dave cody is with us ahead of another big event.014 investor conference in the city this morning. we'll get to that in a moment. first a quick check on the mark markets. after yesterday's big gains, markets are flat this morning, waiting for their next trading point. we do have adp numbers coming out today, and maybe that will give us a little insight into what to expect with the big jobs number on friday. >>> some of the morning headlines. secretary of state john kerry is in paris meeting with russia's foreign minister to talk about the situation in ukraine. that follows kerry's visit yesterday to kiev. ukraine's foreign minister is also in paris, but it's not clear whether he'll be meeting with his russian counterpart. nbc's jim maceda will join us in a couple of minutes. >>> investors getting a fresh snapshot of the labor market. adp will release its february report on private sector employment at 8:15 eastern time. economists think the u.s. economy added 160,000 new private sector jobs last month. that is the number to pay atten

>> yeah dave cody is a remarkable guy, and yes, i'll admit we are next-door neighbors and he's also ac guy in person. >> you can't argue with what he brings to the interview and certainly with the stock as you said. we'll watch that closely along with exxon also having a -- >> yes, down. >>> in the meantime, former microsoft ceo steve ballmer giving a talk to graduate students at the university of oxford's school of business. in between talking about lessons learned at microsoft and the best thing about retirement the ability to golf wherever he wants. he talked about the future positioning of the company in the marketplace. take a listen. >> empowering technology for all that ought to be a brand proposition that if we run the company correctly can last 20 30 50 years or more. i had a bunch of guys at microsoft, you know, we were going through angst five six years ago, oh, what do we want our brand to stand for and, you know, let's face it apple has had a good run recently and apple is, quote, cool, unquote. unquote-quote, your choice. >> i love steve. steve's an old friend. he was a