joe courtney coming up next hour to check on all things budget and sequester. george in florida.re given distractions like herman cane and other things while they passed the voter restriction laws. i really wonder what republicans are up to in the states while they have ryan out here getting all of the extensions -- >> stephanie: yeah if you are paying at attention to some of the gun laws and abortion restriction that that's what they are up to. anti-gay cardinal sleeping above the biggest gay sign in europe. it's pick a pope day. [♪ "world news tonight" theme ♪] >> stephanie: the apartment is occupy by ivan -- >> you said even. >> stephanie: who cares. really? the socially conservative cardinal -- >> his middle name is steven so it works out. >> even steven. >> stephanie: ivan fine! he previously served as archbishop of bombay. >> it's called bombi. have you tried turning off your mode um. >> stephanie: what? which key do i hit? >> press any key. >> stephanie: i don't see an any key. >> no, there are keys on your keyboard, any one if you press it. >> it is near delete. >> okay d

joe. >> ahead this morning on "starting point," he starred in the hit show "law & order: criminal intent." now courtneyy. we all have one. that perfect spot. a special place we go to smooth out the ripples of the day. it might be off a dock or on a boat. upstream or in the middle of nowhere. wherever it may be, casting a line in the clear, fresh waters of michigan lets us leave anything weighing us down back on shore. our perfect spot is calling. our perfect spot is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. >>> from hollywood to the great white way, tom hanks making a broadway debut as a columnist. and courtney b. vance says the play's editor three-time academy norah ephron's final work. the play is getting rave reviews, and the lineup, george h. wolf, won a couple of tonies. an amazing cast. tell me what it feels like to do something that is incredibly special. >> i'm so thankful to be aboard. we did the reading about a year ago, and i -- it was amazing. i got a nice note from norah afterward, we spent four days with her, with george c., and i thought that was the end of it, and i heard it was

courtney, thank you. >>> right now, let's get back to the markets. joe kinnehan joins us from the cme this morning.talking about how the dow is in striking distance of that all-time high. just about 37 points away. how big is that right there? do you guys even pay attention to these things? >> it's interesting i think what the traders down here is you look at it. the s&p 500, what they're looking at on the s&p 500 is right here, also. you know, we close just about 1525 last use it looking at the futures. we'll open a couple dollars higher here. on the cash, we're looking at 1594. let's call it 1531 even. the belief here is if we can break out of that, we can continue higher and maybe go up 1550 even. if you look at the vix, it's at the lower end of what we've seen recently on the range. but we've seen it down to 12 recently. so many of the traders down here really believe that we can go up and threaten this 1550 level, which would obviously -- >> the sequester aside, people are going to be very concerned about what's happening with the economy and the jobs report is the next big number that we're g