i think we should have an upbeat report from tjx., we're also going to hear what their online strategy is also. >> yeah. how does that contrast then with the likes of saks, jc penny, kohl's? >> what we heard was weak innocence some of the flagship tourist areas where the flagship new york store didn't perform as well as the chain average. we heard that from steve madden, too. from kohl's overall, their sales came in below expectations in the fourth quarter. and i think we're going to hear what are they going to do to improve the merchandising given the competition from tjx, macy's, and even the gap? kohl's has work to do. >> yeah. as far as guidance is concerned at the moment, dana, what's the implications for, you know, our forward looking earnings targ s targets? >> i think overall first quarter is going to be a real challenge. you have an earlier easter, you still have weather that's more winter-like than spring transition like. i think you're having conservative guidance coming in below consensus. i think the ability to beat cons

>> love tjx. i like ross stores. i think tjx has done an outstanding job. ceo did everything right as we were coming through that most recent recession period. >> right, right, right. hasn't that run its course. nobody will argue with you there. the stocks had a great run to prove you right. >> how about this? >> now what? >> they beat on this last earnings on every single metric you want to pull up. it is about how they were cautious going forward. well, who else used to be cautious going forward? that was apple. i think when you look at this name now, that caution was an opportunity. it sold off initially off of that and here we are in positive territory. i think this name is too cheap. >> coming up on the half, from retail to financials, the big movers are covered in our pops and drops. and mary thompson joins us with a look at what she's working on. >> who wins with new jersey's big bet in online gambling. we'll have that after the break. mine was earned in djibouti, africa, 2004. the battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. [ mal

penney, kohl's and sears and tjx and dollar tree among those releasing financials. nuances, but investors will focus most intently on the guidance going forward, especially as consumers adapt to rising payroll taxes. thompson routers says the reports that follow will be 1.7 more than last year's gains. they will also look at how promotions affected the markets over the holidays. they want to know if discounters like walmart and tjx are facing the same economic pressures that walmart detailed in its earnings release, looking for assurance that the core consumer is still buying. j.c. penney will be the headliner among the reporting department stores. analysts expecting another awful quarter for same-store sales with a 27% decrease. the commentary from ceo ron johnson will be closely followed for his overall expectation as the company enters its second year of the four-year transformation, and we'll finally know how much cash is on that balance sheet and best buy reports thursday, the last day former chairman and ceo richard schultz has to make a bid for the company he

macy's earnings on tuesday, then limited brands and also tjx.n opportunity in limited brand and tjx. >> huge week for retail. we deliver with trades on four stocks that lit up my twitter feed. what stocks are we talking about? intel, simon, you're up first. >> short term, the stock looks dead. down through high volume on thursday. the people are looking for a nice dividend, 4.4%. good. but in the short term stay away from it. >> i like housing stocks very much. but in this sector i like tall brothers and of course weyerhauser. but they are doing a good job in terms of executing. i think their california exposure is very attractive. but i will wait for it to come in. josh, netflix? sorry. >> i could mention it is trading at 60 times earnings. i don't think anyone involved in the stock cares. they believe it is the next hbo, and maybe it is. i don't know. i've been wrong on this stock before. but right now, i think this is the kind of thing you have to be in with the stop loss.

firms including retailer tjx are scheduled to report quarterly results a morning, while group come in after the bell. opening bell will be s 6:30 a.m.. >> facebook is one step closer to building a new campus in menlo park. the city's planning commission has given the social media company permission to construct a 433,000 sq. ft. building. it will be located across from the facebook current headquarters. the project will be a massive undertaking, the planning commission rezoned of the sides so that the building could exceed 35 ft. height limits and cover% of the property instead of a maximum of 50%. an environmental impact report was also approved. >> the san francisco 49ers have about to make their new $1.2 million stadium in santa clara but greenest in the nfl. the team announced tuesday that some power will be the officials solar technology partner of the 49ers and the new santa clara stadium. some power will supply 400 kilowatts of solar panels that will help offset the power used at the stadium dorn home games. the new facility will feature a variety of green elements including bi

tjx is one we got involved in. they had a good number. they raised guidance., we liked it higher, we liked it lower. that's a space where you're a little more protected. consumers are always looking for a bargain, and these guys have great quality on sale. >> let's bring in kimberly at morgan stanley. what's your read on the same store sales? >> really strong january results across the board. department stores led the way. also some good results among the specialty apparel retailers. what we're hearing, however, is that it was very strong early in the month of january. with the calendar shift and new year's day moving to a tuesday, a significant surge in mall traffic early in the month waned later in the month, and it was really sort of clearance driven and calendar shift driven in terms of the strength. we're not convinced it's going to last. >> you really think this payroll tax hike is going to have a profound effect on retail sales. >> we do. the payroll tax increase is probably the most significant tax increase of all of the increases coming through here i

. >> interesting, the seasonal take on tjx. i like that.lay the good, the bad and the ugly, tonight, starring brian kelly. first, the good. at the beginning of the beer, b.k. was looking for japan for a trade. take a listen. >> one thing we learned today is that the federal reserve is not going to be as aggressive as the bank of japan. short the yen. >> nice call to short the yen. etf up 14% since then. b.k.? >> yeah, i mean, being short the yen is probably one of the best trades for the next year or two. it's a little extended here. wait for a little bit of a pull-back and get back in. >> now, onto the bad. i a couple weeks after his yen trade, b.k. made a call on verizon. >> trading down in sympathy with apple and the order cuts. i would stay away from this name for right now. a lot of people were in this name as a bond proxy to get that 5% yield. if you get a risk on environment, i think people start move into more sexier names other than verizon. >> well, verizon shares are higher. sexier, perhaps. >> perhaps my definition of sexy is di

our main focus tomorrow is going to be on the retail earnings with dollar tree, tjx and target reportingt. limited brands,

ross, tjx and bed, bath and beyond, during these sectov you know, when they grab a sector because theyave the most inexpensive earnings momentum. there's another strategy for more sophisticated investors that i want to let you in on too. when i know which are the best of the best in terms of earnings because i focus on the calls and a huge amount of money was poured into a given sector, i might hedge my bets, sell the etf and buy the best performers in the etf according to my earnings per share work. that way if the move takes a turn for the worse, we get a large macro number that hurts our market. one of those government numbers or we get some weakness out of europe, i can lose less than the people just playing the earnings momentum game because i own the best and i'm short the rest. sector analysis is particularly important in technology, because people confuse this gigantic group of stocks which comprises more than 50% of the s&p 500 constantly. tech is actually an agglomeration of a whole group of sectors. semiconductors, disk drive, personal computers, large scale enterprise hardw

we saw the results from tjx yesterday. we saw the results from macy's.nd what it will require is a lot of investment spending on the marketing side to attract people back to the store. >> we've seen what they are doing with marketing. you look at the new ads, they have spared no expense. is there the cash there to work with? dana? >> they are talking about $3 billion of liquidity. in the near term, there is. traffic is continuing to wane and it's harder to bring that traffic back. >> courtney, you interviewed him two weeks ago, maybe three? >> it was. yeah. >> and he would not admit that he made any mistakes or do anything differently which was almost the polar opposite of what he said last night. >> yes. i said if you could do things over, would you make any changes? he said for the most part, no. he may have changed things tactically here and there but last night on the call he said, look, we made some mistakes and i take full responsibility for that which i think is is evidence to his return to sales. before yesterday it was an event-driven sales. now

quarterly report due from retailers like target, dollar tree, and tjx. plus, ben bernanke goes back to capitol hill. yesterday the markets rallied on what the fed chairman had to say with support of easy monetary policy. it's wednesday, february 27, 2013. we have one day or two days left in the month. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> you called me a dove. maybe in some respects i am. but on the other hand, my inflation record is the best of any federal reserve chairman in the post-war period or at least one of the best. about 2% average inflation. so we have worked on both sides of the mandate. and we're trying to achieve a stronger economy for everybody. >>> good morning, everyone, welcome to "squawk box" on this next to the last day of february. it is not a leap year this year. you know that, joe. friday is march 1. i'm becky quick along with joe kerner and andrew ross sorkin. we've been watching the u.s. equity futures. after triple-digit gains for the market yesterday, you see a little bit of a pullback this morning. dow futures down by 15 points.

tjx companies beat the street on the top and bottom lines for its holiday quarter.er shares and revenues of $7.7 billion. the earnings guidance range for the first quarter is below street consensus. announcing a $1.5 billion stock buyback and increasing the dividend 26%. but it's not enough to turn around the stock at least at this point. they're joining other retailers as it stops reporting monthly same-store sales in the second quarter. it's been one of the names that's been consistent with its reporting as far as those high numbers every month. carl? >> courtney, thank you for that. something we'll all be watching. as we count down in fact to sequestration. how the cuts could affect consumer spending, jobs and the economy. fred deluca joins us at post 9 tonight. welcome. >> good to be here. thanks for having me. >> all this discussion about payroll tax increases, and sequestration, and consumer angst. is it visible day to day? is it showing up in the numbers? >> it is. everybody says the payroll tax increases have caused sales to decline. >> characterize how bad

>> well, tjx is pretty close to its all-time high.re pretty much right in line with expectations. the stock has had a nice recovery. it has some pretty well. there was nothing incrementally positive, i guess, this morning. those names had some nice topline omentum. cheryl: a controversial group of stocks that we been watching this week is the dollar stores. you have this split with the sector. some say the economy is going to worsen and others say, what are you talking about? >> i am not concerned about the economy so much as the 2% tax. the really big issue with the dollar stores is the real strength we are seeing out of walmart right now. smaller package sizes, they are doing comparative advertising on television directly against the dollar stores. cheryl: what do you say, patrick? >> maybe a little bit. over the past several years, the dollar stores have been up until very recently, past quarter or so. they have actually seen some nice marketshare gains at walmart's expense. maybe more recently, yes, i agree walmart has come down a

so the names that have been at the top for me are the off price retailers, tjx and ross stores that haverooet real momentum plays for two plus years now. they're both coming off very strong holidays. they both had 6% growth in same-store sales in december. january was a little bit slower, but a lot of that is that they just didn't have a lot of clearance merchandise in the stores after a very strong holiday. so that's been where the strength has been most recently. target, as i said, they did pretty well in january. they had a 3% increase. so i think we'll see -- you know, i'm not saying it's -- the economy is tough, no question about it, and the consumer is going through a little bit of a transition right now with income taxes and whatnot. but i think target is pretty well positioned here, better positioned than walmart and i do like that stock. >> lastly, dollar stores, they've been accused of taking a bite out of walmart's typical consumer and costco might steal more of the affluent shoppers, the dollar stores might be taking the lower end shoppers. is that still a trade or is that th

whether ann taylor, told us they had a big problem from hurricane sandy or aeropostale or tjx, peopleer pretty much underplanned for the first couple of weeks. >> brian, at good see you. thank you for your time. brian there on the retail sales figures. >>> a huge day for central bankers, we will talk later in the program about mario draghi at ecb, mark carney going from canada to the bank of england. the many time, focus closer to home and link-steve liesman, has the chicago fed president charles evans. good morning to you, steve. >> good morning, simon. i want to bring you exclusive parts of the interview which we taped after the live portion ended from the man who has done more than anybody else to promote this idea of the federal reserve using economic targets, a real revolution in central banking. evans sees evidence already that qe, this unlimited qe, qe linked to economic dark sets working. he see it is in auto loans, in a revival in the housing sector, most importantly, he see it is happening in the minds of investors. >> the investment climate seems to be one people are increa