he's going to put up hotels make moves, a lot out of starwood. starwood's a good place to be.s go up for a reason. they go up because people say, this company's going to be much more aggressive, fritz was -- i think dragged kicking and screaming into hotel life. and adam is a guy that hits your start. a good guy. >> fun to watch. cramer's "mad dash" as we count down to the opening bell. a look at premarket on tuesday after a long weekend. more "squawk on the street" from the nyse straight ahead. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. say you're a finance guy. a farmer. a researcher. you used to depend on experience. the internet. your gut. today you can use ibm watson analytics. it can make sense of all kinds of data. uncover hi

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the starwood director will take the job.ecord-breaking weekend for that movie, "50 shades of grey." the universal pictures erotic film took in $94 million over the weekend and set records for valentine's day, presidents' day weekend, and a february debut. "50 shades of grey." [laughter] congress is off this week him about republican presidential hopefuls are hitting the trail. rand paul hits the trail. jeb bush flies to chicago. on friday, ted cruz is going to be in jacksonville. still with me is billionaire john catsimatidis the founder and chairman of red apple group. john has been a big political donor to various candidates. you attended this $100,000 per play dinner last week. -- per plate dinner. >> jeb is a very smart guy. he knows the issues. he is married to a hispanic, which will get them the hispanic vote, i believe. >> come on. mary the hispanic and get the hispanic vote. >> obama got 98% of the black vote. >> that is a lot more than just marry a hispanic and get the hispanic vote. >> i think he is in the number o

starwood capital, our firm, actually we created starwood hotels and they had they name from us.it to them. i think also they don't have a financial strategy. i've been on the board of estee lauder for years. >> what do you think happened? is there a back story we don't know about that you do? meaning, it seems odd to me if you just thought the company wasn't doing so hot, you would actually take some time and figure out who the next ceo is. if you cut them off at the knees and put in an interim ceo happened. >> clearly something bubble ld up. i think most people thought they were moving their offices to mumbai after being announced. something happened. what happened, i have no idea. i actually got a phone call from adam aron yesterday and e-mail from frits. i wish him luck. it's like watching your kid grow up. you want them to be competitive and innovative. i think the company has to get back to that spirit of innovation. that's leading, not following. so we'll see. i mean we're launching -- we have a new hotel company in europe that we're launching in london with 70 hotels call

coca-cola, cvs, starwood, many, many more. apple makes history.he first 700 billion-dollar company in the world. first, let's go to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole. >> charles, a great day indeed. we saw the dow up 140 points. the dow and the s&p about 1% off of their all-time record highs. the dow, the nasdaq, and the s&p in positive territory for 2015. so a great day for the bulls. you mentioned some of the great performers. coca-cola which led the way on the dow jones industrial average. profit beat the averages first time in four quarters. charging more for soda so it's working out for the company. home depot hired 80,000 people for the spring season. cvs new high. that was an exciting one to watch. and starwood hotels. also, that moved to up arrows. that was up over 6% on the day. steve foods came under pressure. apple was the story stock of the day. continued to grow. bond sale. everybody waiting on the webtv. the driverless car. what can i tell you, market caps will blow everybody out of the water. >> m

i want start with starwood. the ceo resigned from the company. given for his departure, asides the fact that it was a mutual agreement with the board of directors. there is speculation on what surrounded his departure. i want to bring in a chat buying and -- chad. speculation has been around the fact that he has not made that many acquisitions of other hotel brands or partnerships. he has not unveiled a new brand in the last 12 months. that led to his ousting? guest: first of all, thank you for having me. fritz, he was in love with his brand. other companies were growing beyond their current portfolio. starwood had only nine brands within the portfolio. more focus on the upper upscale segment. hilton, they started to grow the number of brands. marriott in hilton have 20 number of brands -- 20 -- 20 different brands. marriott and hilton have 40 million loyalty users, or starwood has about half of that. a big part of it was the m&a profile. betty: why wouldn't shareholders reward the fact that he was willing to buck the trend and focus on growing t

shares of starwood hotel rallied after beat estimates. the company said it will spin off timeshare vacation division focus on core hotel operations. popped 6.5% at $65.93. starwood wasn't alone. wynn hiked and raised dividend to 42 cents a share. the yield on the shares about 1.5%. shares up almost 9% today to $88.07. >>> cvs with record sales even after deciding not to sell cigarettes. helped by medicare growth to offset the in the decision to stop selling tobacco products. 2% higher to $1.68. shares of martin verieta, the maker reported a solid earnings beat and announced $20 billion share repurchase program. 5 authorized shares. stock rose 15% to finish at $137.24. and sony and disney are teaming up to bring spider man and the add avengers back together. spider man in upcoming disney produced marvel super hero movie in and in a few years, get his own sony movie. shares of sony rose 1.5% to $26.06 and disney slightly higher to $102.92. we told you earlier that apple hit $7 billion in market value. part of the reason why is the venture a

starwood is known for sheraton westin and w brands.mishaps aren't a big deal unless they happen during a space walk. after they finished work outside of the international space station today they noticed water inside of his helmet. ray similar leak nearly drowned an stroeptd a few years ago. while engineers here work on the problem, the crew is considering rescheduling their planned space walk this sunday. they're working to rewire the station. >> better to err onside of caution. yef is watching the skies outside. and hoping >> we're going to get showers. it still looks pretty good. we keep watching every forecast model update and everything showing the possibility. you can see clouds moving in ahead of the storm system. we'll let you know when it and how much we're going to get. >> going green never tasted so good. the story of the edible coffee cup. lowe's presents: how to use the greek gods to update your deck. wow, i can't believe you did this deck yourself. well me, lowe's and zeus and apollo. now get 10% off in-stock composite de

i think it's inconsequential for starwood. you can link any purchase to any sort of program. >> doesn't it give them some sort of share? >> agreed. the only thing i'd say about starwood is they don't report in april. but they get probably 75% of their sales from overseas. this is a stock that's just gone from 70 to 80. i don't think you chase this one here. if anything, bk was just talking about some of these airlines overseas having some pressure with the strong dollar. these guys can feel that pressure, too. >> next up, american express popping today. finally some good news for the company as it announces an interest rate increase for some u.s. carders. it is staggering how low their interest rate was. >> this was the first, maybe of many. like you said, finally some good news. this stock has just gotten hammered over the last couple weeks on bad news after bad news. so perhaps this is the catalyst that puts it near the bottom. i'm not sure this is the catalyst that you buy for the next year. the short-term bottom, and it is

starwood's board says that now is the time to speed up.r king posted again in the first quarter. burger king purchased the canadian coffee and donuts chain, tim hortons. sales at burger king were up 3%, tim hortons posted a 4% gain. the government is opening the skies to the widespread use of drones. numeral's from the faa would permit small businesses to use the unmanned aircraft. flights would not be allowed out of sight of the operator. drones could not be used for pizza deliveries or delivering other products, like orders from amazon. that is a look at the top stories this hour. it has not often child's play for lego, the danish toymaker. it saw its value tank between 2003 into thousand seven. it has rebounded since, overtaking even mattel in the first half of last year. the company's president is here with me in the studio. welcome to "bottom line." >> thank you for having me. mark: lego group, not far from bankruptcy at one point. last month you told a group "we became a company that did not listen to our customers." is that not rule

did you see what starwood said about hotel rates. the u.s.oks set to continue its growth and in the u.s. hotel business look for rising rates for some time to come. don't look for any cheap hotel rooms anytime soon from them. dean foods has a problem. it's not just their guidance. it's milk. this is the biggest seller of milk in the united states. they came out and talked about the record high commodity prices. they have been raising prices last year. and buried in their comment is the concern because of the high prices they may be see something competition out there. but the retailers that they sell too may in fact be going out there and talking about private labeled milk deals that would reduce their share, essentially. now, they have not given any numbers about this. all they have said they're only providing guidance for the current quarter. they're not providing full-year guidance anymore. that was sort of the red flag out there concerning people about increased competition with them. right now, the dow up 92 points. guys back to you. >>>

starwood hotels include the westind the scherr on the chainasas st. regis and w hotels. >>> som people in virginia can now use a to help with certain medical conditions. news4's david culvert has more now on new law inspired by the fairf cy teenager. >> report' taken months for the collins family of fairfax y get to this point he at virginia's capit. in january, we first showed you jennifer collins' battle with debilita seizures. she and her mom had to split from e of the family to live ino for a year, all so she ul legally take cannabis, e eaen that'he reduce her seizure t virginia's governor says she and or families facing the figh longer have to leave home. i'm david cuertn richmond. coming up we'll take you to that tea bill signing and tell you it means for those who live here in virginia. >>> it's been a gathering place for almo 20 years. now it's closing its doors, but not wit getting local folks a little reminder of the good times. > digging out from another round o snow. so what's next for us and how much sw we? [ female announcer ] business t

shakeup at starwood hotels. ceo fritz van paaschen has resigned. norwegian cruise lines, nba's 76ers. starwood would conduct a sent for a new executive and search inside and outside. jim cramer joining us now. hope you enjoyed the long weekend. you have opinions it the move. saw your tweet this morning. it appears you like it. >> adam 'a good friend. he leaves the sixers to run this. he's not a i think, at soft interim ceo, a very hard one i'm think fritz wasn't moving fast enough for the boreard. i think the board sees the opportunity of no new hotels coming in that they can rival windham, move faster and i also think that fritz kind of you know, did what he had to do changed into a hotel-like model. i think he fought it for a long time. i think aron terrific at vail and dratgreat as he runs starwood to the next level. >> what's more on the radar as a concern, i guess, unfinished business as it relates to greece, cease-fire breaking down in ukraine. nasdaq closing in on 5000 again? >> different nasdaq obviously, without all of the service provider

i was thinking that starwood symbol hot should be changed to cold. today the company told a good tale of earnings. it took along the whole hotel group and that group has been feeling pain. the strong dollar has been hurting tourism. >> the house of pain! >> house of pleasure. >> with that positive backdrop, we had kind of an all is forgiven moment for many stocks that were damaged. some of them psychologically by the self at the end of last week. chipotle which had been hobbled by worries of future same-store sales snapped back. and at last it looks like the sellers were exhausted. day three, day four you can start buying the thing. finally, apple, perhaps in response to maybe, i don't know the multiple uptake of apple pay included a very positive piece in the papers today about jetblue accepting apple pay went to an all-time high, further verifying you should own, not trade the greatest wealth creator of the year which topped the $700 billion mark today. so let me give you the bottom line. you put all the domestic data points together, and you can s

put hilton in the basket with marriott and then starwood news yesterday. what do you like?> i love hilton. you had it to love the fact they sold the waldorf over $2 billion to the chinese it firm and one of the ways, obviously, scott they're going to try to get cash to shareholders is not only are they going to take that money in, but they're going to have to reinvest it in 1031 around the country or around the globe to keep them from having to pay tax on that. that's one of the ways they will be able to return money to shareholders. this is a company flush with cash right now. >> lots going on today obviously in and around the markets. tyler has a news update for us. >> thanks very much. here's your cnbc news update for this hour. the united states now urging greece to strike a deal with its european authorities and the international monetary fund over financial lifeline. the message was relayed in a phone call between treasury secretary jack lew and the greek finance minister yanis vare ru kiss. sony aims to boost profit 25 fold within three years by growing camera sensor

and still, we see starwood trading pretty expensively at 28 times earnings. so at matarin we're negative on this one. >> gt tire. >> the materials as raw materials drop and they're expecting a drop of 10% in costs for 2015, that should go to the bottom line and be on the margins why the stock is up today. you have to take chips off the table. big bounce from those lows in january. >> rough week for american express. >> yes. >> lose the exclusivity with costco, stock at levels we haven't seen in a long time. >> and it's going to be a rough couple minutes for me talking about it sitting in between these two with american express but listen, i don't think there's anything that's going to in the short term be positive for american express until we get past investor day which is march 11th. in the near term capital one is the beneficiary, everyone expects they're getting the costco relationship, the trade of the moment. >> in your portfolio? >> yeah. it's killing me. >> still in there. >> still in there, still killing me. >> going to get rid of it? >> i like the n

la quintaer, starwood hooked up with uber. brian sharples mini airbnb. caused the decline cloud. this year will be fine. >> oil inventories, new homes and yellen part ii, don't go away. ♪ good wednesday morning, welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with simon hobbs, david faber live at new york stock exchange. sara eisen off this week. janet yellen set to begin day two of congressional testimony in front of the house financial services committee. you saw the headlines yesterday in front of senate banking in which she said that she believes reasonably confident inflation will hit targets in the medium term, the word "patient "ings" being used. markets soft here. oil's going to give back. we will be getting inventoryies at 10:30 a.m. eastern time. >> yellen concerned about the housing mark. we have fresh data on that courtesy of the cme. jim. >> simon comes in at 481,000, new home sales number better than expected. expected 470,000. last month's revised up a tick to 482 from 481. new home sales month over month down .2. looking for

starwood's board says it is time they speed up company growth. the parent company of burger king posted a gain. restaurant brands international was created when burger king bought tim hortons. sales were up 3%. 10 -- tim hortons posted a 4% gain. in west virginia a csx train carrying oil first into flames. one ended up in a river. dozens of people fled. the governor has declared a state of emergency. erik: is it just a matter of time before greece exits the euro? on the surface it is looking that way. appearances can be deceiving. let's bring in steve engle under, global head of g 10 strategy at citigroup. and joe from bloomberg markets. they say it is darkest before the dawn. is there a dawn or is this -- >> there could be. last night it seemed like the talks broke off in acrimony. no one seemed to be moving. as the night progressed, there were two draft statements, one that greece was willing to accept. they were not that far apart between the statement that the eurogroup wants to make any statement the greeks want to make. it is a lot of seman

meanwhile, starwood the writers will get points to the hotels that include the saint regis the w, westernthe first partnership or ub er.greece won a four month bailout package. creditors one actions will speak louder than words. the greek finance minister has just spoken with erik schatzker in an exclusive interview. i hear they are talking about whether greece will be able to make repayment. >> despite problems and the post-political of the past two months, we still have a small but nevertheless a surplus. there is no problem paying calories and pensions. there is a problem with the payment. that is why i mentioned this site. we cap i am a repayment. certain buildups before 2000 and 15 that need to be paid. we will sit down and find a efficient ways of understanding and we shall. >> now to last of charges layoffs, falling a hand currency headwinds, what is not going on at hewlett-packard? it is at critical phase trying to split into two before the end of the year. the cost could hit $2 billion. that might not include the cost of layoff. yes, there will be more layoffs. job cuts will hit

a night in a starwood hotel will end 2 to 4 points per dollar spent.high as 35,000 points. something must come with that. >> no the st. regis here. >> and they'll pay for your enter get aboutccess while you're there. >>> when were come back drones over paris, and same-store sales numbers that came over expectation. that stock is up big. looks to look higher -- it's down around 20 cents right now. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. automotive innovation starts... right here. with a control pad that can read your handwriting, a wide-screen multimedia center, and a head-up display for enhanced driver focus.

its time share vacation division so it can focus on core hotel operations starwood shares up by 7%. the news is helping to put a bid to others in today's trade as well. you look at marriott hyatt, both of them up in today's trade as well. back to you. >> okay. thank you very much for that. >>> we're starting to moving higher at this hour on hopes of a greek debt deal but will any snags in the negotiations hurt the u.s. market? let's bring in jeremy of ubs wealth management in americas and jim, chief investment officer at pnc asset management. jim, so much confusion about what is happening with oil. very wide forecast. so much confusion about what the outcome with greece will be. how do you trade and invest through that? >> thanks mandy. good afternoon. certainly a number of shifts in the market as we started the year here and you highlight greece. likely a stress point for some time here. we have tough talk and some firm stands while we try to work out a compromise behind the scenes. likely they lshg but it will take some time and we'll probably get to the brink before an agreement

. >>> uber is partnering with starwood to give riders extra incentive to choose their service. today uber passengers can earn one reward point for every dollar on the san francisco company's ride sharing app. you have to link your accounts online first. if you use uber while staying at a hotel you can get extra minutes. this is the first global deal where ground transportation passengers can earn hotel points for trips. >> new details on the dozen college students who overdosed on a drug at a university. four classmates are facing drug charges in connection with the overdoses. the students arrested are all under age twin. 12 students and two visitors took the drug with alcohol which is a street name for a main chemical next stacey. university has suspended the students would will appear in court next week. >> a jury in texas found a former marine guilty in the killing of american snipe are chris kyle and another after three hours. eddie ray routh will spend life in prison for gunning down the two at a shooting range. defense attorneys say he was suffering from mental issues and

i'm talking about how adam aaron, another favorite of mine took over the ceo job at starwood hotels. a frequent guest here on mad money had a long-term vision about returning value to shareholders. last week he announced he's spinning off the company's timeshare business. i was thrilled. it wasn't enough for the board that wants immediate action to keep up with the growth in the rest of the industry which has been phenomenal. they have been growing much faster and now he is cast his interim ceo to play catch up. then the defense stocks. this group is able to do no wrong whatsoever and the rise of isis made it so every country feels the need for more military hardware. lockheed martin general dynamics and harris which just brought our fav exelis last week. they're regarding as the arsenal of democracies and dictatorships against the religious fanatics. it means war orders for the companies. then the organic and natural food theme which i'll never let you forget. a fantastic conference call. whole foods is back on track after that last quarter. i love what i hear from those guys. hain

that man trained a lot of people to be great operators and steve's a great operate somewhere starwood an activist board. adam aron a growth ceo. hospitality industry's on fire. stay on this whether cruises, planes internet travel. it just doesn't matter david. people are spending and going away again, the way they used to before the great recession. >> when you say send it henry, fraud by its nature hard to detect. that's what they said on the conference call for the acquisition. >> feel bad for the u.s. government. u.s. attorney christie, it was frightening to testify on behalf of the people the people of the united states, i asked for 20 year for the cfo. >> right. >> and it was a very big sentence passed down. you're up there with the family members, up there with people -- this is real-life person who committed white collar crime and chris christie saying go for the max, you're speaking for people and it's frightening. the most petrified i've ever been public speaking give the sentencing as the people would like it the people of the united states. you speak for the people of the u

coca-cola, cvs, starwood, many, many more. apple makes history.00 billion-dollar company in the world. first, let's go to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole. >> charles, a great day indeed. we saw the dow up 140 points. the dow and the s&p about 1% off of their all-time record highs. the dow, the nasdaq, and the s&p in positive territory for 2015.

starwood said they're doing great.hink that's a very good sign for the overall economy. >> brad doom and bloonlglam? >> we're looking at s&p 500 earnings in the last four months they've come down from $134 to $119. that's a very dramatic drop. it's only occurred a few times in the last 20, 30 years. >> although in fairness s&p capital iq says it's gone up 60 basis points over the last week. >> yes. >> things are improving. >> that's right. we bottomed -- brought the numbers down and we bottomed on those numbers. >> sure but that's day-to-day. we're looking at a few months. >> how far lower do you think the market will go? >> i think we're easily in for 15% to 20%. >> yikes. thank you very much. brad, bob, "the closing bell" with sara and simon. >>> welcome to "the closing bell." i'm sara eisen in for kelly evans. simon hobbs will rejoin me in a moment. we are finishing the day on wall street in the green. first time in three sessions. finishing out the day with 136-point gain for the dow jones industrial average. s&p 5

so starwood, spg, gopro, marriott, anything that's -- liz: kristin, it sounds like you're saying thatbetter be on something we can really learn from or glean a great experience from rather than just a new top. >> well, not about i know luxury now, it's about i show luxury. so how am i doing that, right? time is special, right? and you're going to show that to the world when you take your kids on that vacation, you're doing stand-up paddle boarding and you have your gopro camera, and here i am. that's kind of the new luxury. liz: so, brian, you have a completely different view, but it's not necessarily opposing. i just have to ask, if the data are so noisy right now what with the port slowdown on the west coast and the weather on the east coast, do you have a better picture than the rest of us on how the consumer in the united states is doing, or will it be purely regional? >> broadly speaking, i think it remains scattered. the low income consumer is coming back to walmart. i talked to vf corp., and they told me lee's jeans are starting to sell well. so that low end consumer is startin

the bay area company announced a new deal with starwood hotels and resorts. that's the company behind hotels like w and westin. with ride uber, they can use star points. points can be used for hotel stays. >>> new reports say the american government hacked into a private company that makes cell phone sim cards. >> it is a company out of holland which makes those little chips that you put in cell phones. the thing that makes your cell phone yours and my cell phone mine. the guardian newspaper quotes nsa whistleblower edward snowden as saying the u.s. and the british governments hacked into the dutch company. they agree. they say yep, it was hacked, it does suspect the americans, but says the governments were not able to steal any data. the head of the nsa was at a conference earlier this week and he was asked about it. he said he could not confirm or deny the report, but said the u.s. stayed within the law. now, at that same conference, the head of the nsa was challenged in public by the head of security from yahoo over the hacking of silicon valley companies

guest: starwood american express card is also awesome. you want to accrue points that are flexible.king into one specific -- betty: can we break it down to how much you would get? guest: you get 40,000 points which is $500 in airfare or you can transfer to partners like united. the real value in these points is transferring the partners. the fee is waived the first year. you're hitting $500 or more in value and the fee is waived. betty: united is going to be changing the way they calculate rewards. guest: delta and united this year. instead of how far you fly, it is how much you spend. march 1 is the date for united. betty: is that going to impact their -- how big -- guest: business travelers may see more miles accrued. leisure travelers will likely see a big crunch across the lord -- across the board. betty: brian kelly. thank you. shane smith was not afraid to spend dough. my employees are up in arms over his $300,000 feast. ♪ betty: world news headlines this morning. the u.s. is not at war with islam, but those with perverted islam. that is what president obama told representativ

starwood hotels posting better than expected earnings.ownership business. meanwhile aeropostale shares are soaring on their beat. urban outfitters sales rising 12%. >>> when we come back this morning, inside coca-cola's quarterly report. we'll dig through the numbers with an analyst and talk about america's breakup with sugary soft drinks. "squawk box" will be right back. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either. it's the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side

he will be in charge of efforts set up by starwood capital. the oscar went to a birdman. the movie about a washed up superhero won for best picture and best director. patricia arquette, who won best supporting actress, use the opportunity to call for equal pay for women. patricia: to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. it is our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the united states of america. alix: late last year emails stolen by hackers indicated that sony pictures paid phenyl stars less than men. i've a five-month-old and i do not watch any movie settle this year. did you have a favorite pick? stephanie: i watched the movies i watched the oscars, i watched patricia arquette's speech, i watched amy pascal being interviewed about women in hollywood being paid less than and i think women in those jobs should be advocates for women. i'm not saying i don't believe in free markets, as i absolutely do but i believe entrance pentagon and if all these women in hollywood have any idea

as for earnings look for results from coca-cola, cvs health kkr, moison coors starwood and western union will be after the close. >> >> europe is still waiting for a sustainable proposal from greece. speaking at a joint news conference with barrack obama merkel said europe was now playing a waiting game. let's get to steve who is in istanbul where they're meeting and he has been speaking about the greek crisis. steve, over to you. >> yeah well let's just say a couple of points about what she has and hasn't been saying. she's saying it's up to greece. to a certain degree she's right but the rest of europe and germany in particular aren't impotent in the meantime we know there has to be some form of pragmatism as well. there are concerns that extreme austerity does not create the right environment for physical and structural reform. the best way forward rather than having the effects is for some form of pragmatism and he's a man that's pretty practical about this. france had it's own issues with the commission as well because it's been on the border line and breaking stability itself. but

. >> san francisco's uber has a tie in with starwood hotels.r local news update in a half hour. hope to see you then. have a great wednesday. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is today's take with al roker. natalie morales, willie geist and tamron hall from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> welcome to "today," it's wednesday morning, february 25th, 2015. i'm willie geist. al is down in washington, d.c. at a special event last night. we will talk to him about that in a minute. let's start with incredible video not far from here in new jersey. this explosion that ripped through a house in stafford township, new jersey south of here along the shore. no one was home. 15 were injured and two of them critically. here's what one neighbor had to say about what she did at the time of the explosion. >> i dropped and covered my daughter because she was standing next to me. i stood up and then i heard them screaming outside. >> the crews were working on a gas leak. reports of a gas leak. they went to respond. that's two of the people who were critically

this is in the starwood subdivision. very highly sought after community.is again, not the most expensive, but one of the nicest areas, i think. this one has a pond backs to a green belt area. just incredible views about every window in the home you can see the views of the pond and the pool overlooking it as well. >> oh man, that looks nice golly. i'm making a mistake here. power house of the week, folks, 5 armstrong listed at 4 million, taxes at 23,000 dollars, 6400 square feet of living space. that looks like a mansion. >> it is a mansion. very nice mansion. it has a state of the art media room as well. just incredible. anything you could want is probably in there home. it has, of course, a pool. it is in a gated community, high end, stone briar mall and stone briar country club. it's probably thee finest living you can imagine. >> wow. how close is it from what i think of downtown dallas? >> the dallas tollway probably does not mean anything to you, but it runs north of dallas downtown dallas and pretty much anything that follows on its path is kind of

starwood hotels jumping on news that its ceo is calling it quits at a mutual decision with the board. board director serving as a temporary replacement. kraft foods naming company veteran james kehoe as its new cfo. he spent a two-month run as cfo at guilden active wear. the stock up 13 berz over the past six months. >> on sunday the faa proposed that it would allow drones weighing up to 55 pounds to fly within sight of their remote pilots. the drones must weigh no more than those 55 pounds and fly no higher than 500 feet altitude. robert mark the commercial pilot, thinks that this is still a threat to the airspace and andrea james of dougherty and company believes that more good than bad will come of this. welcome to both of you. robert, let me start by asking you what you would like to see ideally with respect to the regulation of who, how, how high how close to airports drones can fly. >> well you know i don't think there's anything wrong with the regulation in terms of the data. you know stay away from airports. don't fly above 500 feet. how do we enforce that? i mean it's kind of