Chunk of its most recent losses, thanksn part to todays nearly 400point gain on the dow. Concerns over Rising Interest Rates he taken a backseat, as investors refocus on Global Growth and corporate profits. Today the Dow Jones Industrial average advanced 399 points to l 25,7 by financial and technology shares. The nasdaq added 84 and the s p 500 was up 32. Bob pisani has more on the days rally on wall street. H the dow up over 200 points at the opening, closing up almost 400 points. Last week, stocks started strong atery day, but faded late in the day. Egan to reverse on friday, when stocks closed at their ed today. It conti this week was all about fed chairmans jay powells testimony o congressue onay and thursday, but the markets are telegraphing theyre not concerned hell be skroefrly aggressive about raising rates. The markets are very different in the lastrewo weeks com to the first two weeks, when stocks dropped about 10 in earlyebruary on concerns about higher Interest Rates, partly. But since then, the s p has recovered about 75 of its losses. Its a sign investors still seem to have confidence in the Global Economic recovery. Indeed, the sectors with the strongest ecovery has been technology stocks, led by apple, intel, and cisco, and industrials led by 3m and boeing. Bothe sectors that very sensitive to the Global Economic recovery. For ly busess report, im bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. One day ahead of fed chair powells testimony, federal randall overnor, quarles today reaffirmed his for gradual Interest Rate increases. And offered an optimistic view of the economy. Quarles suggested that the economer may be on the of a sustained period of faster growth. And Goldman Sachs is keeping its eye on Interest Rates. An economist at the firm said that i the yield on the tenyear treasury hits 4. 5 , stocks could move sharply lower by as much as 20 to 25 . The economy it, says, wouldsu ao er a sharp slowdown, but thats the worst casescenario. The firms best case calls for a yeld of 3. 25 the end of the year. And of course, the ho aing market io rate sensitive. Today we learned that sales of new singlefamily homes in january fell for a second straight mth and hit a fivemonth low. The number was way down by steep declines in the northeast and the south. As weve been reporting, af shortageomes is pushing up prices and sidelining some firsttime General Electric is making more disclosures. That Company Revealed a Justice Department investigation into its nowdefunct subprime mortgage lender. Ge also plans to restate 2016 and 2017 rnings, after adopting a new accounting standard. The restatements were expected,s although som they could make it difficult for ge to ach its 2018 financial forecast. General electric also nominated three new directors to its slimmed down board. After trading lower for most of the day, the stock turned around 1 . It finished up more than Berkshire HathawaysWarren Buffett said that he was staggered by ges financial lapses and the sizef the charge that it took earlier this year. The billionaire investor has mostly sold his holdings in ge and said he hasnt purchased an. Recent that was just one of the many comments that he made during a wideranging interview with becky quick. She filed this report from omaha. One of the big teaways from Warren Buffett and his letter to shareholders this year is that Berkshire Hathaway isng sit on 116 billion in cash. That is money that buffett would when heput to work, but looks around to buy businesses, he says prices are just too high. Hes not finding anything that he likes at the right price. However, that does not mean that he thinks stocks, as a whole, are overpriced right now. The stock market, relative to the longterm bond marketpe le have three choices pretty much if theyre going to be in marketable securities they can own reasonably longterm bonds, they can own equities, or they can keep it is shortterm equivalents. And you had to choose between buying longterm bonds or equities, i would choose equities in a minute now. Oe thatt mean i think the stock market is going to go up or anything else, but if i were going to own a 30year Government Bond or own equity for 30 years, i think equity is a little considerably outperform tha30year bond, over the 30 years. It sounds confusing. The idea bhatfett cant find any prices he likes for businesses, but he thinks stos are not overvalued. There is a way to match all of this up. You c buy small pieces of businesses for less than you cae buy wholes of businesses. But the premium you would have to pay if you were buying the whole thing. Yeah, so you would get a bargain at an investor compared to what i can get in terms of ying the whole business. People, the th if they just stocks as pieces of with they would be so much better off than thinking of them as things that move around as price. And we have so many people that look at berkshire as a savings account. They put money in 20, 30, 40 years ago, we retain it and invest for them. But were theyre savings account. Thats the w i look at my own stock. Of course, the question Warren Buffett mosttl frequ gets asked is what stock is hor most int favorite stock in the entire world. And when we asked him, he said Berkshire Hathaway, which is where he has 98 of his money. But we dug a little deeper. Listen in. If you look at our holdings, you would assume we like them at by order t of valuey rank. But if you look at them in terms of recent purchases, over thear last we took more apple than anything else. So can we tak r that and with it as a headline . Apple is your favorite . No, because i didnt tell you what i might be buying in e st week or month. If you look at the top holdings for berkshire, filings will tl you theumber one stock they hold is wells fargo at 29. 2 billion. Pl number two is it comes at 28. 2 billion. For nightly Business Report, im becky quick in omaha, nebraska. Lots to talk ab mt. Lets tale about Warren Buffett with a familiar face to all of us. Susie garab is with us from fortune mfortune magazine. So becky was talking about all of this cash that mr. Has on hand. Youve been talking to Money Managers today to find out what their reaction is. What are you hearing on that . Its so fasnating that all of these Money Managers that know the company so well and know Warren Buffett were shocked at the size of how much cost. 116 billion. Ats a huge amount of money. And the Company Keeps throwing up another 30 billion every year. But as becky just said, they cant find companies that dont have such high price tags. So a ied them, where would you tell warren to put their msaey. And they, buy more apple. Following on that. Or, you know, buy more Berkshire Hathaway stock with all of that money. But in termsf actual businesses, youve got to look at, what goes well shth the bee portfolio . Its steadyeddy companies. Theyre not necesrily companies. They said industrials, like the one company they mentioned was cummings engines, they make engine parts and engines. But on the Consumer Product side, they said global brands, maybe estee lauder is an amazing cany, maybe staumples. Well see. Warren buffett will come up with something to do with that money. But all the Money Managers i talked to, dont put the money in a dividend. Sit on the cash. Thats interesting. He also addressed the Health Care Alliance that he and jeff bezos of amazon and jamie dimon of Jpmorgan Chase have put together. And he said its about much me than just lowering health care costs, which is what the street assumed i beginning. In the what did you make of those comments . I think everybody has been wondering what this venture from three powerful men from three werful companies are really going to do. And until today, we really didnt know have any details. A couple ofhings we learned from Warren Buffett is, one, they do want to get the costs down. You know, they want to do j mor tht shave off a little bit. But also, their job number one is to find worldclass ceo. And he said, weve really got to get the right person in there, he or she. And he didnt let on, you know, whether it be somody from an established Health Care Company or somebody outside of health care that might be more disruptive, because you know, sue, for all the disruption we see around us, like the ubers and the air b bs, you dont see it in health care. You dont. You really dont. Very quickly, hesrs7 y old. What about succession . The only thing new on it, theyve tapped two people to be vice chairman. The guy whos in charge of ns zm insurance and the guy in charge of all of the energy operations. Greg abel, pr ably. But 8today, i thought he looked great. Absolutely. But he got up early to do that interview. Old. Y good for 87 years he probably had a cocacola, too, before he did. Youre absolutely right about that. Thanks, susie, always great to see you. Thank you for having me. In that interview today, Warren Buffett, who once publicly shunned the airline industry, also said he wodot rule out owning an entire airline. And that comment sent the shares of the big carriers higher in todays trading session. It is time te taka look at some of todays upgrades a downgrades. Targets rating was initiated at outperform by credit suisse. The firm cites the retailers aggressive strategic cha aes strengthening consumer and potential market share gains. The analyst has an 86 price target. The stock rose nearly 2 today, to 76. 90. And the rating on guess was upgraded from buy to neutral at b. Lly fbr. That firm sees significant earnings upside over the next several years,s the new ceo executes his strategy. The analyst price target on th retailer 20 a share. Aness was up more than 5 to 15. 87. Another retail upgrade. This one for finish line. Its rating was raised from positive to neutral at susquehanna. The analyst there cites better than expected sales and promotional trends and the firm also raised its earnings estimates on the Athletic Apparel retailer. The price target is now 14 and the stock rose 5 to 11. 04. Companiesahead, which could lead the coming wave of a new, more advanced era in technology . Across the atlantic, Global Technology companies are showing off what they think will be the next big thing. John forth jon fortt reports tonight from the mobile technology conference. A scramble to rewrite the new wavef business ahead of a new tech wave. Thats the story of this years mobile world congress. Lets start with the phones. The surprisesth were in software when samsung took the wraps off of its htely antici and heavily leaked galaxy s9. This has ar features, its got a fresh new camera thats used for onrsonalized futures and for new filters. He outside,d the s9 an s9 plus dont look much different from last areas model. He inside, boast new camera features like super slomo and dual aperture. He thatsatest trick to take better pictures in low light and sharper action fightand take the fight to apples iphone x. Theyre available march 16th at 720 for the s9nd 840 for the plus. The backdrop to this is a sobering reality in the mobile rld. The smartphone business isnt growing anymore. Meanwhile, theres a lot of around socalled 5g wireless networks, which should arrive in the real world at thend of this year and bring trillions of of new growth from world of connected cars and cameras and medicine. But its still not how 5g will become a reality. The iphone and its offspring brought us this far, but whats going to be the iphonef 5g . Ultimately, the deployment might be driven by a need for proving out the technology, proving out the, market dema but ultimately, it wont scale without a real needrom enterprises or from consumers. And i think thatce tras any sort of political influence. And ultimately, i think, like i just said, there will be market demand for it. Its just going to take a period of time. The move to 5g i g abal race. Independent analyst sharma points out the u. S. Has some the natural advantages because of the way the smartphoneti revo was born, in silicon valley. But with china determinearto make its and europe eager to catch up, its not over yet. For nightly business rert, jon fortt in barcelona. Dean foods gives a disappointing fullyea outlook, and thats where we begin tonights market focus. Incrsed competition and a glut of milk caused Quarterly Results of Dairy Producer to misses mates. The company, which gave a weak profit forecast, also said it consolidate its manufacturing operations, which it expects will result in savingcant cost but shares of dean foods fell 13 to 8. 81. The Consumer Products Company Spectrum brands is merging with Majority Shareholder hhrg group. Spectrum says its current management will maintain their positions at the combined comp cy. And as y see right there, they finished modestly to the upside in spectrum and sharply higher in hrg roup. Af the bell, Tenant Health care said the new tax law caused it toor r a wider loss. Quarterly revenue at the hospital operator improved and the Company Raised its earnings altlook for 2018. Shares ini popped in afterhours, but finished the regular day down 1 t 19. 07. And fitbit said that fewer les of its fitness devices during the holiday period caused that company to report a surprise loss and weaker revenue. The company said it expects overall sales to fall as much ah 20 i current period. It plans to combat that weakness with cost cuts and a focus on smart watches, a category fitbit said is gaining popularity with its customers and consumers. Shares initially fell in afterhours, but ended the regular day up nearly 5 to 54. As growing number of Companies Cut business ties with the National Rifle association, billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he will not boycott gun makers. His company, berkshire hatwnway, does nothares in gun manufacturers, but says theres no rule that it couldnt do business with one. I think you should be pretty carefulefore a Company Takes takes a b political opinion and something society has decided that they say, well, were going to have a different view. Now, i also think people individually should very much express their views. I think what the kids are doing there is very admirable. But i dont think berkshire should say, were not going to do atbusiness. Think would be ridiculous. So lets talk more about this. When it comes to social issues should Companies Take a public stance . Joining us to talk about that and more is kelly mackelhaney with the university of california Berkeley Haas school of business. Lcome, nice to ha you with us this evening. Thank you. Lets staer with the bro issue of, should companies be taking a stand or putting out an opinion on social issues . My belief is that, yes, they should, but as mr. Buffett said, its not for the faint of heart. Teey need to do it very carefully, stcally, and well thought out. But you know, companies are a collection of humans and i think we forget that. Its not a disconnected entity ceos are a humans. And, you know,hey have the entire and responsibility to really satisfy demd and employees are demanding that ceo, company, that their that their leader speak up and speak out. And it is important that it comes, whatever the messageis, from the ceo herself or himself, ther than putting o o inting ou release or a statement . I absolutely believe, thsue, it is. We need to hear this, nod from a black ite press release, that is so long that most of us wont read past the first two sentences,ut from a human, where they can tell a better story, they have passion, they have, you know, inspiration and opinions. We set this segment up with a sound bite frombu warren ett, and he obviously was referring to the debate that is ragrog the country right now on gun control. It is a highly charged debate. Is it a higher risk for a company to take a o stance a social issue that is so politically and emotionally charged . And how do they navigate that . It is certainly a risk, so i think they navigate this by calculating that r upfront. By engaging with stakeholders evth around what those stakeholders be i think its pretty difficult for most people in this country to not have some sort of heartbased reactn to 17 kids being killed no the other issue is, if you dont take a stand, if you play it, quote unquote, safe. And other companies, especially other companies in your niche do take a stake, is that a risk that you are not making a statement on a social issue . That is a real risk. And while i know for ceos its awkward to take a social stand, i think its incumbehe on now, if for no other reason, than other companies are doing it, so that itmpecomes a itive advantage. Very quickly, before we wrap up, a Public Company versus a privately held company, but one that perhaps is used by a lot of consumers. Is it a higher risk for a public ceo . It is. Its much higherrisk. Its less risk for consumerfacing brandsan its less risk. The really important thing is for ceos to speak up en masse, because its much better to have a collection of voices, rather than just one sort of loan s person out theaking up on controversial issues like this. Gun control. Kelly,