The veto, only the third of Obama Hospira and see. Janet yellen obamas presidency. The fed chair got the attention of investors when she told the Senate Banking committee that an Interest Rate increase is in the works. The modification should be understood as reflecting the committees judgment the conditions have improved to the point where it will soon be at the case that the change in the target range could be warranted. Betty yellen will faced questions from House Financial Services panel. Greece has more work to do if it wants to keep getting aid. The new reforms from Alexis Tsipras clear the way for a fourmonth extension of the bailout. The imf managing director says the plans may not meet the lenders benchmarks. Christine lagarde says greece must do more. Ukraine talks yesterday between Foreign Ministers broke down to fingerpointing. Russia and ukraine lane each other for violating the ceasefire deal. President Obamas National Security advisor has sharp words for Benjamin Netanyahu. Susan rice called the plan to address next week disruptive. That yahoo is expected to speak against negotiating a nuclear deal with Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to speak against a nuclear deal with iran. A degree of partisanship which is not only unfortunate, it is destructive of the fabric of the relationship. It is something that is distraugh destructive. We need to keep it that way it has always been arson we need to keep it that way. Betty 1 5 of all southwest airline jets need a safety inspection. Regulators say they may still keep flying. The carrier grounded 128 planes because backup rudders had not been checked. Backup rotors have not been checked. Those are our top headlines. Target just coming out with their fourthquarter report. Losses as you might expect in their Canadian Unit as they pull out of that country. Julie hyman has the numbers. Julie discontinued operations. It closed all of its Canadian Stores and liquidated the merchandise. The Fourth Quarter in the u. S. Looks very strong for target. Comparable sales of 3. 8 . 3. 1 was the figure analysts were looking for. It has been a while since target has seen strength like this. The companys earningspershare beating estimates in the Fourth Quarter. The forecast for the First Quarter is coming up short of what analysts had been anticipating. . 95 to a dollar. That would be the weak spot within this report. Looking at some of the commentary from the ceo of the company, he says the company saw strength in the signature categories which he said style baby kids and wellness. He says we are seeing early momentum in our efforts to transform target. The company has made dramatic moves. The closure of canadian operations. Also, it announced it would be offering Free Shipping on orders over 25 on its website, undercutting the Free Shipping of some competitors. Target has lagged behind in its online sales. That is one of the moves it appears to be making to try to make up for lost ground. Looking like a strong Fourth Quarter with that First Quarter that First Quarter estimate is coming up short. Betty julie hyman on the breaking news desk. Futures hovered a record high. The dollar is weaker. Treasuries are rallying. Janet yellens testimony to the senate. She has to the house today for a second day of testimony. Joining us is joshua wright. And david and david stockton. Josh, youre here with me. She set forth the conditions for raising Interest Rates. This is what it means when patient is dropped and the markets were pretty calm. Would you say this is a success. . She is trying to extract the fed from this policy and do it in a way without upsetting the markets. Betty how about you david . I think janet yellen probably had a good sleep last night. She threaded the needle perfectly in terms of laying the groundwork for a shift in the direction of fed policy and likely removal of patience at the march meeting without necessarily getting expectations to coalesce about an increase in Interest Rates. I think it was a balanced view of the economy and Monetary Policy. Betty what do she do today not to, for lack of a better phrase screw it up . She has to stick to the same message and not get off that message which was, they are seeing the economy improve. Theres more to go yet in terms of overall improvement and that the removal of patience is not a sign that Interest Rates will increase in june. When the fed gets to the june meeting, inflation will be so subdued that they are likely not to want to raise Interest Rates. Betty you had written about this as well. Expect that once they remove the word patience we will get an interest rise. One of the big developments is that the fed is getting out of the game. They will no longer be broadcasting ahead of time what their moves will be. It is getting back to a world of meeting by meeting, you have to watch the data. Betty data dependent. I thought you pointed out something interesting. There was no plan articulated about what happened, what the policy is post liftoff. People have been looking for more information on what the fed will do after they raise rates because there has been a lot of talk about the date of the initial raise hike rates hike. In the minutes from the january meeting, there seem to be a bit of this he meant the a bit of disagreement on the committee. Betty should she be outlining that, david . There is a not a lot that she can do in this testimony to outline that. It will be more interesting to see what happens at this march meeting when we see the dots of the Interest Rate forecast themselves and whether or not that has changed in any material way from december. I think she has to be careful about not getting out in front of the committee in terms of writing too much guidance about what that Interest Rate path is going to look like post liftoff. I think that is going to be a more important question. What is that trajectory of rates going to look like . The fed will be telling us something in march about that. Betty i want to play one moment this testimony. Very likely she will be walking into more hostile territory today in the house. Yesterday she had some back and forth with senators on the interaction between the fed and congress and what the fed thinks about fiscal policy. I want to play one part of that conversation. The rise we have seen in inequality in the United States is of great concern to me. We discussed this the last time you were here and you offer no solutions toward that problem. You might recall. There are a variety of Different Things the congress could consider in policy measures that might be appropriate. This is a domain for congress to consider. Betty did that surprise you that she really wanted to push that back to congress . That did not surprise me too much. She has indicated in the past her concern about rising inequality. Janet yellen has a lot on her plate right now and the idea that she should be advocating policies would be very controversial to congress about how to solve some of these intractable problems. I think she is quite wise to stay away from offering to much guidance on specific fiscal policies. Betty you take care of your house, i will take care of mine. That is basically the message. Thank you so much, david stockton. Also, thank you to josh wright. Janet yellen begins her second day of testimony in the house at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. President obama heading to florida to rally for his executive action on immigration. Oil slips again six Straight Days of falling oil prices. A lot of fingerpointing going on. We will be back. Betty top stories this morning. Reese gets a new warning from its creditors. New economic policies are only the beginning. Athens is earning praise but the imf and ecb say actions be glad of the. In ukraine, possible signs of progress. The government is saying fighting with prorussian rebels has subsided. A full seat a full ceasefire has not taken effect. Looking to snap five straight as of declines. Saudi Arabia Cushman and wakefield searching for a buyer. The company has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to help. Real estate broker is said to be seeking 2 million hong kong post government want to reduce taxes. The move comes on the heels of slow Economic Growth area hong kong plants do more to support tourism related businesses. A personal tax reduction equal to 2600 this Financial Year in addition to extra finances for the poor and elderly. Chicago mayor rahm emanuel has been forced into a runoff for his bid for reelection. The democratic mayor got 55 of the vote in his first election. Emmanuel has a huge hunting advantage and had president obama stump for him. He will face jesus garcia on april 7. He got about 33 of the vote. Peter cook, in miami this morning. We will speak to you about immigration in a few moments that is why your there. I had to get your take on rahm emanuel and how big of a disappointment this is for one of president obamas lieutenants. This is a big disappointment. They hoped to avoid the runoff in chicago. The president paid a visit to boost rahm. He outraised his opponents by 10 to one. The fact that he did not win outright is a disappointment for rahm emanuel. I think it is still likely he will prevail as the mayor but it will be an intense sixweek campaign and we will see how it shakes out. Betty the amount of Division Within the Democratic Party as we saw with these elections in chicago. I know the president is trying to rally support for the executive action he took on immigration. He is doing that today in miami. He has the help of the tech world. The brazil born cofounder of instagram made his case before the white house for an easier visa process and said every week i come across people who are not able to join us for six months or more because of h one b caps. We are joined. Were joined by kevin ryan. Peter, set the stage on what the president hopes to accomplish. You can be sure he will talk about tech issues. The big reason the president is coming down here to miami, other than to avoid the weather in d. C. , is to try and put republicans on the defensive, to showcase what he has done with regard to immigration since becoming president and to reassure the Hispanic Community across the country that even know he is facing legal challenges that he plans to follow through. He is going to speak this afternoon in this town hall setting Florida International university. It will have a handpicked audience including business executives, the mayor of miami and some of the 5 million or so individuals who would have been shielded from deportation by the president s actions. We spoke to one person who will be in the audience, and activist who was protected back in 2012. His mother and relatives would have been shielded by this latest move by the president and now they are in legal limbo. I was definitely sad, telling my mother she could not apply for the extension. We know this is going to be a continuous fight. Republicans will continue to attack these policies in court and in congress. At the same time, we will continue to push and be resilient in fighting for our families. Vargas is a supporter of the president but he also told us he plans to challenge the president to continue to push through more executive actions it seems like there is no opportunity for success in congress. There is gridlock in congress over this issue. Dont be surprised if the president is challenged for not doing enough in miami today. Betty i dont want to put words in your mouth, but you dont think congress, or even the presents action is enough for the tech community. We have two choices, either we employ people in other countries to do the work or we get visas for them to come to the United States. Congress actions are causing costing wellpaid jobs in the United States. It is being held hostage to other issues that have nothing to do with tax. Ech. Betty the white house has added on Something Else for the tech community. They are now allowing people waiting for their visa that their spouses can also apply for work visas. Why is that not enough . That does not allow us to hire more people coming in every year. A person on instagram was saying people had to wait six months. Most Small Companies do not have that luxury so they do not hire people. The president is doing everything he can. The problem is congress. Betty peter, quickly, why has the tech communitys call fall in on death death years in congress . Deaf ears in congress . You do the easy things and the hard things become more difficult. Betty thank you so much. Kevin ryan stays with me. A huge fine for apple over half 1 billion for infringement in the Music Software world. That story, coming up. Betty you are watching in the loop. Good morning. Im betty liu. 2014 was a banner year for ipos. One company that was not on the list, gilt groupe. Just last week, the company did receive a fresh round of funding. That rings the total funding round to 286 million. Does this latest cash injection signal that an ipo is off the tables . I want to bring back founder and chairman kevin ryan. Business insider is over 1 billion . Kevin not yet. Couple years from now. Betty what is going on with gilt . Kevin the samestore sales are only at 1 even though the economy is booming. That means when you go into a Department Store today everything is on sale all the time. That makes it more competitive for everyone. It continues to grow. We raise money for the first time in a long time so we could expand. We think there will be more inventory available in the next seven months because betty what do you mean more inventory . Kevin more unsold in the terri more unsold inventory. There are opportunities. The business sector will continue to grow for a long time. I think it will be steady growth. Betty several years ago, the buzz was that you were going to go ipo. Is that still on the table . Kevin that buzz was never from us. The media would ask us about it all the time and we would never say we are going public next year. We would say, at some point in the future it is possible to go public. Allie baba waited 14 years to go public. I think that worked out well allieibaba waited 14 years to go public. I think that worked out well. Betty it was a billiondollar valuation. Was this round above that billion or was it the same or below . Kevin in general, what i will say is you have seen ecommerce valuations have come down in the last year, independent of us. Those companies have taken a hit. Betty would the trend be the same for gilt . Kevin it is doing hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and continues to grow. I think it will do well. Betty Business Insider, a company you founded directly very successful, wrote about gilt groupe. I want to read one quote what they said. The buzz is gone. Gilt groupe is struggling to maintain growth and it still has not gone public. As a new cash ingejection this week suggest. Kevin i was not part of that story. They do independent reporting. The part that is true is the overall Retail Sector is tougher now. There has not been a lot of management turnover in the last year. I think things look pretty good. Retail is a tough business, a low margin business. I think we have seen companies who publish their numbers are profitable. Zillow, you can see their numbers are profitable. The sector does work. The concept does work and for a long time. You are not still at a point where people do not want great people still want great merchandise at great prices. The content is already there. It is not as new as it was, it just continues to grow. Betty it is not as new of a concept. Kevin tj maxx has grown for 25 years. It is not buzz, it is just a great business that keeps growing. Betty you have raised money for mongo db Business Insider raised 25 million. Is it easy these days to raise money . Kevin it is very easy to raise money if your business is doing well. There are lots of companies that cannot raise money but if you are doing well, it is pretty easy. The internet and Technology Sector could not be doing better. Huge value is being created every day. Revenues are growing. Business insider has published its revenues. It grew 70 last year. Real value is being created. Betty we will have much more with kevin ryan of gilt groupe. Here is a look at other top stories. On capitol hill, janet yellen will be asked about plans for Interest Rates. The chair will testify before the House Financial Services committee. Plans for an Interest Rate increase are in the works. Yellen held back on specifics but said it could happen before the end of the year. Congress is trying to go around the approval process. President obama the tote Keystone Pipeline bill. The administration does not think the pipeline would create that many jobs or cut oil prices. The veto is only the third of obamas presidency. It looks like the fight over internet regulation is over. According to the new york times, the sec is expected to approve regulating the internet as a public utility. The government will prohibit companies for paying for asked her lanes on the web. That decision is a victory for president obama and internet activists. Apple ordered to pay 533 million to a texas company. A jury ruled that itunes used patented inventions from smart clash without permission. The french satirical weekly, charlie abdo, planning to print 2. 5 million copies of its next edition. The magazine was produced under tight police protection. More sightings in the night sky over paris. Police spotted five drones. The second night of such sightings. Police could not follow them or determine how they were being controlled. Mysterious. Those are your latest top stories. The sun is shining after solar after it beats profit beats forecast. Why retailers are looking less attractive these days. We will be back. Betty we have less than an hour to the start of trading. Julie hyman is taking a look at some of the big movers. Julie lets take a look at solar and lows. Solar says it will post a loss because of shifting it is shifting assets to a new company. Its forced firstquarter numbers beat estimates. Lows matching home depot and beating estimates. In six quarters they rose by more than 7 . Hewlettpackard, its profit forecast trilling estimates. Trailing estimates. Lending club though shares down sharply. Kurtz coming out for luminary numbers saying hurts coming out with preliminary numbers. It says a separation of its Equipment Rental operations will not happen until all of those restatements are done. We are watching retail earnings. Tjx coming up with numbers. It earnings beating estimates. It looks like its firstquarter numbers are short of what analysts had been anticipating. Target as well. That company, looking strong in the Fourth Quarter. Its best sales since 2013. You have the yearoveryear comparisons with the data breach quarter. That is something to keep in mind. Looks like the companys firstquarter forecast is below the average analyst estimate. Betty julie hyman, our senior markets correspondent. Potential buyers are being forced to decide whether aging brands like ann taylor can adapt to a more useful youthful focused culture. Macys, whose shares sunk yesterday after it issued a disappointing profit forecast for 2015. For private equity firms turning around underperforming businesses in this environment might be more to bite off than they can chew. Lindsay rupp joins us now. And staying with us is kevin ryan. Private equity firms traditionally have looked at these distressed assets and sold them off successfully. Why is it different this time . This time they are going for that messier to group. Missy age group. She dresses a lot differently from when these brands came on the scene. They are not interesting dressing the way their mom stressed moms dressed. Betty are you saying a bunch of men in suits are not going to be able to figure out how to turn around ann taylor . Kevin, you are a man in a different kind of suit. Would you agree . Kevin the problem is these are brands that are difficult to turn around. The economy is booming. Plans are not doing well right now, it can only if brands are not doing well now, it can only get worse. They are taking a big risk by buying brands today and there been few examples of turning around tired fashion brands. Betty what is the alternative . Just so them off . Just sell them off . Kevin sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Sometimes they fade toward irrelevance. It will be a tough u. S. Retail environment for the next couple of years. Betty who are some of the firms interested in buying . Sycamore is said to be interested. Last night, it got dicier. Ann taylors had pressure from smaller firms. One of their biggest holders is golden gate. None of these players have a history of turning around fashion brands. It is hard to do and takes a lot of marketing. You have to get people to buy into a new perception of a brand they are familiar with. They can cut costs out of ann taylors. They could split up chicos. There are ways to make these profitable businesses. Ann taylor is a big cash generating business. Betty what is going on with chicos . The stock is down around 7 . There was a report that sycamore might be abandoning its bid for chicos. Not sure what is going on with express right now. If they are just not seeing the financing in terms they like. Betty kevin, who are generally where have you seen the best examples of turnarounds . Kevin Mickey Drexler has done a good job with j. Crew. It was not doing as well until he got in there. He is a marketing genius. On the other hand, i think we would not say that sears is an example. It shows that it is not easy to do. Betty absolutely not. If private equity buyers do not pick up ann taylor or chicos, what are the alternatives for those companies . They will have to try to turn things around themselves. Ann taylor owns the ann taylor brand which is more traditionally suiting. The only loft which they open in the 90s they also own loft. Theyre bringing in a brand called lou and gray. Soft dressing. They can more aggressively expand. It is a matter of getting women back in the stores saying ann taylor can be cool. With chicos, i could sell off some of those brands themselves in theory. Betty look for alternatives that way. Is there no profitable ground in the middle road here . You have ultra luxury retailers and then you have the fast fashion. Is there no middle ground . Kevin middle ground has been tricking. Tj maxx is doing very well. Youre seeing brands like michael kors, which are not quite sure know, but are high and which are not quite sure but are doing really well. Betty thank you for joining us this morning. Evan ryan, the chairman and founder of gilt groupe. Also to lindsay roop, lindsay rupp thank you for bringing us that story. Julie hyman has more on tjx. Julie the company is joining retailers who are saying they will be raising wages. Tjx says its fulltime and parttime store associates will be earning at least nine dollars per hour in june. Beginning sometime next year the folks who have been employed for six months or more will earn at least 10 per hour. This follows on walmarts announcement that it will be waiting raising wages. Some of this has to do with these companies wanting to improve the wages for their employees and customer service. It is also a more competitive marketplace for retail labor. Betty thank you so much. Julie hyman at on our at our breaking news desk. He says he wants to make the fed more accountable. Bill huizenga joins us next. We will be back. Betty top stories this morning. Greece gets a warning from creditors. Athens, earning plays praise for new reforms. The imf and ecb say actions be glad with the words. In ukraine, possible signs of progress. The government saying fighting with prorussian rebels has subsided. A full cease a full ceasefire has not begun. They say do not leave home without it but will people still follow that now that American Express is raising rates on more than one million cardholders . Annual rates are rising to nearly 13 . The change affects only a fraction of its 42 million card customers. Hewlett packard projected results fell short of estimates. About two thirds of sales come from overseas. Hp is preparing to split into two companies. The veteran who killed chris kyle has been convicted of murder. A texas jury rejected claims that any reg out was legally Eddie Ray Routh was legally the judge sentenced routh. Chicagos mayor must go into a runoff to win a second term. Rahm emanuel failed to win a majority in voting yesterday. The citys unions and teachers are backing his challenger. Today in washington, janet yellen back on the hill for part two of her face off with the republicancontrolled congress. She weighs into weight into tougher territory. Her testimony comes as the fed is being pressured by lawmakers on both sides demanding more transparency and accountability from the institution. Kindness and Bill Huizenga congressman Bill Huizenga will get his chance to question janet yellen later today. Bill i want to hear that she is open to more transparency. I would love to hill her describe here her describe what she was in favor of having a rulebased policy in the 90s and now is opposed to that. It seems they would insulate themselves from pressure from the executive branch if they would adopt a rule that laid out what their Monetary Policy guidelines are, rather than ad hoc Monetary Policy. Betty is it ad hoc . Their argument is that it will give them a much more accurate outlook and a perspective to allow them to know when to raise Interest Rates. Bill i think they have been ad hoc over the last number of years. By their own admission, they had been making it up as they go along. All we are saying in the build i had less conference the bill i had last congress, tell us what the guidelines are. They are not determined by what congress is doing but what the fed is wanting to do. That is one of the main things i want to pursue. That and find got her thoughts on that that the coming a super regulator under doddfrank. Where we are going with Interest Rates is of interest to everybody. Betty recently you tweeted this. I know you have a critical view of the fed. You said another sign the fed does not take hungers seriously. That chair spent 18 hours does not take congress seriously. Bill what im trying to say pretty much weekly, the chair has lunch with jack lew. They are heavily indebted with the executive embedded with the executive branch. Instead of coming twice a year we would like to see it quarterly. Come to the hilt four times the year as opposed to twice. Come to the hill four times a year as opposed to two. Isnt the secretary of treasury also political influence. Youre doing that weekly you are only going to come to congress twice a year . When they adopted this back with humphrey home inns act Humphrey Hawkins act it was viewed as true tony and coming up twice a year. It was viewed as for coney and coming up twice a year. Betty i want to play a moment when janet yellen was fighting back some of the comments from senators asking to audit the fed. Heres what she said. A bill that would politicize Monetary Policy. It would bring shortterm clinical pressures to bear on the fed political pressures to bear on the fed. Betty she held up that deloitte paper and said they are already audited. Bill we want more openness and transparency. They have moved from hundreds of billions of dollars on their books to trillions. People have to understand what that means. What are the effects on the economy . I do not think they know themselves. I would like to see more openness. I think the senate has been going after this specific audit bill. Betty we have to run. Thank you so much for joining us. We will be back in two minutes. Betty u. S. Regulators launch a probe into precious metal prices. Warren buffetts back. What to expect from the tightening of value investing. Betty welcome back. We are 30 minutes away from the opening bell. Here is a look at our top stories. Opening slightly lower this morning. President obama voted the keystone xl pipeline bill. The administration does not think the pipeline would cut oil prices or create that many jobs. The white house is waiting for a state Department Review of the project. It details only one third of obamas presidency. Janet yellen is heading back with margaret the fed is heading back this morning. The chair says an audit is in the works. It should be understood as reflecting the committees judgment. To prove the point where it will soon be the case that a change in the target range could be wanted at any reason. Betty she will face questions from the house security panel. Newer forms from cyprus clear the way for a fourmonth extension of the bailout. The imf managing director says the plan may not meet the lender benchmark. It must work pensions privatizations and others. There was a talk in paris that broke down into fingerpointing and blaming. Russia and ukraine blame each other for violating the ceasefire. Present Obamas National Security advisor sharply criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu. She calls the prime ministers plan to address Congress Next week destructible relations with the u. S. He talked about the controversy with charlie rose. On both sides, there has been injected a degree of partisanship. I think it is unfortunate and destructive of the fabric of the relationship. Destructive of the attic of the relationship . Take my point. It has always been high partisan we need to keep it that way. Betty elections will be held in israel two weeks after the speech. Those are our top headlines this morning. We are 30 minutes away from the opening bell. We want to copy down top down with the opening headlines. Number 10 American Express telling more than one million customers they are going to out the, raising Interest Rates on a swath of credit cards for the first time in more than five years. This is the rate now 13 . They have to do something. They lost their costco business. I was a percent of their revenue. They might not have the monopoly and stores. They may save if they dont want American Express, they want beside mastercard. It is not necessarily a surprise they did something. Typically when you see these rate increases on credit cards they are in line with larger rate increases. In this case, you are seeing one particular company do it not in conjunction. Betty as alex says, they ran to these problems. They need to keep their customers, too. They want to entice a loyalty or rewards program. If they were with cosco, they may want to keep it. Betty they said that some of the rates were as low as 3. 2 per customer. They base their whole Customer Base on that. Her longtime users of American Express, this should not mean anything. Betty stop paying credit card rates. That is a larger point. Capital one, i hate you. Betty hewlettpackard down in arlene in early training. Trading. They cited the rise of the u. S. Dollar hurting. It also plans to cut 35,000 jobs by the end of the fiscal year. Here we go. Blame it on the dollar. They have a case. Two thirds of their revenue comes from overseas. What i am most interested in is what is the next move from a Merger Acquisition standpoint from hp . We know theyre going to split the company. The question is are they going tos do a deal before this but the Company Split the company . We may see an Hb Acquisition sooner rather than later. Betty why is that so unusual for a company that is going to split . They did for tax reasons. Not only do you get tax efficiencies, like company be by something or company a buy some thing, and ordered to do the acquisition now presplit, they have to do it. Theyre going to be part of this company or are we going to split these companies . The idea that is whatever company they do by logically fits in to either one or two of the businesses. Betty speaking of losses is, number eight jpmorgan. They say they will close the hundred branches by the end of 2015 to cut their costs. That makes up more than 5 of the firm. The company says that cuts are also because consumers are using more digital devices to bank. No surprise. We are banking more online. I cannot run over the last time i walked into a bank branch. You know the story so much from the retail side and now you see it on the banking side. Jpmorgan, unlike wells fargo is an asset. That is wells fargos breadandbutter. Not so much jpmorgan. Betty they are a Consumer Bank in many ways. You think of his citibank or a wells fargo in that respect. In that same trend, this is no surprise for anybody who thought that this trend was not going to accelerate. When can i get money out of my phone . That would be awesome. What are those Retail Stores going to turn into . I wonder what these banks will go to. I hope not. Betty it may just be a warm place to go to in winter. Number 7 we like this plan already. Consumers are revving the engines of tesla and jean and and gm. Buick regal was named the best sport sedan. Also, Something Else to crow about. For the First Time Since 1998 u. S. Cars account for three of the top 10 picks by drivers. I love the story. I remember taking a marketing course for my mba. The professor for my marketing class said that there was no way that gm could do what they want to do with buick. The brand is too strong and they cannot make this into a younger brand. Yet, im not saying it is a done deal at this point. But certainly when a buick sedan is replacing bmw 328i which won the award two years in a row, something is going right. They need to get out in front of the failure ignition switch issue. This helps them on that. Tesla needs the availability and it helps them on that. Betty by the way, tesla needs to be better known as a car company to the masses. Something like this is very helpful. Number six southwest can continue flying when hundred 28 aircrafts continue flying 128 aircrafts. It was earlier reported that 1 5 of its fleet would be grounded. Now, they can fly. The question is do you want to fly . There was an article about planes that were not expected well with batteries melting down and something with the fisa lunch. Not all southwest obviously, but why would anyone want to fly a plane now . I believe this led to 90 cancellations yesterday. Overall i think i will go with checking the plane to make sure it is safe. Is this an faa bank or as a a thing or a southwest thing . Betty i do not know other than my hunch would be it is a southwest thing. You wonder if it was that they were able to fly, and must not be that serious. A quick turn around here. Coming up, the u. S. Justice Department Investigating whether one of the worlds biggest banks manipulated the prices of Precious Metals. We get to the issue with our children. He will be joining me and a moment. Betty we continue our countdown to the opening bell. It is time for our deep dive. Number 5 pricefixing. U. S. Regulators probing 10 banks as part of an investigation for me if you late in the prices of Precious Metals like gold and silver. That is one of many scandals. For example, there was an rating of a 300 trillion benchmark. There are settlements worldwide that could cost banks a record 41 billion. Joining us now for the latest metal allegations is part chilton bar chilton. T what do you make of this new revelation here . It is not really unexpected. Regulators for a number of years have been looking at these what they call fixing for Precious Metals. In addition to gold and silver and platinum and palladium. For leslie roughly 100 years these prices have been fixed by a group of firms, a group of banks first in person, then in 2004, on conference calls. It has not been open and transparent. Has not been based upon real trades. Up until now, it has been an area where many regulators have been concerned about. Betty you your self into silver pricefixing. It was a fouryear investigation, but nothing came of it. That is true. It does not mean that you do not find things. The manipulation standard in the commodities market is fairly high. You have to find intent we often found by the way like in an email or text because traders speak with a lot of bravado. In addition to intent, you also have to have that they had size that the howard they had market power, and they use market power through a trade and finally, it actually move the market. You know these markets. Lots of things impact them as you report every day. That standard is tough. We did have that investigation. We were not able to reach the level. That did not mean that there were not some things that concerned is. Im glad we did that. Im not surprised by further investigations and further in quincy inquiries by the doj. They are the primary frontline regulator in the u. K. Betty aside from the doj investigation, there were lawsuits around pricefixing around the warehousing of metal there. I know Goldman Sachs was dismissed from those sets of lawsuits. The fact of the matter is the premiums paid on the metal that was warehouse there has gone up fivefold in the last five years. Isnt this something that warrants closer attention to . It actually does betty. All forms of trade or fbots as they are called need to seek approval. That is one of a group of 20 that is applying for cft approval. In regard to the aluminum market, you could choose right now to get your aluminum out of storage that is a 655 day. That is down 30 days from a few months ago. It is the midwest premium paid on aluminum in the midwest that is . 21 the last time i checked. This is something that lme and gary jones wants to correct the problem. Im really hopeful that they will do that in the near future because ultimately, when you think about Aluminum Prices they can impact things like cars and beer and soda. Betty it directly affects the american consumer, bart. You. Yes. Hopefully the new rules will take care of that. I know people are looking at that anxiously. Betty thank you so much for joining us on this. Bart chilton, the former commissioner. Up ahead, what is next for the Keystone Pipeline . Janet yellen heading to the hill. Betty let us get back to bringing you the important stories. Warren buffett getting ready for an acquisition spree. He is waiting for the right assets on germany. Quoting a germany report, buffett says he likes German Companies because of the regulatory and Legal Protection for investors. I think the euro does not hurt either. It wasnt the only reason, but it was a benefit. You know him he likes things he understands. You know him. He likes things he understands. Betty that might be a possibility. You can just hear him say we may be there for the next century or more. This is something that is a staple of peoples lives. Smaller acquisitions are what you might be gearing toward and set of the elephant sized acquisitions you heard him say a year ago. Betty each year he does not acquire a big company and cash is building up, he has got Something Like 63 billion of cash that is waiting to be deployed. That is why every single request to him in an interview is what are you going to spend when are you going to spend . His attention towards germany as a signal that he believes and the German Economy for the longterm. Betty number three president obama swift detailed. Obamas swift veto. Type linebackers in congress made hype line backers in congress may seek some other support. Communities are going to move on on this. I talked to a speaker at the American Petroleum institute and i said, when are you just going to give up . It is clear he is not interested in it. Move on. It is the perfect time to veto this bill. Oil prices are low. It makes it cheaper to transport it because it makes less money. This is a bad time for producers to not have the pipeline to rely on. Even though it increases the demand, you are saying. Right. Because it is cheaper to transport and a lot more when you go by trucks them by rail. Betty i say why give up . John boehner and Mitch Mcconnell say theyre not giving up. Maybe they might wet for the next president. Wait for the next president. With them out. That probably will happen. Betty speaking of oil, west texas intermediate is reversing the decline. They say that stronger demand is a countersign that u. S. Profits are to continue rising. Oil demand is growing and the market has turned. Has turned calm. It is true when you look at brent. We have seen Global Demand increase. It is at a record high right now. That is because of asian and european demand. We have seen outages in libya. Here in the u. S. , it is the same old story. That is why you are seeing 10 divergence between the two. It is very high here and refineries are shutting down because of that strike. A totally different landscape. Also, markets are calm. What does that mean . At one point it is going to be calm when you get a point in general, it does not necessarily mean that the price will jump act up in a day. Betty my question something ive been mulling over, when Production Cuts take place what Production Cut is going to be more sensitive to what market in usborn saudi arabia . In terms of prices . Betty yes. It depends on where it is. Production might cut back prices. You can see on fridays and the recount. Betty as we near the opening bell, we want to get a check on features. Prices are little lower on this wednesday morning. Top stories are next. Hes out there. Theres a guy out there whose making a name for himself in a sport where your name and maybe a number are what define you. Somewhere in that pack is a driver that can intimidate the intimidator. A guy that can take the king 7 and make it 8. Heck. Maybe even 9. Make no mistake about it. Theyre out there. I guarantee it. Welcome to the Nascar Xfinity series. Betty welcome back. Let us get back to bringing you the most important stories before the bell. Ok guys number one our story is janet yellen. Janet yellen is nearing patience. She has been laying down the groundwork for a possible increase in rates later this year. Some speculation that she will drop that patience word come the march meeting. Two meetings later, we might see a rise. Stocks actually rose. I think that means that there is finally a broad consensus that a rate increase is coming this year at some point. More or less, what i think the markets are saying is, look, we do not take all that hot mess. We should see more opposition. Betty look at the bond market. The rhetoric seems to be that it is not in a rate hike right now. She had a really tough job yesterday. It could be a slip of the time. She learned her lesson from last time. Betty by all accounts, it seemed that the Market Reaction was the best that she would get was an applause of her performance yesterday. Will should be able to repeat that again today . As stocks start trading c as someone else can turn well. Chief strategist at black rock says that a rate hike is still possible for the fed. Did you see that more after watching janet yellen yesterday . The only thing that changed our view was the time. I think there is some chance for june, probably september, if not certainly by the end of the year. We are all parsing her words. Going back to the 1980 us and the criminologists, they study eddie every utterance. The reality is that they are likely to adopt a measured case. Be on that, it is data dependent. It will depend on background data. By the way, it has recently been on the soft side. Betty do you think the markets will be surprised if the fed does not raise rates early in the summer or earlier than the summer or in the summer . Looking at the markets, i think it is late q2 or q3. There is a consensus that it will be this year, sometime in the back half. You see some sort of amazing reaction when we get the nod that the fed is going to raise rates . I expect probably not. This is the most telegraphed rate hike in history. There are a couple things that are changing. One of the things that is changing and we have seen it in the year is low volatility environment in the first part of 2015. As we get closer to the point with the fed starts a normalized policy, volatility is normalizing as well. What we enjoyed a couple of years ago, that is coming to an end. We have been talking about the trough and oil prices. It is trading around 50. Where do you stand on energy . Is it an Investment Opportunity . It depends on what market you are looking at. And the terms of the price of oil, it is when to be a volatile to a market for the next two or three months. You have this big drop in rate counts. On the other hand, with the u. S. In particular well in supply if you look at the back end of the year, we think oil will be higher based on a deceleration of supply and some growing demand in emerging markets. Where in energy space would we be positioned . Less so on the services. I think the best opportunity is in the large integrated companies which are both cheap and are an interesting deal play even the fact that bonds did not increase much. Betty you mentioned a few moments ago that some of the Economic Data that we have gotten has been soft. What are you looking at exactly . It is interesting. The data has not been terrible. We still expect an environment where the u. S. Will grow 2. 5 or 3 . If you look to the extent i would speed recent data has been a head or below the estimates what is interesting is that apart from the labor market all the data from retail sales has been below expectations. In the measure of u. S. Economic surprises, it is actually on out of the lowest levels of last spring. It is an optimistic something about the u. S. Economy that the recent data has not supported that view. I know youre interested in japanese equity. Is there a specific play in japan that investors should target . I think basically largecap equities. The one change that we would have a couple of years ago we thought about japan, it was very much predicated on a weaker yen. As a dollar best investor dollarbased investor, you want to be sure on the currency. I think it is in a margaret an environment now where it changes the courts and governments are rising and so are we, it is no longer dependent on a week yen. I think for investors having that japanese exposure makes sense. You not have that currency risk as much as you might have had couple years ago. Betty how to are you going to be in today when janet yellen gives her second day of testimony . You feel like you have gotten it all yesterday. How tuned in are you going to be today . The second day of testimony is normally an opportunity for the chairman to back away a bit perhaps if they made a statement that been too strong or they clarify. I think we will not see much in the way of new information. Janet yellen gave a very measured testimony yesterday in the senate. I think we will likely see much of the same today. Betty were you happy with the lawmakers questions . Was there a specific question that you wish was asked that wasnt . Im not sure if we have got a clear answer what is the longerterm exit strategy given the extraordinary size and composition of the fed Balance Sheet . We are in uncharted territory. They have never had a Balance Sheet of this size before. How are they going to extricate themselves in the longterm . That is still in question. Betty thank you very much investment strategist at black rock. Thank you out shield and out sherman. Alex shields and alex german. Coming up, you will not want to meet miss the greek finance mansur. Minister. Plans on how to turn the economy around. That interviews coming up. Stay in the loop. Plus, jpmorgan closing more than 5 of its branches. And is closing more than 300 locations. Well tell you what they have planned next for the countrys biggest rank. Bank. Betty i want to get back to our senior markets correspondent julie hyman. We want to get more on our early movers. Julie a couple of the embassies closed at a record. Let us take a look at their retail earnings. Target coming out with its numbers. They beat analyst estimates as did sales. The forecast is short, but that is not hurting shares is money. Tj acts is up. Tjx is up. This for their fourthquarter forecast a short like target. Like walmart last week, they announced wage increases for their employees. Finally, lows matching what we saw from home depot yesterday with its numbers also beating estimates. That is from the home renovation trend. Not very much this one. Also in retail, we want to take a look at she goes. Chicos. Sycamore was abandoning a bid for the womens retail chain. They close yesterday and it is a quarterly and fouryear forecast trailed the estimates. It is hurt by a hollered higher dollar and competition for cloud computing. Their shares down sharply for the moment. Betty thank you so much, julie hyman. Finally, chase bank is going to be a lot harder. Jpmorgan is cutting branches as more customers are moving online. The bank has closed 300 branches by the end of next year from its Current Network of 5602. Jpmorgan like bank of america, is shrinking this branches ahead of digital payments. They want to shift focus from their brickandmortar made branches. With more of the latest on the company reveal, we bring in tom brown. He was joining and that investors day. He was the ceo of a hedge fund that invests in financial services. Tom, what were the most surprising things that you got out of that investors day . One is that we have a great franchise. Number 2 all for those businesses are not just growing shares, their growing profitability as well. Number three, they are making a ton of money over the next few years. We are looking at 22 billion or 30 billion. Number 4 we are going to pay 65 of that to share to shareholders in the form of common stock or dividends. Betty we heard early on that the return on equity and certain parts of the business was going to be lower. It is going to be lower. That is the new reality though for shareholders who invest in the banks like jpmorgan. The reason is going to be lower is that regulators requiring a lot more capital for the company and then they distribute that capital to the image will individual lines of business. Betty are you of the stance that banks are Still Holding too much capital . More today than ever, betty. When you take a look at jpmorgan, one of the things that came through yesterday is you may think of us as complex, but based on all the capable capital we have, we are less risky. Betty why . Because they got rid of prop trading . We have so many lines of business and they are so profitable. If one line blew up as a good example that. It lose one line of business and they still have records good we have a separate the complexity. Betty could you not have made that sake argument before the 2008 financial crisis . I think we did. You look at who survive it was the wells fargo, jpmorgan, bank of america. They all ought to companies that failed. I would not say that the largest ranks, with the exception of citi, it was the one bank that was structured poorly before the crisis. We had the safest Banking System in the world. Betty this is interesting. Jamie dimon and investors call yesterday came out against investors. He called it unamerican to put so much regulation on these bank. He was a little bit more even toned yesterday. And fact, he said in fact, he said regulation would be better for the industry. What do you make of that . I was a little surprised by that, but it is not inconsistent with him. He will go through periods where he rails on the regulators and then he realizes that maybe we are moving. Betty maybe he gets a phone call. He might get a phone call. If you talk to any of the ceos privately, they will just tell you that this is the toughest environment that they have ever seen. It is not constructive to the u. S. Economy. Betty the other thing that struck me was about the stock and evaluation. He said that investors are not appropriately evaluating the stock of jpmorgan. Do you agree . Have you ever seen as ceo that has said are stock is fairly valued . Im not met one yet. Betty is it a legal fee discount . Is that what we are talking about here . I think it is the uncertainty. We do not know the final capital rules. They will not cut come out until the end of the of. They have not written half of the requirements of the doddfrank. I think there is a large Bank Discount based on the search. Betty is there also a discount based on further legal fees that need to be paid and further of dollars of settlements that have already been paid . What more is out there . What more is under the cover . I think of all the taxes that have argued paid have argued and paid, i feel confident that what ever scandal that comes up the legal costs will be less than 3 billion. Betty we have hit the peak legal fees. Tom, great to see this morning. Tom brown, ceo second curve capital. Coming up, the billionaire investors have a heavy and this and that this year. Edition this year. He celebrates its 50th anniversary running picture half away. Brookshire hathaway. Betty looking for some Investment Advice . In a few days, you can get it from one of the biggest titans in the university industry. Warren buffett is about to release his letter. 20,000 words what should we be looking for . Joining us now from seattle is Bloomberg News reporter know what the wire. Noah dwyer. 20,000 words, his 50th anniversary. Is anybody telling you that he may Start Talking about secession suck session or who could be succeeding him . It is a near certainty. It is a big question on a lot of peoples mind. The real question is how specific is he going to get . He has used this letter in the past couple of years to talk about sex session succession but in a way that doesnt reveal a ton of details. He could name a successor what im hearing right now is that we will get an update, but perhaps not the name of the successor. Betty there is some envelope somewhere in omaha that is in his net desk. It is one person that would who succeed him. He said that over the last couple years. The board is an agreement on who the leading candidate is and they have a couple of backups. Yes, exactly. Betty a couple of other broader things are going to be covered. What are they going to be . A couple of things. For a people fall the comfy closely, there are baseball type things. They have investors have been working for him for a couple of years. And might be interested it might be interesting to see what their returns have been over the past couple of years. There has not been a lot of detail on that. The other thing is that companies that he up by that he has bought in terms of capital on the buyout firm. An update on that partnership would be interesting. Another really big thing on the theme of mergers and acquisitions is what buffett is going to do with all this cash. He has more than 60 billion of it on the Balance Sheet right now. He has not done a major deal on it while now. Betty he hasnt. We were talking earlier about this german publication that had done an interview with him recently where he said, look maybe germany is a possibility of buying something there. Maybe somewhere in europe. What do you make you hear buffett is interested in europe or in asia. What you make of this latest report . I think it is smart on his part. Can you to put advertisement out there saying he is ready and willing to buy. He needs to put an advertisement out there saying he is ready and willing to buy. When you do Something Like that, it is a great opportunity to say to other business owners, hey we are here. You have cash and we are looking to buy. Betty know what, good to see you. Much more ahead. President obama vetoed the keystone bill. A sign that he will not go with a pipeline that will not produce jobs. A ceo who is critical of that decision. That is up next. Betty as we mentioned, the controversial keystone xl pipeline has hit a dead end. President obama has vetoed the bill choosing to wait for a state Department Review. We sat down with jack gerard ceo of the American Petroleum institute on why the oil industry will not just move on. What it done what it does is it suggest that the president might not be a serious about creating jobs is we help you would be. Is a big disappointment, but leaders have said they will not move on. This is not the end of it. They expect that sometime keystone will be approved. Is it time to move on . President obama seems not to be interested. It seems like the market has moved on, moving on to savor chucks for transportation. Is it time to say, you know what, it is not going to happen . Why . I totally understand that. Do we actually need it in an Oil Community . Are there other ways to transport oil and other countries . As you well know, it is being moved by rail which adds additional costs and shipments. Who gets the cost consumers. You know why . We are shipping in a way that costs more. We need all the above in energy infrastructure. To get the pipeline full is subscribed, the fact that their customers out there who still want to move there product through pipeline which we move 99. 999 of it safely without incident, it is a great way to move the product. What is it going to take . Im not sure with this president. Are you waiting till 2016 . We are not giving up hope your. We continue to engage with the american public. All you have to do is look at the congress. This is probably one of the most bipartisan votes that we have seen with his congress. It is a very polarized environment. Nine democrats joined all the pumpkins in the u. S. Side senate. They said, you know what mr. President , approved the pipeline. Betty has the market moved on . Kind of. More canadian oil is actually entering the u. S. Market despite the aa the delay. Keystone exports were up 2. 8 Million Barrels based on the latest data available. Production there is growing at 200,000 barrels a day. There is the oil. We need it. We have got to get it. Betty the alternative is what . Trains . Analysts have a cool estimate that says if a train has 120 cars that it would take 14 trains to transport how much you would from 800,000 barrel a day pipeline from keystone. Some of them are exploding, see need to make them safer. That is an added cost. Betty you saw that explosion a week ago. It will raise kospi about . 30. For the entire car, it will be a lot more than that. He is right. It is going to be more extensive for the mainstream stream lenders. Betty thank you so much. That does it for today. Tomorrow we are going to be lifting a lid on what consumers really want. Were going to talk to two ceos. Nigel travis joining us. Does america still run on Dunkin Donuts . That is right here on in the loop. Quite live from bloomberg headquarters in new york. This is Market Makers with Erik Schatzker and stephanie ruhle. I am stephanie ruhle. I am matt miller. We are covering everything and i want to get you started with breaking news in the housing market. Julie hyman is in the newsroom with the headlines. What is the word . More sold less month than economists had predicted