch has on me today. [laughter] she used to pursue the story for the "l.a. times," and he was always -- i think we have to watch our time here so i just going to end by saying how happy i am that this book is published because she had such a wonderful career in washington it tended to overshadow this earlier phase of his career in the south, and this book although it ends halfway through his career, doesn't cover his career in washington except in an epilogue helps to cement his reputation and his co-author gene roberts called jack one of the most important journalists in the 20th century coming and