Is not often the way we end. On thursday and friday you werent here thursday and friday no. It continued. The bill murray bottom, which we were up 300 points on that friday, suddenly up 1200 points. We made back about twothirds of the losses. If we were to close down over 200 today, the dow would fall under 25,000 so were back to 25,200 again. The art cashin has the from a month ago where people were like, oh, my god it needs to be kept in perspective. 291 on the tenyear. Youll look at that later. That 2. 6 or 3. 0. What did he say he said thats the question 3. 0 is more likely. In asia, some markets are still out now. They have been closed because of the Lunar New Year the nikkei down by 1 . The hang seng down by 0. 78 . In europe, many of the markets are mixed. The dax is flat. Cac is up 0. 2 the ftse down by a quarter percentage point if you get to treasury yields, the tenyear is what weve been watching just below 2. 91. Home depot just out with quarterly numbers. Retailer reporting profit of 1. 69 a share. 8 cents above estimates. Revenue exceeded forecasts Comp Store Sales rose 7. 5 the consensus was 6. 5 u. S. Comp store sales were above forecast for the fullyear home depot says earnings should come in at 9. 31 a share. Thats about a dime above where the street is now. The Company Also Announced a 17. 5 increase in its Quarterly Dividend to 1. 03 a share. More corporate news, albertsons is planning to buy the rest of riteaid that is not being sold to walgreens. The deal would create a company with revenue of 83 billion and allow albertsons so go public after more than a decade of ownership. The ceos of both Companies Say the tie up is the best way for them to compete in consumer business threatened by amazon and walmart. Amazon unveiling some new benefits for prime members people who use amazons rewards visa card would get 5 back on purchases made at whole foods. Card holders already get 5 back on amazon. Com purchases. Now with the whole Foods Acquisition you will get discount theres as well facebooks new verification procedure will rely on snail mail the social network is planning on sending postcards to potential buyers of political ads to make sure they reside in the United States. The recipient then would have to enter a card from the postcard to buy the ad. Facebook said it is one piece of a much larger effort to address foreign electoral influence on its platform President Trump tweeting a surprise endorsement of mitt romney for his run for a senate seat in utah romney has been a harsh critic of President Trump until he wanted to be secretary of state. Then he loved President Trump. The president previously called romney a total joke, a choker. Last night the president tweeted mitt romney announced hes running for the senate from the wonderful state of utah. Hell make a great senator and a wonderful successor to orrin hatch. Mitt romney said i thank you for your support i hope over the course of the campaign i earn the support of the people of utah theres conjecture that he wants to represent a bran of conservativism thats common to his state of utah, which is an alternative to the populist conservatism of President Trump. I dont know what would happen i was trying to figure that out. Both have said horrible things about each other both have said they would never deal with each other romney said he didnt want an endorsement. Watching over the last however long, to watch how people fall in and out of favor on the president s tweets, i finally said some of it is just like a big game. Like little adam schiff, then it comes back then glowing if you make him mad, you get penalized. If he likes you, you get they play the same way, too corker is like calls it whatever it was, a Day Care Center adult day care. Then the press burns corker on that vote change. Its front no matter what you do he courted a different kind of person by attacking the president. Now if you get the president s endorsement you tick off both sides. If reminds me of wwe. They are enemies, then the next week theyre on the same tag team together. Thats a really good analogy. For current politics. Yes not very positive way to run a country. I dont know lets get back to the markets. Here to talk equities and fixed income is phillip warko facing off against him, mark luceney. This is going to be ugly this will be maybe not. Mark, more volatility, but i think you think the overall environment is positive. The backdrop for stocks, you have to stay long. Is that where you are . Thats exactly where i am the background is exceedingly favorable. The additional stimulus from the tax cuts and the budget act will add fuel to the fire of an already strong economic backdrop that is supported not only domestically but by Global Conditions even though we knows there pressure on equity prices in the futures market this morning, which is totally expected. We often have a retest, not necessarily to the lows we had a few weeks ago, but some kind of a retracement. It would be natural that it would occur at 61. 81 recovery from a fstandpoint i think once again well recover and then some, the highs we put in late january. So, phil, i dont know. You can look at this as maybe the earnings, the markets went up without any multiple expansion based on the increased in earnings for whatever you want to attribute it to, tax reform or the strong global economy. The earnings will go up. The market goes up and maintains its multiple even if rates go up and the multiple contracts, you can argue it could stay flat based on earnings growth, couldnt you . Where are you . We would argue they could stay flat. We are seeing them contract a tiny bit, but earnings will continue to accelerate the thing people have missed is the Structural Reforms in terms of deregulation and the more Corporate Tax regime is raising the potential growth of the economy. So we can withstand a bit higher rate now remember, real rates are just as low now as they were before, six monthses ag ago because inflati picking up this is a more resilient economy than in the last eight, nine years. Phil, ill start with you what do you think of the financial now youre both on camera whoever wants to answer it can do you think the financial stimulus i heard Goldman Sachs say over the weekend this were at a point where what were spending and the kind of debt that we have, the gdp, is problematic at this point. We cant do a sustained 3 , even if we want to. We front end loaded it too much to where it becomes a negative do you believe that . I theres something to that this is the first time were really making a big stimulus like this, arguably the last third of a cycle but i would again go back to what is the potential growth of this economy i think the secular stagnation bear may not have been killed but wounded. Simply because with deregulation and tax reform this economy has more potential to grow than before i think that higher potential growth really is going to take some of the heat off of that contention that they made. I think the economy is in better fundamental shape because of those reforms, and thats going to allow for a bit better growth mark, its kind of frustrating. You go from 10 trill yocion to trillion, everybody is like we needed to do that. However they justify it. Then you add 1. 5 trillion for what might be structurally a positive for u. S. Corporations, but it adds 1. 5 trillion, and thats the straw that breaks the camels back do you believe 20 trillion is okay, but 21. 5 trillion we have overshot i tend to stitch out of your commentary there, joe, a bit of a facetious view on that i would agree. 1 1. 5 trillion against 2 20 trillion is not necessarily nontrivial, but nonetheless seems diminutive relative to the damper the United States is having to cover in this juncture which is made easier because of low Interest Rates in times of higher Interest Rates, the problem is that it will crowd out or put pressure on what is twothirds of our budget, entitlement programs between now and then, hopefully we do get stimulll stichl stimu allows to us accumulate momentum before we become incumbered by that increasing debt burden. It may be that we have a couple months of a tailwind before the manifestation of this Economic Growth raises an environment where raising rates do choke off chi choke off activity thanks. Time will tell mark, i dont think i wished you a happy valentines day or phil. That was almost a week ago little late a little late lets wait until next year i promise you. Very good ill take a rain check. Andrew is in south korea now. He has an update on the big olympic events that happened over the weekend are you settled in there i am. Last time you saw me busting into carls shot he was here for a day and a half lets get you caught up on what happened over the weekend. It was a long weekend in the u. S. , but not here in pyeongchang. A lot going on the highlights from the games. Heres what happened the medal count, norway leading with 28 medals germany has 20 canada 19. The netherlands with 13. Were still in the top five. United states rounding out the top five with 12 medals so far france is just behind them Brita Sigourney earns the u. S. Its 12th medal of the games in the halfpipe then the ice dance finals. Tessa virtue and scott moir defending their gold they have been skating together for 20 years theyve been winning olympic after olympic. It was something to watch. They beat a Different Group after a wardrobe malfunction in the short dance routine. The french pair took home the silver then this was a great story. The american shib sibs, maia and Alex Shibutani clinching the bronze big news here in south korea, outside the olympics, which is this, the top regulator of cryptocurrency in south korea, he was found dead in his home. South korea has been considered the World Capital of cryptocurrency because so many people here have invested in bitcoin and other currencies south korea regulation plans for cryptocurrency have been seen as a bellwether for the rest of the world. He had talked about taking aggressive moesh sure measures currenc Currency Bitcoin crashed after they said here they would take extraordinary measures its unknown if they will take a more harder or lenient stance since the regulators death. We heard a heart attack. He was 52. Given bitcoin and the cryptocurrency world, conspiracy theories all over the place. Nobody talking about foul play, but talking about foul play, joe and becky, we talked about the Virtual World of currencies going to the real world. Dont know if you saw the New York Times today, fascinating story about how bitcoin investors have recently become targets of thieves who have held them hostage to get paid in untraceable cryptocurrency its the blurring of the virtual and real world so the idea that they were finding people that own bitcoin, putting guns up to them,having them go over to computers, sending them the currency and because its anonymous theres no way to get it back. We talked about the potential for this over the past year, but now apparently its real thats whats going on out here. Hearing that about the idea they were Holding People hostage hoping to get paid if you needed another reason not to buy bitcoin, that struck in my head, especially people on our show talking about how much of it they own absolutely. Theres a grouch of wep of well people online who own hundreds of millions of dollars of bitcoin, theres been ransoms of all sorts. Its something that i know the cryptocurrency world and Law Enforcement are taking a look at andrew, the voice from god is telling me that this is directly from on high, that the canada dance team won silver in sochi, and that white and davis won gold in sochi. Thats true, but if you go back to 2010 i want to say okay. Where was it then . I want to say they won in 2010 okay. We will go back and check the record for you, joe. This is im the people that watch this show are pretty amazing. Its not god himself, but in terms of sports, hes kind of a god. Thanks, andrew i didnt want to correct you, but, you know you know, when you need to stand corrected, youre corrected. And in this case weve been watching a lot of olympics we have adam rippon coming up later. With you . Cool if im up, were watching. If im not up, one else is watching you see the guy who got kicked out for doping in curling . Of all the sports to dope in you got to be kidding. Thats stunning. The russian guy who got kicked out, admitted it yes we will also talk about the american on the Hungarian Team who got into the olympics, effectively not knowing how to do this. Literally qualified by doing all of these things. Its a fascinating story dont know if you saw that over the weekend. And ter rry lundgren will be hee in a few minutes well talk retail in a bit i know he has some involvement with the olympic athletes terry lundgren, the former chairman and mr macys. Well see you coming up. Coming up, well revisit home depots results, posting a beat on the top and bottom lines. Well dig through the report with brian neagle, a frequent squawk box guest thats after the break people dont invest in stocks and bonds. They dont invest in alternatives or municipal strategies. What people really invest in is what they hope to get out of life. But helping them get there means you cant approach investing from just one point of view. Because its only when you collaborate and crosspollinate many points of view that Something Wonderful can happen. Those people might just get what they want out of life. Or they could get even more. Home depot out with Fourth Quarter results beating expectations and issuing an upbeat forecast. Brian neagle is retail analyst at oppenheimer what do you think of the report . Overall, its another great report digging through the results this morning, were seeing positives across the board the most notable number is the sales. Here home depot did a 7. 5 comp gain, which is amazing in its own right, particularly for a company this size. Wafrnlgts do y what do you think is happening . Broader economic yissues, stronger economy or is home depot outperforming . Its all the of the above we have to give them credit for superb internal execution. What i think is interesting, this print today, the weather. So we had the benefit, if i will, of the hurricanes in the third quarter. This time around we had a more normal winter. Colder conditions, some snow that should be a negative for home depot on balance. That tells me once again this company, theyre able to maneuver think different weather environments and put up amazing results. Average ticket sales rose by 7. 5 customer transactions up 2 . They were getting people to spend quite a bit more money look, i think thats almost the same answer. Home depot is selling more appliances thats been a big push for them in the cycle i think thats a function of where we are in the housing recovery we put a piece out last week talking about the extraordinarily elevated of home equity in the United States. I think were seeing people take money out of their homes and taking these remodeling activities thats showing up in the results. What do you do with the stock today . Are you a buyer . I keep buying this has been my call for a long time its been a top pick home depot continues to perform well well see another good year out of the company brian, how do you look at a competitor like lowes lowes, theyre much more similar than different home depot is a better run company than lowes. When lowes reports next week, im sure well see more evidence of that. Do their stock prices reflect that the multiple reflects that if you look at the multiple, home depot trades at a premium there is the opportunity for lowes they operate at a a 5 gap what do they need to do to close that gacp . I think home depot has better store locations. Thats hard to change thats hard to change thats almost structural other than that, its blocking and tackling in retail we talk a lot about this theres merchandise, store level execution, promotions. Thats where lows needs to get better basically brian, thanks for joining us. Nice to see you. Coming up, walmart expected to report in the next couple minutes. Well have reaction to the results on wall street. And new data this morning from cnbcs Small Business survey how Companies View the company as we head to break, heres fridays s p 500 winners and losers i think we should do that meeting tomorrow. Well wait. What did you think about her . Its definitely a new idea, but theres no business track record. 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