Social responsibility. Should they take the lead on possible gun control power lunch starts right now and welcome to power lunch, im Michelle Carusocabrera and stocks are carving out accident gain ahead of the fed minutes but that could change in less than an hour. Yields on the twoyear note hitting the highest level since the beginning of the financial crisis and watch the fiveyear because results of an auction moments away Home Building stocks are rallying today tripoint and kd home and pulte are leading the way and fueled by advanced auto parts, stocks are up doubledigits on the back of the earnings. We have eamon javers with breaking news at the white house. Reporter weve been watching this student protest in front of the white house this afternoon protesting against gun violence. Weve seen the president has a meeting later on today with a number of students who have been affected by gun violence and i spoke to a white house official who signaled new flexibility on the part of the president in terms of his thinking about gun violence this official telling me the white house is now open to the idea of rather than banning some guns for all people, that is at salt weapons ban or banning ar15s for all people, they would propose banning all guns for some people. That is the people who are flagged in some way as Mental Health concerns. This official said this idea is not fully processed yet and needs to go through several steps and this is an idea they are working on here at the white house and it signals new flexibility on the part of the president of the United States the official told me that the debate around guns has become calcified in this country. Officials said our posture right now is listening to everything but expressed a skepticism that traditional gun control as proposed by democrats on capitol hill could pass. Instead looking for new ways into the gun control debate and one option they are considering here at the white house is a way to ban some people from getting access to all guns, including perhaps handguns, rifles and the ar15 as opposed to an assault weapons ban that could ban everybody from getting types of particular guns. So new approaches on the gun control issue on a week where it is front and center in the nations mind. Thank you so much well the dow is up tripledigits ahead of the release. And bob pisani is tracking from the stock exchange. Look at the sectors [ inaudible ]. Tech modest winner they are down as much as the rest but the cyclical groups and industrials and energy arent doing much at all. I think were having trouble with bobs mic well work on. That well discuss the markets with how much of a concern higher inflation rates are. Joining us is job tennesy and neal floult. And are you worried about rising rates or can the markets look through them and move higher im not worried about it, michelle simply if you look, weve been called for the last six or seven months for a correction in the market and it wasnt anything more than just a correction. This makes our 19th correction but weve been saying that the corrections since 2010 of all have all been swift. And from the peak to the trough in this latest correction which is down 10. 5 , took nine trading days and only four trading days to get back to even. And now the dow jones is up 1. 5 for the year so theyve been swift and in quick moves in the past and this was swift and quick but not the end of the bull market we still have a lot of room to run. Especially if you look at where pes are on the indexes today, theyre at 20. Down from 22 reality is with corporate earnings going up because of the tax cut, theyre probably down about 17 to 18 on the pe so there is a lot of room to move. And neal, are you as bullish. I echo a lot of neals comments in that as Interest Rates move higher from these levels, historically it shouldnt be detrimental to the equity market. It shouldnt be until you have a tenyear north of 4 , to 4. 5 before a relation between stock multiples but as inflation data begins to pick up and it continues to grind higher, there is concern that Central Banks around the world are more hawkish than expected. That is going to lead to higher volatility so we are looking for markets to grind higher from here but we do think it is a little bit choppy. So neal made the very good point, joe, that we are getting rising earnings and at this point perhaps the p. E. Should be 17 or 18 does 4. 5 account for that at what point do you say were in the zone where valuations may be going higher or maybe approaching historical highs and 4. 5 is still the right number, the right line in the sand on yields. I think despite where you are with valuations today, your perspective, if you think 18. 5 is the right number or 16 or 17, from these levels, i dont think we can expect a whole lot more multiple expansion moving forward, at this part of the cycle, were looking at earnings to do the heavy lifting and as neal pointed out the Earnings Data in the Fourth Quarter looks very encouraging and expectations for 2018 looks ken looks encouraging and those numbers are higher on the bax of the tax reform. So we think earnings will do the heavy lifting but not expecting a whole lot out of multiples skeerj either expanding or contracting. You have three picks, kb, boise and cascade and thor and what ties them together and why you like them. I like the Home Builders and Boise Cascade. If you look at problems last year in florida and houston, northern california, southern california, there is a lot of rebuilding that has to be done and you start to look at jib son, drywall, you name it, Boise Cascade and look at kb homes, they could actually come in and build a development very, very quickly. They have the personnel and the expert eegs, they could do it to rebuild the communities. Thor is a different from one from the standpoint we know box stores are having a problem. But when you think about it, you are not going to buy an airstreamer or a motor home on the internet you want to go see it. And as more money is going back in the consumers pocket because of the tax cut there is expenditures that people will go out and maybe buy them they all have both price of sales on all three companies that are below one and more importantly they have a huge amount of room to raise the dividends into the future. I dont know. I never thought about that and it happened. Maybe, well see thanks, guys neal and joe good to have you on. A fiveyear auction and the results just out mr. Santelli is following it at the cmi. This isnt a terrific auction but above average. It is a cplus so we have 35 billion fiveyear notes an the yield 2. 658 the issue market was 2. 66 on the bid side offered at 2. 655 so we slipped it right in the middle that is good and you had 2. 44 bid to cover a little below the ten auction average of 2. 48. 58 on indirects the week since april of last year, ten auction average at 65 . The golden spot 12. 7 on direct versus a 9 ten auction average and dealers take 29. 3. So charlie plus and by the way, last thursday we learned the fed Balance Sheet grew by 11 billion and they are still buying today you could see the auction was 43. 5 billion because the fed bought 8. 5 billion of five years for some of the runoffs. So indeed they still are buying and i think that is that deserves a special annotation in front of tomorrows sevenyear auction completing 92 billion in supply without including soma which is system open market account. Back to you. Very big week snoop retail rebounding from tuesdays big drop the number of names flying high. But walmart getting hit hard once again today questions being raised about the future of the person who runs walmarts online business. We have some answers about that. But the cerent selloff in the stock been over done well take a closer look g. Your toprated thing. That five stars, two thumbs up, 12outof10, would recommend thing. Because if you only want the best thing, you get the 1 thing. Directv is rated 1 in Customer Satisfaction over cable. Switch now and get a 200 reward card. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Walmart dropping again the stock down another 2 plus percent following the worst drop yesterday. Courtney reagan is tracking the pull back and the head of the ecommerce future at the company. She joins us now. So yes, shares of walmart are selling off by more than 2 . After shedding more than 10 on tuesday following earnings a big disappointment for investors but mark lurie said he is not going anywhere. I asked him directly, are you planning to leave walmart and he said absolutely not. I feel like we are just getting started. Ive only been here 17 months. Were having a ton of fun and making value progress and excited about this year coming up and i couldnt be happier so i asked him if Doug Mcmillan was allowing him to be his entrepreneurial self and he said nothing has changed and if anything trust is building between me and the board and we have a lot of work to do and things to be excited about in the future so he is critical to the walmart ecommerce vision and viewed as an innovator and founding jet. Com which walmart bought for 3 billion in september and he sold quidsy, that was the parent of diapers. Com and soap. Com and sold that to amazon for 545 million that deal closed in early 2011 did he give you any insight into why they wolfed it in the last quarter. They gave me two minutes on the phone with him he was walking in between meetings and a lot of sound in the background. But he couldnt be happier. Hes not going anywhere. He sounded calm like i dont know why were having this conversation was the tone i picked up at least. But i didnt get a ton of time to talk to him about a quarter or why he wasnt on the call i wish i did still a key question answered thank you. Well were seeing another down day but the retail etf, the xrt is higher and on track for the best day since november of 2017 should you look to buy walmart at these levels or shopping a different aisle so to speak. Lets find out what dina telsy says dana, good to see you. Thank you, nice to see you too. As soon as courtney popped on cnbc with the news with the comment from mark lore and the stock didnt do much in reaction to his comment that he is staying. What does that tell you. I think people want to see the ans behind the ecommerce accelerate i think the 23 number and the 40 expectation for the upcoming year, credibility builds as you build out the numbers. The strength of the plan no one doubts that. It is this new growing area that frankly is always some bumps along the road and seeing it get back to the 40 growth rate, i think is what it takes. Given the quarter. What sort ever multiples should walmart have. It was already it was on the high side. It was trading more on the ecommerce business even though it is a sliver of total sales. I think one of the things with the names is that you always have to look at what is the opportunity to buy them. Because down the road theyre going to get bigger and they are certainly more buying power. And when you think about what the world becomes, it is a walmart and amazon world so i think the multiple detraction that you had because of the stock price weakness for those longterm investors, it provides an opportunity. Can you answer your own question about what you think in the terms of the online strategy a lot of runup in the stock last year was based on the assumption they could have a solid strategy against amazon you highlight the online numbers from yesterday werent that good. What do you think . Is this a hiccup or is this a bigger issue. I think it is a hiccup along the way. I think there is integration and a lot of integration with online and physical stores and there is price point work being done, customer work that is being done theyve bought other companies that they are integrating also so i think there is a lot that goes into the ball of wax in order to make it the continued growth rate that is expected so i think it is a bump along the road and i think overall when you think about ecommerce, growth for the retailers is continuing to grow. But not as the giant rates that it was even a couple of years ago. Because youre building off of a bigger base. This was a stock that languished for quite a few years. And in the past, what, 18 months or so, it has done very well it had become one of the retail heroes people were pointing to it as a success story. What what has it done right even though in this most recent quarter clearly there were errors of things they didnt do well wasnt it interesting that a few months ago they changed the name of the company from Walmart Stores to walmart. And what that is saying is that they are an allchannel retailer not just a single chnl retailer. The investment in personnel and the investment in wages in the United States. That certainly is helping to create a better store environment and help to improve the look of the store and helped to drive more traffic to the store. So overall, the investments in digital and investments in stores along with the Pricing Power they have, and frankly the footprint that they have, that could allow them to integrate digital and physical is differentiated. Dana next week is a very big week for earnings. What do you expect and your top pick in the group . I think overall next week is a busy week. Weve gotten a lot of kpz prereleased holiday sales which were good. Most interested to see what kohls have to say with the amazon partnership, that 6. 9 comp was impressive and seen improvement there. And i cant wait to see what gap has to say given the departure of jeff kerwin with the gap brand and old navy which is 45 of the business continues to do well and want to see the guidance for next week. I think sales are important. And then also obviously were seeing differentiated experiences that companies are bringing in their foot prints so i think we want to see a experienceal too dana, thank you for your time. At 1. 5 trillion and growing. That is the americas student debt crisis doubling in the past five years and crippling millions of people in the process. The Trump Administration now looking to take steps perhaps to change that. And if you have a student loan or have a child going to aro ege, and then you need t he about this. Power lunch is back in a moment the new new york. Starting with advanced manufacturing that brings big ideas to life. And cuttingedge Transportation Development to connect those ideas to the world. Along with urban redevelopment projects worthy of the worlds top talent. All across new york state, were building the new new york. To grow your business with us in new york state visit esd. Ny. Gov. To grow your business with us in new york state with its hightech the cameras and radar, contemporary cockpit, 360 Degree Network of driverassist technologies, and sporty performance, whats most impressive about the glc . All depends on your point of view. Lease the glc300 for just 449 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Weve been preparing for this day. Over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. We plan for everything from retirement to college savings. Giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. Welcome home mom. With the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. There you see the markets if the green. The Trump Administration reportedly considering allowing more americans to eliminate their Student Loan Debt by declaring bankruptcy for more on what this could mean for students and the companies that provide the loans, scott cohn joins us now. Hi, scott. Hi, tyler put this in the category of thank goodness for small favors. The Trump Administration is put out a request for Public Comment on something that activists have been talking about for some time, making it easier for borrowers to discharge debts in bankruptcy right now it is one of the most difficult things about this mounting student debt problem and that is that you can cannot except in extreme circumstances get rid of the debts in bankruptcy. One attorney working with student borrowers said it is not a bad thing that they are looking at this but most of the moves from this administration have been in the opposite direction. Were seeing the programs that can provide the most benefits to borrowers like defense to repayment and income driven payment and Public Service loan forgiveness and were seeing those programs targeted for elimination and dont think that is a good sign. These are some of the proposals targeted by the administration in the budget proposal, they include as you heard, con soil dati consolidg the programs to repay debt based on income and ending the Public ServiceLoan Forgiveness Program and if you work in Public Service, Certain Industries get some of your debt forgiven allowing the government to go after borrowers in deitaly a n default, a lot put in place by the Obama Administration now undone by this administration by the Trump Administration involving things that make it tougher for the student loan servers to go after students and also cutting the federal funding for work study look at the level of student debt in this country and it is in a Straight Line for many, many years when we first started reporting on this problem about seven years ago, we were closing in on a trillion dollars in student debt and now into 1. 5 trillion and still no end in sight. So this idea to let students possibly declare bankruptcy to get out of their student debt may be a small step but a very small step in the general scheme of things. Guys. Scott, it is possible that student debt has increased so dramatically because the government subsidizes it in the first place. When you sub siz subsidize something everybody wants because it benefits them further you have a lot of demand and the colleges they claim they are nonprofit but theyll charge what the market will bear and what the market will bear goes up dramatically every single tim